Beginner Gardening: Is this normal for a banana tree (and a few more questions), 1 by SoFlaCommercial

SoFlaCommercial wrote:
I saw an article here on DG about bananas in maryland. Well, I'm here in florida and if she can get them to grown in Md, I should be able to get them to grow down here. :)

Actually, I have one tree that my lovely neighbor from Trinidad via New York gave me. My kids dug it up and picked the place to transplant it themselves (they really wanted the tree). No one knows the cultivar. It's a small tree, maybe 5'. Don't know how old it has to be (it may be a year old at most) before it fruits.

Most importantly - except for the clipped up leaves that fall off the 'tree', how do I fertilize this puppy, and how long before I start to get 'pups' from it?

The attached picture is one of the falling 'leaves'. usually they turn yellow, then brown, then fall off. but this one is a deep orange. it has since turned brown, but was concerned about the color change indicating some other deficiency. A different neighbor mentioned it may need epsom salts for magnesium....dunno.

OTHER QUESTION:

I saw in the article here on DG that Wellspring Garden has many bananas. I'm on their website now, and see dwarf cavendish, dwarf orinoco, ice cream banana (ice cream banana currently buy one/get one free, btw), and raja puri. Which do you recommend, and why?

also - someone on facebook said that the banana tree would only fruit once - is that true? seems like a lot of effort to grow something for several years to have it only fruit once.

thanks.