All plants were cultivated under mulched or non-mulched conditions to represent high or low input systems, respectively. Mulch in general improved agronomic performance of banana. Type of planting material also influenced plant growth and yield. Tissue culture plants developed faster and yielded higher during the first crop cycle than sucker-derived material but not thereafter. Plant height and bunch weight of untreated suckers was inferior to all other planting material from the third crop cycle onwards. All mulched plants flowered earlier in all crop cycles. Duration from planting to the first harvest was less for tissue-cultured plants, but planting material had no influence on days to harvest from the third crop cycle onwards. Nematode densities were higher in roots from plants grown from untreated suckers than all other planting material, with Radopholus similis consistently recovered in greater densities than Helicotylenchus multicinctus across treatments. Mulching had no influence on nematode densities, root necrosis, number of root base lesions or number of dead roots. Nematode associated damage was higher in plants from untreated suckers but did not differ among tissue-cultured and pared and hot water treated or pared sucker plants. This study demonstrates the benefits of using clean planting material for cooking banana over five consecutive crop cycles and confirms the beneficial effects of mulching. In order to achieve high banana yields over several crop cycles, clean planting material needs to be supported by the application of mulch. However, this study shows that the application of mulch will not offset the detrimental effects of plant parasitic nematode-infected sucker planting material.