Something's wrong with banana circles

Sorry for the provocative words. I guess something is wrong with my understanding. So, I see these brand-new banana circles with the young shoots planted so close together, and the holes are so small already. I have all kinds of bananas and plantains; those guys make 4 or 5 shoots each a year, and they grow big, tall, and out. One banana shoot will make its own banana circle with its offspring growing away from the original plant over 5 years. How come I see them planted so close together? I looked up banana spacing, and they say roughly 2m in between plants and rows to reduce risk of sigatoka, or whatever it's called. I would love to plant them more close together and turn each hole (well, swale in my case, as it's a steep slope) into an oasis, with all kinds of plants growing together, but I'd like to understand better.

While I'm at it, any ideas for a banana guild?

Thanks.

Sergio

Can you link us to what you are looking at/talking about?

You may have just seen a poor implementation of them.

Sergio...

I'm no expert on bananas, but from some quick reading it looks like with these banana circles the new shoots are selectively thinned so they are growing where you want and at a reasonable spacing. Basically don't leave all five "babies" in place.

Thanks, wow, it says 1.6m. I guess you are right; I had also thought that you just can't have all the suckers grow.