buyraretropical... In this video, I show how to tell when your banana is abou to bloom, as well as how to prune off extra suckers, so that your plant will be more productive.
Hi.Great video you got here. Here's some other things if you'd like to experiment with. Fertilizer programme: Month 1 - 5: 16:16:16 (150g/plant/month) Month 6: MOP (100g/plant - one time application only on month 6 or when you see the last short leaf before flowering comes out) + 12:12:17:2(100g/plant/month) Month 7 till harvest: 12:12:17:2 (150g/plant/month) For the suckers to ensure maximum growth. 2 ways to go around it. Cut and don't dig as to not damage the roots. First: Only keep 1 at 3 months old and another at 8 months old. Second: Only keep one once the flower comes out. Choose only sword suckers as this is the one with vigorous growth rate. As for leaves. Maintain 8 leaves while growing, 6 once the flower comes out and 4(excluding the small leaves before flowering) once you cut the flower. Cut the flower around 2 inch after the last bunch. Just sharing. Happy gardening everyone.
It's easier to use a narrow sharp spade to remove the suckers. I'm on my second batch now(around 300 plantain and 60 banana plants so far). I've noticed that deeply cutting the roots away before planting delays the growth of suckers, limiting pseudo stems to 2 equally aged ones(old batch, second crop) and spacing them at least 1.5 metres appart in a matrix pattern produces the best results.
Most informative video I have seen for bananas! For beginners, such as my self, growing organic bananas seems almost a professionals' full-time job. Thank you very much for breaking down this info and showing step by step how it can easily be done (esp. fertilizing the plant) ! 👍 ✔
It is a job... try and enjoy but some of them plants are very refined and require lot of attention to really grow . But after that , on the other hand , some of them have resistance over all aspectatives .
Thank you for the clip. It was good. I am growing ice cream bananas and use no fertilizer. My plants are beautiful and have bananas on them now. I have built my soil with wood chip mulch and worm castings. They are in a permaculture system so other plants and trees like moringa also help with this. Moringa ia a very good chop and drop.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge I’m in Australia so I will wait until our spring, (October) and I will get started on dividing my plants.
I've been giving our banana and citrus trees Alaska Fish Fertilizer which is 5-1-1. The banana and trees are loving it. I will look into higher potassium levels too. Great video. Our little banana tree has bloomed and fruited. 👍 We bought it at Lowe's. Great video. Jeff - Sunny Central Florida 😎 🌴 ☀️ 🍊 🍋 🍅 🍉 🍌
Thanks for the great info. My plant is now paying off, the tenants before me said it never produce any fruit. I did not do much but water it every 2 or 3 days
Awesome! Funny how when you treat them like living things, they do so much better. Bananas are easy, they're just greedy. Give them lots of what plants crave, and they will reward you. Cheers
Thank you for sharing this video. I used to be a banana grower but my bananas just died and I don't know why. I love to start over with the bananas l enjoyed watching them grow. Thanks again for the knowledge.
Desert hard-pan can be challenging. I have family in AZ. The soil there is called caliche, and it's like chiseling through rock. Your plan isn't a terrible one. You don't have to go down too deep for bananas though. 3' is probably overkill. Bananas are one of the few plants that you can pile compost right up against the trunk (pseudostem) without harming them. build the soil/compost/mulch upward as well as downward. There's good info on my website. Click the link in the description above.
cool video, that small banana which you didnt cut so well, the one without roots has got a chance of survival, i also did cut two of them like that without roots at all and now they are huge plants
That one didn't grow. I've made many hundreds, if not thousands, of banana plants in my 25 years of growing them. If there is corm attached to the bottom of the pup, they will grow. Without corm they will not grow.
Bad ass video! I live in Miami where the sun is shining year round and planted a dward banana tree back in may and its been huge fast will a time release formula., but i definitely have not been feeding my baby. I learned a ton with the video and very informative.
For an organic source of potassium I have started to use comfrey tea so we shall see how the banana plants respond to this. Comfrey to use is Russian comfrey (Symphytum X uplandicum). It has 6-foot-long roots that harvest nutrients from deep in the soil, making comfrey leaves a fantastic natural source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. If growing comfrey for this worth researching some of the things to watch out for with growing comfrey. Most obviously is once you have it in the ground it is notoriously difficult to remove. Fill container with 1/3 comfrey leaves fill the rest with water leave for 3-6 weeks cover smells disgusting use gloves when handling comfrey and the tea otherwise it will take a while to wash off.
My banana trees came from a neighbor who gave me a clod of dirt. "Do you want a start from our banana tree." Okay!! 20 years later the whole side of my house is gorgeous with Banana trees every summer. Every year they get bigger than our home with at least 8 foot long leaves.
This is old so you may not reply but you may find this interesting. so I'm in the almost same situation as u are here in this video. i do everything you do however, I'm organic, I feed 8-5-5 organic and if i see a flower i go heavy on potash. however, despite this i always get deficiencys. mainly micro e.g. calcium, boron etc. it's hard to do organic. but in the long term, your soil will be so much healthier. i see organic you feed the soil, inorganic you feed the plant e.g. like junk food. i understand its a hot topic. but for the climate etc its healthier. i also add coffee grounds, mulch, grass clippings. i go extreme and its never enough. bananas are just so hungry. maybe too hungry for organic. i work full time so cant give them 24/7 care but i know some people do it organically. hats off to them!
It all really depends on the soil you begin with. In many places in the world, bananas are a plant it and forget about it, plant. Not here in central Florida. where we have beach sand for soil. I have been building that soil with wood chips every year. I also use manure, compost, and worm compost. I make compost tea. I use any and all organic gardening techniques that work. I just laid down 6=8 inches of oak chips acros the front of my property this week. After 16 years of building that soil, it is now black and gorgeous. Everything thrivers in it. I also use inorganicakky sourced nutrients as well. As a chemist for 15 years, I analyzed nutrients in soil and surfave water, both organic and inorganic sources of those nutrients. I can tell you, with great certainty, that macronutrients are macronutrients, whether they come from organic or inorganic sopurces. The problem comes when people overuse inorganic nutrients on soil that is not tended or amended. You can't just pour nutrient salt solutions on crap soil without terrible consequences over time. I use both granular fertilizer as well as liquid formulations on that soil, but I do so, in low concentrations. That way, I never burn roots or overload the microbiome. So I very much disagree with the completely rejecting a nutrient just becaus it was mined from the earth rather than extraced from plant or animal material. I do very much agree with the organic gardening mindset when it comes to pesticides, which I also analyzed as a chemist. I do my best to never use them. I have not used pesticides in my nursery in several years now. I will use pesticides, but only if organic solutions fail. This response got longer than intended. Sorry.
@@Sheikyerbouti8 thanks for the reply, Yeah unfortunately I’ve been blessed with builder rubble soil thats been dumped and buried. But your completely right. I agree with ur argument about inorganic. However, I still argue that even if you use it sensibly. It’s beneficial to go organic purely because it doesn’t go through the same process inorganic does. Eg making a inorganic 10-10-10 takes a lot of time and involves use of some dangerous stuff whereas organic eg manures doesn’t go through that process it’s natural. Plus people don’t really understand fertiliser. People doesn’t really need 30-30-30 inorganic fertilisers as it just mostly runs off as u say and causes eutrophication. I started horticulture when I was 16 and fell into this trap. But yeah, there’s lots of options available . That’s what I disagree with also. It confuses people further. In the UK it’s less than in the Us. I personally stay away from anything inorganic. The furthest I go is neem oil which is organic but a bit controversial. Ideally, I think organic is the way to go. Yes it’s not perfect with that you’ve said. But we do need to move away from synthetics. In the UK we only have 90-100 harvests left due to such poor soils. But I like keeping a nice soil biology. Healthy fungi, worms and a balanced garden so if a problem happens eg aphids, I rely on birds and nature to deal with it. Instead of synthetic. Being one with nature. I know it sounds a bit iffy but it’s the way to go in my opinion. I’m only 20 and am learning myself about this stuff. I still haven’t grown a crop of edible bananas as when I get close the UK winter decides to say hello. Plus doing my level 2 in horticulture I’ve been Taught about the organic way. So I realise I’m very bias. Saying that I respect your opinion and thank you for your time!
great video. you did explain very well. in my zone the plant will not have bananas, but I love the plant it is a good privacy fence. I am going to split them up this year. the first year that I planted them I had 2 plants. they did not come back this year. I have 21 right now. they are in a small area for banana plants. thanks for sharing
Hi Randy,, thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us, very informative video 👍 Thus past fall I was given 3 pups from a friend ,they are about a foot tall ,I do have them in container behind a window inside the house, temperature is about 70 f. Their leafs dropped and now they have a middle one showing, I do have a clay soil in the backyard. Could you please describe Your soil? and also what do you suggest I could do before they go in the ground? Thanks again for the great information 👍
Really wished I was in a warmer climate... Here in UK summer season so short and unpredictable banana plants grow much slower and have to be protected in cooler months
They'll do great in your area, but they do best in full sun, so I wouldn't put it directly under the tree. The only variety that I have available right now is "ice cream". For flavor, sweetness, and productivity, it is excellent. The only downside to them is that the fruits are on the small side ~4". Soon I'll be adding "double mahoi", and "saba" to my available plants, but those probably won't be available until next year. PM me in FB before buying one, and I'll work out a good deal for you.
Thank you so much for a very informative video. This summer my big potted banana sent up a pup I didn't recognize and your video says it is a sword pup. I knew it looked different from the other pups but didn't know why. And wow, I would have never known to give the plants that much fertilizer. Keep the videos coming!!! You are a great source of usable information.
I'm close to charlotte NC. Have 20 mounds of them, Have at least 5 plants per mound up to 20 trees per mound from just one plant. Will do bananas, but only get 3 inches at most as there is no particular growing season for them to bud. I do a hole about 3 feet diameter by 3 foot deep, because of the red rock hard soil I have. One group gets to 20 foot high every year with others close to it. During winter, don't cut leaves as they turn brown, let them stay as they protect better during a freeze. With crazy weather we have this year, I have 10 that are showing the start of new ones. I put at least 6 inches of Cyprus mulch on them through the whole year. Can't find the right fertilizer that they call for except for 1st and 3rd number. 17/17/17 I use from lowes. 1 /2 cup per plant once a month to get strong and tall. The taller ones have base diameters of 10 inches. I don't cut any out unless someone wants to start them selves, then just outside ones just below ground level. Wrap in wet newspaper, put in plastic bag, lay them down for transport and add some water into bag. Plant ASAP. You only need a small piece of the mother bulb on it and put at least 6 inches below ground level. Water every day until it starts to run out of hole for about 3 weeks. Then I water every other day during growing season. Have fun.
@@John-qx6eu I'm in Sc and someone just donate over 20 banana plants to me last week(mostly pups). I made the mistake on a few of them of peeling the dead growth all the way to the bottom. Then i watched a guy in Africa on YT his banana plant fell over because he made the same mistake and he said just to trim the leaves and don't peel it to the base. So you think i should just leave them alone and add fertilizer? I planted them about 6"-1' deep because i only have a few inches of mediocre soils and then sand and clay. I chopped and planted root balls and left the tops of the root balls above ground and something is telling me that may have been wrong too. Have you ever planted just the root balls by themselves?
I cut my banana a hard cut, my big idea was to keep it short as not to tip during rainy season.. I only noticed the flag leave too late after I cut it.. Its not recovering well and its getting rainy season. I'm not sure the tree is even gonna make its not recovering well.. turning black. I'm about to count my looses and cut it down and let the pup takeover.. I pulled the other pups. I really messed up cutting off the top without looking closely . Good video! Thanks for the upload and info!
Thanks for that Sharron. Go to my website before you plant the banana. The link is in the description above. I have good info there on initial planting. Cheers!
just make sure you cover it with about 6 inches of mulch after the first frost. that will keep the roots from dying and it will come back in the spring every year.
We live totally off grid in Hawaii. My husband created a ingenious bio-digester with the overflow spilling out onto our banana trees. So far, so good. Only been about a year. I’ll be removing ‘keiki’s’ soon. Thanks for all the info. I also read to cut off at a slight angle towards the mother to get more roots. Thoughts?
Thanks for the video! I have a few banana plants growing in pots but I eventually would like to put them into the ground, but I'm worried about my soil. I'm in the desert and have clay/dirt and a lot of the tropical plants I've tried to plant in it, died pretty fast (whether that was from the sun or the soil, I'm actually not sure, but I have the bananas growing in midday shade just fine) I was thinking of digging a 5x5x3 area and replace all the dirt with garden soil (from home depot).
+Life I'd be super paranoid about introducing diseases from the banana peels. There shouldn't be any viruses, bacteria, or fungi on imported bananas, but the key word there is shouldn't. You never know. Bananas are farmed in huge monoculture farms. Those banana farms have loads of problems with diseases (bunchy top virus, black sigatoka fungus etc). So I wouldn't advise that. Potash can be made from wood ashes pretty easily. I've never done it, but friends of mine have. Lately I've been using 10-10-10 and supplementing with potassium sulfate.
extremily impressed with video,sorry for any miss spelling, I purchaced a ensete maurelii,plant that was in a 4 inch pot end of nov. ptted in old cast iron pot so am carefull on watering,grow under grow light bulb only due to only north facing windows and have to keep shades closed on bottem half for privacy,side walk 3 feet from window,anyway it is not on 6th leave and over 4 feet tall and thriving,so the grow light do well. question do you ever sell any of your pups, am one that is cautious have been stung with garbage via the net in past but am very impressed with how you grow your plants . I to live in Wisconsin ,but do all I can to spoil my plant,thanks
+Mark Hinds Yes I sell them from my website. The link is in the description above. I've got a couple of ice cream bananas that are over three feet tall now. They would be sent bare root and cut to fit the shipping container. So what you'd receive is a well rooted, large piece of corm. They regrow from that very quickly, but not when it is cold. So I wouldn't recommend buying one from me until it warms up where you are. I have Musa ice cream, truly tiny, and double, available right now. Eventually I'll have African rhino horn, and Saba as well.
Young banana tree can be eaten like salad, slice it thinly put in water, a bit of vinegar so it won't turn black then wash it again. A mixture of fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of sugar, little bit of salt, mint to mix with sliced banana tree. Eating young banana tree has lot of health benefits
Hi! I moved into my house back in July. Leesburg, Georgia USA. There were Banana Trees that were Gorgeous, but Non- Producing. When we had our last freeze the Banana Trees Froze over and Died. I did chop them back to about 5-6 inches above Ground, but Wondering if you have any Advice. I also Time Released Fertilized them and Water them Daily.
Hi Randy, your video was very helpful and educational for me.Please tell me will the older banana plants continue to produce bananas and pups the following year ,or are they done for and ready to be chopped down and replaced by new pup growing?....great video,healthy looking plants.
Hi I just stared watching your videos and I loved them very much and I have a question what kind of banana can I plant on my yard in zone 7 and where can I get them l would like to have some edible banana trees thank you very much
Hi. Thanks for that. Your best bet, is a variety called "Raja Puri". Of all of the seedless, fruiting varieties, it is by far the most cold tolerant. I'm told that the bananas are tasty too, but I haven't tried that variety myself. There are even more cold tolerant bananas, but they have seeded fruit, and are grown as ornamentals, not for fruit. Good luck!
What kinda Fertilizer .? I’m just starting a pup in the pot and it’s cold here right now the size of my banana is 5 inches tall I’m exciting to have banana tree l please teach me .thank you
@@charitablemiraclebeekeeper1200 lol well You're not joking about bananas. What are you doing with all that banana. 30+25 =55x(average 5pups being conservative in about a year. Lol I had to hold myself back from going crazy with it being so cheap and knowing how fast they multiple.
@@Okorokanze2000 bro i already have almost exactly 100 banana plants and idk what I'm going to do with all these... And i don't even own this property, i rent.
@@charitablemiraclebeekeeper1200 lol well in my culture, we say a tenant should never grow flowers in his landlords house in case he decides to move or gets kicked out. You should tell them to come see my apt balcony lol you can never have too much plant if you ask me. Luckily I can plant in my parents house but those fools don't appreciate what I do and all the money I spend for my hobby. You can always do charity work by planting your neighbors house when they sleep.lol " who the heck planted 50 banana in my front porch? " Lol
All bananas produce fruit. The fruit from ornamental bananas will be full of seeds, and are not edible. The edible ones are all either Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, or a hybrid of the two. They are also triploid (or sometimes tetraploid). Being triploid causes them to be sterile, so the fruit does not have seeds. If you live in a tropical or a subtropical climate, then in all likelihood, the banana plants you have are edible fruit producing plants. Determining what variety they are will be a lot more difficult. Many different varieties are virtually impossible to tell apart. Especially the members of the cavendish subgroup. If you are lucky, they will be one of the more easily identified varieties, such as ice cream, saba, praying hands, rhino horn etc. Good luck with your new banana plants!
Randy's Tropical Plants Thank you for the informative answer. The tallest one we have is around 10ft & I still haven't seen anything. But that could also be because I haven't been properly fertilizing or pruning them. Also, we live in KY about an hour north of Nashville, TN. It certainly feels tropical during the summer, but idk if I should expect anything here.
If I bought a pup about 3 ft tall of the nam wah variety how long do you think it will take to get the size of yours? I was told not to fertilize until a pup comes about and I am just kind of confused. Also, what are pseudostems? thanks!
A pseudostem is the trunk of the banana plant. It isn't a true stem. It is made up of of leaf petioles wrapped around each other like an onion. All bananas reach their full size in a year or less, depending on the climate in which they are grown. When you first plant a new banana, there will be nutrients in the soil that you plant them in, especially if you plant it in good soil with compost, so you shouldn't have to fertilize right away. Different varieties start producing new pups at different times, so I wouldn't use that as a guide. I start fertilizing 1-2 months after planting.
I've got another question for you lol. The Banana I asked about previously is doing fine. But I did buy a smaller 4 inch banana online and I think it's suffering from sunburn. Any tips on what to do about it to help it heal up? Also, it's about to be a rainy week, will my banana outside be alright?
Those little tiny bananas are tissue culture clones. There's nothing wrong with them, but they are a bit sensitive at first. They need to be grown out in a pot for a while until they get a little size on them. I baby them in the shade for a while too. Once they are between one and two feet tall, they are ready for the ground.
I am getting ready to prune my trees. Last year they starting yellowing and wilting after I pruned. I cut the leaves down to the stalk with large shears. They fully recovered but…. Should I not cut it to the stalk?
Thanks for taking the time to reply me and I have another question are you able to sell any of you're litle banana plants , l looked everywere here in my area and l could not find any first i love plants and l would love to have a banana tree, like I said l live the banana tree
Hello there, I recently got some banana pups from my grandma and I don't know how to transfer them and where I should put them. I live in Texas. What do they need? full exposer to sun light or some shade? I have 4 Orange trees, will they get along? I hope you can get back to me. I really need some tips. Oh, I also have a sink hole of some sort in my back yard, can I place them in it and cover it wil soil and fertilizer? I have so many questions. Please help.
compaqftx Hello. Please email me at randystropicalplants@gmail.com. Then I will answer all of your questions. To quickly answer the ones above. Put the pups into pots of good soil. When you see healthy white roots growing out of the drain holes of the pot, the they are ready to go into the soil. Yes they need full sun, but in full sun they'll need a lot of water. If your climate is dry (as it often is in TX) then you will have to water a LOT. In that case, a little more shade might be the best choice. Email me and we'll discuss it more if you like.
Randy's Tropical Plants Hi Randy, great video very informative:) Just quick question are Banana plants self pollinating or do the need another banana plant to cross pollinate? I'm living in Southern California zone 10, but looking to grow some plants in Alaska too zone 4 indoors only, any suggestions so I can get the plant to produce more reliably in Alaska?~Thank you Robert
Hello Randy-Great plants!!! I have a Zebrina Rojo, my first one. It grew great over the summer on my porch. Brought it in(live in Mid-west) and its not doing great. Is my and the plants only hope to cut and overwinter or is it possible to save and continue to grow indoors? Unfortunately i have low light in my house. Thank you for your time :)
+marianne cunningham I don't actually have any personal experience with over-Wintering bananas in a cold climate. I know that people often do cut them down, and Winter them like you would a perennial bulb, stored in a basement or some such, but bananas don't really go dormant per se. In temperate climates, they stop growing in Winter, because it is too cold to grow, but in the tropics, they don't go dormant. I never cut mine unless they get burned by frost. Cutting back a banana is kind of hard on them. I'd try to get it to survive without cutting it, personally. A better choice of banana for you is one called Basjoo. They don't have the pretty splashes on their leaves that zebrina does, but Musa acuminata zebrina is from Java, and is very cold sensitive. Musa Basjoo is from Japan, and can survive in freezing climates. Depending on your USDA zone, you may even be able to grow M. basjoo in the ground. It is hardy to zone 5. Another interesting one is Musella lasiocarpa. That one is from mountains of China, and grows a really pretty flower. A third is called Musa itinerans xishuangbannaensis "Mekong Giant" which is hardy to zone 6. None of those grow edible fruit, but neither does zebrina. Anyway, I hope that this was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you Randy, appreciate all the tips :) Not concerned with the fruit part. I didn't know what i was getting when purchasing because the tag is wrong. It's a beautiful plant, i think i'll just wait and see what happens over winter. Thank you again for all your wonderful suggestions. Keep up the cool videos and all your hard work :)
Cool, I'll buy some banana's from you. They will grow over there against the fence under the oak tree right? I've been thinking of shredding all of the oak leaves and sticks and stems and grass clippings and making beds along that fence under the tree anyway, now you've given me a good reason to GetRDun!
Not when you first cut them off. When you first cut them, the most important thing is the root system. You need to baby them, preferably in a small container of good potting soil in a shady spot, until you see new roots popping out of the drain holes. Then either plant it in the ground, or in a much larger pot, in more direct light. After a couple of months, it should be ready for it's first feeding. Feed lightly at first, until the plant is in full growth mode. Then fed it like any other banana plant.
You mention you have family here in Arizona... I am also trying to grow banana here in phoenix az, but the soil is basically clay and dead. I have seen mix info, people said lot of compost and organic material for banana ect... then I saw a patch up banana in the upwards of 100 trees at a house in PHX... the soil is native, bare soil, no compost, no fertilizer... only flooded irrigation every two weeks... yet they look great and even fruit. :( So confused.
Yes, you can, but the variety that you pick is very important. Only grow dwarfs or super dwarfs. Give them as much sun as possible. Feed them heavily too. They're HUNGRY plants.
Great video. I am looking into starting a permaculture fruit farm in south FL. How many acres do you think one needs to make a living farming organic fruit these days? Perhaps will check out your nursery if go through with the farm
That's awesome. I'm not really the person to talk to though. I've never farmed for comercial food production. I'm a chemist turned nurseryman. It really depends on what you are planning to grow. I would stay away from citrus for now. The trees that have a lot of promise for production in Florida are macadamias, and Garcinia humilis, possibly Luc's garcinia. Lychees are a good choice too. Bananas produce a lot and quickly, but I'd focus on unusual cultivars for the more discerning foodie crowd, so you can charge more for them, otherwise you'll never make enough money off of bananas. Grand nains at the grocery sell for $0.69/lb. Jaboticabas are great, but they are super slow to produce. The other problem will be marketing. There's a lot of great fruits that you can grow, but people don't know what they are, and Americans are slow to try new stuff. Most americans think that lychee is just a flavor of martini. If you are looking for any plant in numbers. Let me know well ahead of time, so I coul produce them for you. My space is limited so I have to manage my stock carefully.
Randy I live in North Carolina and I'm going to get a banana plant,,I watched your video's, can you tell me what I have to do for the winter for my plant
How do you stop the ants from attacking the bananas as they bloom I tried everything I have beautiful tree's that produced bananas this year but as each row Bloom's ants come and the little bananas die I tried pepper spray also peppermint oil it will kill them but they come right back the next day
Leave the leaves on all winter. Act as protection from freezes. May still fall over if enough hard freezes, but cut back in spring to good part of plant. I use Cyprus mulch at least 6 inches all year. I have some that get 20 foot here in NC near charlotte. Spring after last frost I cut back and am able to start new season with some at 10 foot tall.
+EYE-IN-THE-SKY PRODUCTIONS That completely depends on where you are located. This banana can't take anywhere near the low temperatures that M. basjoo can. M. raja puri is the most cold tolerant of the seedless fruiting bananas, but even that can't take the cold that basjoo can. I'd say zone 8a with a LOT of protection to the pseudostem, is about as low as you could go with this, and that would be really pushing it. Raja puri can go down to zone 7.
I’ve not seen a banana tree before your video. Thank you for explaining, as well as showing how the pups and corms work. How interesting!
Hi.Great video you got here. Here's some other things if you'd like to experiment with.
Fertilizer programme:
Month 1 - 5: 16:16:16 (150g/plant/month)
Month 6: MOP (100g/plant - one time application only on month 6 or when you see the last short leaf before flowering comes out) + 12:12:17:2(100g/plant/month)
Month 7 till harvest: 12:12:17:2 (150g/plant/month)
For the suckers to ensure maximum growth. 2 ways to go around it. Cut and don't dig as to not damage the roots.
First: Only keep 1 at 3 months old and another at 8 months old.
Second: Only keep one once the flower comes out.
Choose only sword suckers as this is the one with vigorous growth rate.
As for leaves. Maintain 8 leaves while growing, 6 once the flower comes out and 4(excluding the small leaves before flowering) once you cut the flower. Cut the flower around 2 inch after the last bunch.
Just sharing. Happy gardening everyone.
It's easier to use a narrow sharp spade to remove the suckers. I'm on my second batch now(around 300 plantain and 60 banana plants so far). I've noticed that deeply cutting the roots away before planting delays the growth of suckers, limiting pseudo stems to 2 equally aged ones(old batch, second crop) and spacing them at least 1.5 metres appart in a matrix pattern produces the best results.
Most informative video I have seen for bananas! For beginners, such as my self, growing organic bananas seems almost a professionals' full-time job.
Thank you very much for breaking down this info and showing step by step how it can easily be done (esp. fertilizing the plant) ! 👍 ✔
It is a job... try and enjoy but some of them plants are very refined and require lot of attention to really grow . But after that , on the other hand , some of them have resistance over all aspectatives .
planted my bananas behind the chicken coop...never worried after fertilizing....😅
@7:44 I totally saw someone on the ground halfway under your home LOL
Great information. Especiallu helpful was showing how to recognise when the stem is about to flower.
Great information. I'm pushing the zone here in California and this is the information I was looking for!
That was an amazingly well made video. I appreciate you.
Thank you for sharing this very informative info to help other Banana Lovers !!!
Thank you for the clip. It was good. I am growing ice cream bananas and use no fertilizer. My plants are beautiful and have bananas on them now. I have built my soil with wood chip mulch and worm castings. They are in a permaculture system so other plants and trees like moringa also help with this. Moringa ia a very good chop and drop.
Please refer to any best video as your choice
What a fantastic and thorough video! Thank you for sharing your knowledge and tips, step by step! So very helpful!
Great video! Thanks for keeping it moving. Easy to watch your videos.
Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge I’m in Australia so I will wait until our spring, (October) and I will get started on dividing my plants.
Is that your real lips?
I've been giving our banana and citrus trees Alaska Fish Fertilizer which is 5-1-1. The banana and trees are loving it. I will look into higher potassium levels too. Great video. Our little banana tree has bloomed and fruited. 👍 We bought it at Lowe's. Great video.
Jeff - Sunny Central Florida 😎 🌴 ☀️ 🍊 🍋 🍅 🍉 🍌
Thanks for the great info. My plant is now paying off, the tenants before me said it never produce any fruit. I did not do much but water it every 2 or 3 days
Awesome! Funny how when you treat them like living things, they do so much better. Bananas are easy, they're just greedy. Give them lots of what plants crave, and they will reward you. Cheers
How do I stop all the shots from popping up in the pot?
What if my little pup isnt so little?
Thanks for the education and termimnology, I just posted my spring unveiling Vancouver BC
Thank you for sharing this video. I used to be a banana grower but my bananas just died and I don't know why. I love to start over with the bananas l enjoyed watching them grow. Thanks again for the knowledge.
You're welcome! Don't give up. If you have any questions, feel free to email them to randystropicalplants@gmail.com
Desert hard-pan can be challenging. I have family in AZ. The soil there is called caliche, and it's like chiseling through rock. Your plan isn't a terrible one. You don't have to go down too deep for bananas though. 3' is probably overkill. Bananas are one of the few plants that you can pile compost right up against the trunk (pseudostem) without harming them. build the soil/compost/mulch upward as well as downward. There's good info on my website. Click the link in the description above.
Randy's Tropical Plants
Thanks so much. All your videos I've watched are loaded with all the information I need. Thanks once again.
Thanks for that. Sorry to slack so much in making new vids lately. Cheers
cool video, that small banana which you didnt cut so well, the one without roots has got a chance of survival, i also did cut two of them like that without roots at all and now they are huge plants
That one didn't grow. I've made many hundreds, if not thousands, of banana plants in my 25 years of growing them. If there is corm attached to the bottom of the pup, they will grow. Without corm they will not grow.
ok i see, thanks a lot, i really love bananas
Bad ass video! I live in Miami where the sun is shining year round and planted a dward banana tree back in may and its been huge fast will a time release formula., but i definitely have not been feeding my baby. I learned a ton with the video and very informative.
Glad it was helpful. I hope you get lots of tasty naners.
For an organic source of potassium I have started to use comfrey tea so we shall see how the banana plants respond to this. Comfrey to use is Russian comfrey (Symphytum X uplandicum). It has 6-foot-long roots that harvest nutrients from deep in the soil, making comfrey leaves a fantastic natural source of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. If growing comfrey for this worth researching some of the things to watch out for with growing comfrey. Most obviously is once you have it in the ground it is notoriously difficult to remove. Fill container with 1/3 comfrey leaves fill the rest with water leave for 3-6 weeks cover smells disgusting use gloves when handling comfrey and the tea otherwise it will take a while to wash off.
My banana trees came from a neighbor who gave me a clod of dirt. "Do you want a start from our banana tree." Okay!! 20 years later the whole side of my house is gorgeous with Banana trees every summer. Every year they get bigger than our home with at least 8 foot long leaves.
That sounds beautiful Mary
This is old so you may not reply but you may find this interesting. so I'm in the almost same situation as u are here in this video. i do everything you do however, I'm organic, I feed 8-5-5 organic and if i see a flower i go heavy on potash. however, despite this i always get deficiencys. mainly micro e.g. calcium, boron etc. it's hard to do organic. but in the long term, your soil will be so much healthier. i see organic you feed the soil, inorganic you feed the plant e.g. like junk food. i understand its a hot topic. but for the climate etc its healthier. i also add coffee grounds, mulch, grass clippings. i go extreme and its never enough. bananas are just so hungry. maybe too hungry for organic. i work full time so cant give them 24/7 care but i know some people do it organically. hats off to them!
It all really depends on the soil you begin with. In many places in the world, bananas are a plant it and forget about it, plant. Not here in central Florida. where we have beach sand for soil. I have been building that soil with wood chips every year. I also use manure, compost, and worm compost. I make compost tea. I use any and all organic gardening techniques that work. I just laid down 6=8 inches of oak chips acros the front of my property this week. After 16 years of building that soil, it is now black and gorgeous. Everything thrivers in it. I also use inorganicakky sourced nutrients as well. As a chemist for 15 years, I analyzed nutrients in soil and surfave water, both organic and inorganic sources of those nutrients. I can tell you, with great certainty, that macronutrients are macronutrients, whether they come from organic or inorganic sopurces. The problem comes when people overuse inorganic nutrients on soil that is not tended or amended. You can't just pour nutrient salt solutions on crap soil without terrible consequences over time. I use both granular fertilizer as well as liquid formulations on that soil, but I do so, in low concentrations. That way, I never burn roots or overload the microbiome. So I very much disagree with the completely rejecting a nutrient just becaus it was mined from the earth rather than extraced from plant or animal material. I do very much agree with the organic gardening mindset when it comes to pesticides, which I also analyzed as a chemist. I do my best to never use them. I have not used pesticides in my nursery in several years now. I will use pesticides, but only if organic solutions fail. This response got longer than intended. Sorry.
@@Sheikyerbouti8 thanks for the reply,
Yeah unfortunately I’ve been blessed with builder rubble soil thats been dumped and buried. But your completely right. I agree with ur argument about inorganic. However, I still argue that even if you use it sensibly. It’s beneficial to go organic purely because it doesn’t go through the same process inorganic does. Eg making a inorganic 10-10-10 takes a lot of time and involves use of some dangerous stuff whereas organic eg manures doesn’t go through that process it’s natural. Plus people don’t really understand fertiliser. People doesn’t really need 30-30-30 inorganic fertilisers as it just mostly runs off as u say and causes eutrophication. I started horticulture when I was 16 and fell into this trap. But yeah, there’s lots of options available . That’s what I disagree with also. It confuses people further. In the UK it’s less than in the Us. I personally stay away from anything inorganic. The furthest I go is neem oil which is organic but a bit controversial. Ideally, I think organic is the way to go. Yes it’s not perfect with that you’ve said. But we do need to move away from synthetics. In the UK we only have 90-100 harvests left due to such poor soils. But I like keeping a nice soil biology. Healthy fungi, worms and a balanced garden so if a problem happens eg aphids, I rely on birds and nature to deal with it. Instead of synthetic. Being one with nature. I know it sounds a bit iffy but it’s the way to go in my opinion. I’m only 20 and am learning myself about this stuff. I still haven’t grown a crop of edible bananas as when I get close the UK winter decides to say hello. Plus doing my level 2 in horticulture I’ve been Taught about the organic way. So I realise I’m very bias. Saying that I respect your opinion and thank you for your time!
great video. you did explain very well. in my zone the plant will not have bananas, but I love the plant it is a good privacy fence. I am going to split them up this year. the first year that I planted them I had 2 plants. they did not come back this year. I have 21 right now. they are in a small area for banana plants. thanks for sharing
Hi Randy,, thanks for sharing your wealth of knowledge with us, very informative video 👍
Thus past fall I was given 3 pups from a friend ,they are about a foot tall ,I do have them in container behind a window inside the house, temperature is about 70 f. Their leafs dropped and now they have a middle one showing,
I do have a clay soil in the backyard.
Could you please describe Your soil?
and also what do you suggest I could do before they go in the ground?
Thanks again for the great information 👍
Really wished I was in a warmer climate... Here in UK summer season so short and unpredictable banana plants grow much slower and have to be protected in cooler months
Love my Ice Cream Banana, got it at Seaside in Ventura years ago. Now out of business...
cool video. very informative and that's a lot of suckers you've got there
Great information! Thank you for your educational video. Truly appreciate it.
Congrats on your banana tree!!!
And thank your for the information!!!!!!!
They'll do great in your area, but they do best in full sun, so I wouldn't put it directly under the tree. The only variety that I have available right now is "ice cream". For flavor, sweetness, and productivity, it is excellent. The only downside to them is that the fruits are on the small side ~4". Soon I'll be adding "double mahoi", and "saba" to my available plants, but those probably won't be available until next year. PM me in FB before buying one, and I'll work out a good deal for you.
Randy's Tropical Plants what nursery??
Randy's Tropical Plants
Omg the quality
Thank you so much for a very informative video. This summer my big potted banana sent up a pup I didn't recognize and your video says it is a sword pup. I knew it looked different from the other pups but didn't know why. And wow, I would have never known to give the plants that much fertilizer. Keep the videos coming!!! You are a great source of usable information.
I’m Montagnards indigenous, I love you banana plants so beautiful , I wish I should have here in North Carolina.
I'm close to charlotte NC. Have 20 mounds of them, Have at least 5 plants per mound up to 20 trees per mound from just one plant. Will do bananas, but only get 3 inches at most as there is no particular growing season for them to bud. I do a hole about 3 feet diameter by 3 foot deep, because of the red rock hard soil I have. One group gets to 20 foot high every year with others close to it. During winter, don't cut leaves as they turn brown, let them stay as they protect better during a freeze. With crazy weather we have this year, I have 10 that are showing the start of new ones. I put at least 6 inches of Cyprus mulch on them through the whole year. Can't find the right fertilizer that they call for except for 1st and 3rd number. 17/17/17 I use from lowes. 1 /2 cup per plant once a month to get strong and tall. The taller ones have base diameters of 10 inches. I don't cut any out unless someone wants to start them selves, then just outside ones just below ground level. Wrap in wet newspaper, put in plastic bag, lay them down for transport and add some water into bag. Plant ASAP. You only need a small piece of the mother bulb on it and put at least 6 inches below ground level. Water every day until it starts to run out of hole for about 3 weeks. Then I water every other day during growing season. Have fun.
@@John-qx6eu I'm in Sc and someone just donate over 20 banana plants to me last week(mostly pups). I made the mistake on a few of them of peeling the dead growth all the way to the bottom. Then i watched a guy in Africa on YT his banana plant fell over because he made the same mistake and he said just to trim the leaves and don't peel it to the base. So you think i should just leave them alone and add fertilizer? I planted them about 6"-1' deep because i only have a few inches of mediocre soils and then sand and clay. I chopped and planted root balls and left the tops of the root balls above ground and something is telling me that may have been wrong too. Have you ever planted just the root balls by themselves?
I had to see it again to learn the terminology
How long from when you plant to you harvest?
Great Video!!! Keep them coming!!!
About 4 months ..... Good luck!!
I cut my banana a hard cut, my big idea was to keep it short as not to tip during rainy season.. I only noticed the flag leave too late after I cut it.. Its not recovering well and its getting rainy season. I'm not sure the tree is even gonna make its not recovering well.. turning black. I'm about to count my looses and cut it down and let the pup takeover.. I pulled the other pups. I really messed up cutting off the top without looking closely . Good video! Thanks for the upload and info!
Thanks for that Sharron. Go to my website before you plant the banana. The link is in the description above. I have good info there on initial planting. Cheers!
Ok
just make sure you cover it with about 6 inches of mulch after the first frost. that will keep the roots from dying and it will come back in the spring every year.
Would this work for zone 4 as well. Our winters are hit and miss, some times we get lots of snow other years not so much. Tia
Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge. Your video was so helpful!
Really good video, great info.
We live totally off grid in Hawaii. My husband created a ingenious bio-digester with the overflow spilling out onto our banana trees.
So far, so good. Only been about a year. I’ll be removing ‘keiki’s’ soon. Thanks for all the info.
I also read to cut off at a slight angle towards the mother to get more roots. Thoughts?
That's cool. I've never heard that, but I've never had problems getting them to grow roots. If the soil is properly maintained, they root like crazy.
best tutorial on youtube about banana care
Thanks for the video! I have a few banana plants growing in pots but I eventually would like to put them into the ground, but I'm worried about my soil. I'm in the desert and have clay/dirt and a lot of the tropical plants I've tried to plant in it, died pretty fast (whether that was from the sun or the soil, I'm actually not sure, but I have the bananas growing in midday shade just fine) I was thinking of digging a 5x5x3 area and replace all the dirt with garden soil (from home depot).
Ll
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Great information, good camera work and very concise. Thanks for a great video!
+Randy's Tropical Plants Besides pot ash, could I put old banana peels around the base of the plants to rot and add potassium? (I'm growing in pots.)
+Life I'd be super paranoid about introducing diseases from the banana peels. There shouldn't be any viruses, bacteria, or fungi on imported bananas, but the key word there is shouldn't. You never know. Bananas are farmed in huge monoculture farms. Those banana farms have loads of problems with diseases (bunchy top virus, black sigatoka fungus etc). So I wouldn't advise that. Potash can be made from wood ashes pretty easily. I've never done it, but friends of mine have. Lately I've been using 10-10-10 and supplementing with potassium sulfate.
Very good point. Thanks!
extremily impressed with video,sorry for any miss spelling, I purchaced a ensete maurelii,plant that was in a 4 inch pot end of nov. ptted in old cast iron pot so am carefull on watering,grow under grow light bulb only due to only north facing windows and have to keep shades closed on bottem half for privacy,side walk 3 feet from window,anyway it is not on 6th leave and over 4 feet tall and thriving,so the grow light do well. question do you ever sell any of your pups, am one that is cautious have been stung with garbage via the net in past but am very impressed with how you grow your plants . I to live in Wisconsin ,but do all I can to spoil my plant,thanks
+Mark Hinds Yes I sell them from my website. The link is in the description above. I've got a couple of ice cream bananas that are over three feet tall now. They would be sent bare root and cut to fit the shipping container. So what you'd receive is a well rooted, large piece of corm. They regrow from that very quickly, but not when it is cold. So I wouldn't recommend buying one from me until it warms up where you are. I have Musa ice cream, truly tiny, and double, available right now. Eventually I'll have African rhino horn, and Saba as well.
Young banana tree can be eaten like salad, slice it thinly put in water, a bit of vinegar so it won't turn black then wash it again. A mixture of fresh lemon juice, 1 teaspoon of sugar, little bit of salt, mint to mix with sliced banana tree. Eating young banana tree has lot of health benefits
Wow, thank you for that Tina! I've never seen that done.
You had some great info in this video... i wish it wasn't fall here now otherwise i would be out there fertillizing :)
Very nice video, I really want to plant bananas but I don’t know where I can find here in Uk .Any information I will appreciate.
Wonderful video
Hi! I moved into my house back in July. Leesburg, Georgia USA. There were Banana Trees that were Gorgeous, but Non- Producing. When we had our last freeze the Banana Trees Froze over and Died. I did chop them back to about 5-6 inches above Ground, but Wondering if you have any Advice. I also Time Released Fertilized them and Water them Daily.
Excellent information
Hi Randy, your video was very helpful and educational for me.Please tell me will the older banana plants continue to produce bananas and pups the following year ,or are they done for and ready to be chopped down and replaced by new pup growing?....great video,healthy looking plants.
That's what I was wondering too.
Aloha, excellent vid! Mahalo 4 the great info.
I really like this video.Very helpful!:)Thanx Randy!
That I watching you tube it very helpful..thank you
If you’re from Florida, you have an awesome Floridian accent.
I'm from southern California, but I've lived here in Florida for 22 years.
For potassium soak the peelings use to water,,potassium supplements and coconut water,,works great for me..
Thanks for sharing what is the cost of the pups
Thanks for the video I also have the same plant
Thank you very much.
Brilliant , thanks , just what i needed to know :-)
Great information, thanks for posting
Great info! I get my new banana soon, so this was very helpful. Thanks! :-)
Crazy helpful! Thank you
Hi I just stared watching your videos and I loved them very much and I have a question what kind of banana can I plant on my yard in zone 7 and where can I get them l would like to have some edible banana trees thank you very much
Hi. Thanks for that. Your best bet, is a variety called "Raja Puri". Of all of the seedless, fruiting varieties, it is by far the most cold tolerant. I'm told that the bananas are tasty too, but I haven't tried that variety myself. There are even more cold tolerant bananas, but they have seeded fruit, and are grown as ornamentals, not for fruit. Good luck!
Did you plant your banana tree I am also in zone 7 and just brought a random plant from a nursery. Do these have to be planted in sun.
What kinda Fertilizer .? I’m just starting a pup in the pot and it’s cold here right now the size of my banana is 5 inches tall I’m exciting to have banana tree l please teach me .thank you
Just got about 30 Carolina King banana pups donated to me and now I am in need of a Blue Java Ice Cream Banana connection
Floridahillnursery is all you need at a reasonable price.
@@Okorokanze2000 that's where i ended up getting them. Got 25 of them
@@charitablemiraclebeekeeper1200 lol well You're not joking about bananas. What are you doing with all that banana. 30+25 =55x(average 5pups being conservative in about a year. Lol I had to hold myself back from going crazy with it being so cheap and knowing how fast they multiple.
@@Okorokanze2000 bro i already have almost exactly 100 banana plants and idk what I'm going to do with all these... And i don't even own this property, i rent.
@@charitablemiraclebeekeeper1200 lol well in my culture, we say a tenant should never grow flowers in his landlords house in case he decides to move or gets kicked out. You should tell them to come see my apt balcony lol you can never have too much plant if you ask me. Luckily I can plant in my parents house but those fools don't appreciate what I do and all the money I spend for my hobby. You can always do charity work by planting your neighbors house when they sleep.lol " who the heck planted 50 banana in my front porch? " Lol
They make organic granular fertilizer too
We moved into a new house that has banana trees in the back yard. How do I tell what kind they are? And whether they're fruit producing or not?
All bananas produce fruit. The fruit from ornamental bananas will be full of seeds, and are not edible. The edible ones are all either Musa acuminata, Musa balbisiana, or a hybrid of the two. They are also triploid (or sometimes tetraploid). Being triploid causes them to be sterile, so the fruit does not have seeds. If you live in a tropical or a subtropical climate, then in all likelihood, the banana plants you have are edible fruit producing plants. Determining what variety they are will be a lot more difficult. Many different varieties are virtually impossible to tell apart. Especially the members of the cavendish subgroup. If you are lucky, they will be one of the more easily identified varieties, such as ice cream, saba, praying hands, rhino horn etc. Good luck with your new banana plants!
Randy's Tropical Plants Thank you for the informative answer. The tallest one we have is around 10ft & I still haven't seen anything. But that could also be because I haven't been properly fertilizing or pruning them. Also, we live in KY about an hour north of Nashville, TN. It certainly feels tropical during the summer, but idk if I should expect anything here.
The bird of paradise I have small thin leaves! ?
Is it because of the small size of the pot?
Or because of a cold wave?
Or what?
Use a cordless saws all...
Grate information
Best fertilizer for these plants
Lately I mix 2 parts 10-10-10, to one part potassium sulfate, and I apply one pound per corm per month.
If I bought a pup about 3 ft tall of the nam wah variety how long do you think it will take to get the size of yours? I was told not to fertilize until a pup comes about and I am just kind of confused. Also, what are pseudostems? thanks!
A pseudostem is the trunk of the banana plant. It isn't a true stem. It is made up of of leaf petioles wrapped around each other like an onion. All bananas reach their full size in a year or less, depending on the climate in which they are grown. When you first plant a new banana, there will be nutrients in the soil that you plant them in, especially if you plant it in good soil with compost, so you shouldn't have to fertilize right away. Different varieties start producing new pups at different times, so I wouldn't use that as a guide. I start fertilizing 1-2 months after planting.
perfect! thank you!
I've got another question for you lol. The Banana I asked about previously is doing fine. But I did buy a smaller 4 inch banana online and I think it's suffering from sunburn. Any tips on what to do about it to help it heal up?
Also, it's about to be a rainy week, will my banana outside be alright?
Those little tiny bananas are tissue culture clones. There's nothing wrong with them, but they are a bit sensitive at first. They need to be grown out in a pot for a while until they get a little size on them. I baby them in the shade for a while too. Once they are between one and two feet tall, they are ready for the ground.
I am getting ready to prune my trees. Last year they starting yellowing and wilting after I pruned. I cut the leaves down to the stalk with large shears. They fully recovered but…. Should I not cut it to the stalk?
I don't prune in Winter. If there is cold damage, I prune it off just before Spring
Thanks, very informative 👍👍👍👍👍
All my pups look like water suckers, does this happen? whats wrong? Thx
Thanks for taking the time to reply me and I have another question are you able to sell any of you're litle banana plants , l looked everywere here in my area and l could not find any first i love plants and l would love to have a banana tree, like I said l live the banana tree
Hello there, I recently got some banana pups from my grandma and I don't know how to transfer them and where I should put them. I live in Texas. What do they need? full exposer to sun light or some shade? I have 4 Orange trees, will they get along? I hope you can get back to me. I really need some tips. Oh, I also have a sink hole of some sort in my back yard, can I place them in it and cover it wil soil and fertilizer? I have so many questions. Please help.
compaqftx Hello. Please email me at randystropicalplants@gmail.com. Then I will answer all of your questions. To quickly answer the ones above. Put the pups into pots of good soil. When you see healthy white roots growing out of the drain holes of the pot, the they are ready to go into the soil. Yes they need full sun, but in full sun they'll need a lot of water. If your climate is dry (as it often is in TX) then you will have to water a LOT. In that case, a little more shade might be the best choice. Email me and we'll discuss it more if you like.
I live there too try putting it it a big pot and put it in the shade keep the soil moist but don't drench it
Randy's Tropical Plants Hi Randy, great video very informative:) Just quick question are Banana plants self pollinating or do the need another banana plant to cross pollinate? I'm living in Southern California zone 10, but looking to grow some plants in Alaska too zone 4 indoors only, any suggestions so I can get the plant to produce more reliably in Alaska?~Thank you Robert
So nice video
thanks!
What type of vine are you growing on your banana tree?
That's a Passiflora quadrangularis. I didn't intend for it to grow there. Those things have a mind of their own.
Awesome, thank you for sharing, Could you please state what fertilizer I need to use?
6-2-12
That's a great video. Could a person use cow or chicken manuer to feed them?
Yes, but neither of those are a great source of potassium, they are mostly sources of nitrogen. So you'd still need to suplement potassium somehow.
Hello Randy-Great plants!!! I have a Zebrina Rojo, my first one. It grew great over the summer on my porch. Brought it in(live in Mid-west) and its not doing great. Is my and the plants only hope to cut and overwinter or is it possible to save and continue to grow indoors? Unfortunately i have low light in my house. Thank you for your time :)
+marianne cunningham I don't actually have any personal experience with over-Wintering bananas in a cold climate. I know that people often do cut them down, and Winter them like you would a perennial bulb, stored in a basement or some such, but bananas don't really go dormant per se. In temperate climates, they stop growing in Winter, because it is too cold to grow, but in the tropics, they don't go dormant. I never cut mine unless they get burned by frost. Cutting back a banana is kind of hard on them. I'd try to get it to survive without cutting it, personally. A better choice of banana for you is one called Basjoo. They don't have the pretty splashes on their leaves that zebrina does, but Musa acuminata zebrina is from Java, and is very cold sensitive. Musa Basjoo is from Japan, and can survive in freezing climates. Depending on your USDA zone, you may even be able to grow M. basjoo in the ground. It is hardy to zone 5. Another interesting one is Musella lasiocarpa. That one is from mountains of China, and grows a really pretty flower. A third is called Musa itinerans xishuangbannaensis "Mekong Giant" which is hardy to zone 6. None of those grow edible fruit, but neither does zebrina. Anyway, I hope that this was helpful and I wish you the best of luck.
Thank you Randy, appreciate all the tips :) Not concerned with the fruit part. I didn't know what i was getting when purchasing because the tag is wrong. It's a beautiful plant, i think i'll just wait and see what happens over winter. Thank you again for all your wonderful suggestions. Keep up the cool videos and all your hard work :)
شكرا
Can a person take some of the new ones growing off the big one.and replant it in winter.
wait until spring
Fantabulous video....
Thank you!
Wouldnt it be better if you fertilise less quantities over more days? Wouldnt it be better to be absorbed by the soil an d the plant eventually?
Cool, I'll buy some banana's from you. They will grow over there against the fence under the oak tree right? I've been thinking of shredding all of the oak leaves and sticks and stems and grass clippings and making beds along that fence under the tree anyway, now you've given me a good reason to GetRDun!
Does the little baby pup need fertilizer.
Not when you first cut them off. When you first cut them, the most important thing is the root system. You need to baby them, preferably in a small container of good potting soil in a shady spot, until you see new roots popping out of the drain holes. Then either plant it in the ground, or in a much larger pot, in more direct light. After a couple of months, it should be ready for it's first feeding. Feed lightly at first, until the plant is in full growth mode. Then fed it like any other banana plant.
You mention you have family here in Arizona... I am also trying to grow banana here in phoenix az, but the soil is basically clay and dead. I have seen mix info, people said lot of compost and organic material for banana ect... then I saw a patch up banana in the upwards of 100 trees at a house in PHX... the soil is native, bare soil, no compost, no fertilizer... only flooded irrigation every two weeks... yet they look great and even fruit. :( So confused.
great video! can banana plant survive and produce bananas in a pot?
Yes, you can, but the variety that you pick is very important. Only grow dwarfs or super dwarfs. Give them as much sun as possible. Feed them heavily too. They're HUNGRY plants.
Great video. I am looking into starting a permaculture fruit farm in south FL. How many acres do you think one needs to make a living farming organic fruit these days? Perhaps will check out your nursery if go through with the farm
That's awesome. I'm not really the person to talk to though. I've never farmed for comercial food production. I'm a chemist turned nurseryman. It really depends on what you are planning to grow. I would stay away from citrus for now. The trees that have a lot of promise for production in Florida are macadamias, and Garcinia humilis, possibly Luc's garcinia. Lychees are a good choice too. Bananas produce a lot and quickly, but I'd focus on unusual cultivars for the more discerning foodie crowd, so you can charge more for them, otherwise you'll never make enough money off of bananas. Grand nains at the grocery sell for $0.69/lb. Jaboticabas are great, but they are super slow to produce. The other problem will be marketing. There's a lot of great fruits that you can grow, but people don't know what they are, and Americans are slow to try new stuff. Most americans think that lychee is just a flavor of martini. If you are looking for any plant in numbers. Let me know well ahead of time, so I coul produce them for you. My space is limited so I have to manage my stock carefully.
Randy I live in North Carolina and I'm going to get a banana plant,,I watched your video's, can you tell me what I have to do for the winter for my plant
we have been down to 20s but a lot of 30s
How do you stop the ants from attacking the bananas as they bloom I tried everything I have beautiful tree's that produced bananas this year but as each row Bloom's ants come and the little bananas die I tried pepper spray also peppermint oil it will kill them but they come right back the next day
How can I check what species my plant is? Also when the first frost comes do I just chop it down and mulch over the roots?
Leave the leaves on all winter. Act as protection from freezes. May still fall over if enough hard freezes, but cut back in spring to good part of plant. I use Cyprus mulch at least 6 inches all year. I have some that get 20 foot here in NC near charlotte. Spring after last frost I cut back and am able to start new season with some at 10 foot tall.
@@John-qx6eu what kind do you grow brother
could I overwinter these like a musa basjoo by protecting them overwinter or will I have to bring them in over winter
+EYE-IN-THE-SKY PRODUCTIONS That completely depends on where you are located. This banana can't take anywhere near the low temperatures that M. basjoo can. M. raja puri is the most cold tolerant of the seedless fruiting bananas, but even that can't take the cold that basjoo can. I'd say zone 8a with a LOT of protection to the pseudostem, is about as low as you could go with this, and that would be really pushing it. Raja puri can go down to zone 7.
+Randy's Tropical Plants thank you that's really helpful
+EYE-IN-THE-SKY PRODUCTIONS You're welcome!
Thanks for the info.