I'm new and I need help! Bananas

Hello everyone!!! I am new here! I appreciate everyone's posts that I have been plundering through! Which brings me to my question.....

A friend gave me her mother's Banana plants. They were taking over her yard, and she was SICK of them. Goody for me, as my yard is BARE as a BONE from the previous home owners. I received 4 that are each about 4 feet tall. All roots seemed to be healthy and in good order, (less than I assumed they would have, but I have never had these.) I promptly went home to transplant my free goodies and they were wilting before my eyes. 3 days later, they are still wilty, and do not look happy that they were moved. One I planted in the ground, the other three I planted in a large pot because I had not discussed where they should go with my DH. HELP BEFORE I KILL THEM!!!!!

You should expect some transplant shock, so I think you new plants are acting "normal", given the circumstances. I think most people panic when they see this and start watering the heck out of them, until they rot them. I would say only water when soil feels dry to the touch and give them a little time, 2-4 wks to recover. You should be OK.

2 to 4 weeks? OK COOL!!!!!! I didn't want them to get too far gone........and waste these 4 plants! I heard they are easy to take care of... :)

yes vossner is right they go through a period when you transplant.
I allways trim all but the new leaves off the plant when transplanting. this allows the roots to grow and not be overworked by to many leaves demanding more water than the small roots can support.

as for killing them dont worry about it i have cut theese with a weed eater off at the ground, they grew right back and i have to say the only way i have ever killed a banana was with cold weather or keeping them to dry.

good luck and you will love bananas and you may get to eat a few if you are lucky but just wait untill you find out how many different types of banana there are.

Jerry

I did take off a few of the leaves that were damaged in transit...... I have been trying to read what I can here and there, right now, I am 95% armchair!

My yard is so bare that anything that isn't doing well is QUITE OBVIOUS!!! And I don't want to lose time by killing things.

Thank y'all so much for setting my mind at ease!!!!!!!!

(what a great message board!)

Another thing some one told me for better success at transplanting is to keep them in the shade for awhile if they are in pots so they have some time to heal. Mine love cow manure.
I did one area of bananas with cow manure and not the other. What a huge difference.

Jerry's right, too- it's hard to kill a banana and if for some reason you lose one, keep taking care of the spot- more trees will come up from that root.

thanks! I actually do have access to cow manure! HA HA!!!!

Betty, I hope your bananas work out for you anf welcome to DG!

Thanks! :)

I am not sure how bananas do there but watch for me- I am creating a banana plantation (of many kinds) and don't mind sharing. Now it's slimickin's but they propagate fast.

OH YEAH???????? Keep me updated!!!!!!

Judging by other people's yards in my area, Bananas can do quite well!!!!

Betty,

You are in the same zone as I am. This is my first year with nanners...and they are going berserk! My house also had no yard except for a stand of nanners, a few hydrangeas, a sago and a rather skimpy looking magnolia. My house sat empty for at least a year and didn't get ANY water except what the heavens provided, so they are pretty hardy.

What I have learned about nanners is nothing less than amazing to me. First of all, they are not trees...the 'trunks' are stalks...which actually resemble celery stalks...and they are related to orchids (wait till they bloom and the little flowers come out of the big bloom and you will see the resemblance). Hummingbirds LOVE the nectar from the little flowers. The other day I noticed a clear liquid dripping from one of my flowers, so I had to reach up and feel it...it ws sticky...so I had to taste it. Oh man! It tasted like Honeysuckle...but in great abundance. The bottoms of the flowers are shaped like dippers...and they were FULL of this nectar! No wonder the hummers have been having so much fun playing tag around my nanners!

Nanners reach 'adulthood' at about 4-5 years of age...at that time, they put up pups from the roots. This is how they reproduce. A couple of years later (normally) if they have not gone dormant for two winters, they will bloom. You will go nuts over the blooms! They look like Audrey the Alien Plant from Little Shop of Horrors...I kept expecting mine to burst into song..."Feed me Seymour....Feed me now!"

Nanners are heavy feeders and they need 3.25 to 3.5 inches of water EACH week. The younger plants will go dormant in the winter. For me, the older plants do not go dormant. However, that may be because I have a microenvironment....the previous owners did ONE thing right (and belive me...it was the ONLY thing they did right!) Nanners, especially in our zone, do better when they are protected from the north wind. They also do better when they are planted next to concrete so they can benefit from the radiational heating in the cooler months. My nanners are in the ideal location...next to the house so they are blocked fromt he wind and beside the carport so they get the radiational heat. I had a few nanners on the north side of the house and they ALL went dormant...plus they did not reproduce nor bloom. I gave them to my sis.

Some varieties are more hardy in colder climates than others. Orinoco is hardy to zone 7. One of the people I have talked to that sells nanners lives in zone 7 and, during the winter, she constructs a wire frame around the 'trunk' of her nanners...which she packs with mulch.

I've had three of my trees bloom this year...so far. The first one put on a whole mess of hands...the second one put out about half as many. The thrid bloom came on a tree that was too young to bloom...it had just put up its pups this year so it should not have bloomed for abnother two years....but it did anyway and almost immediately the trunk began to buckle under the weight. I was able to tie it to the post on my front porch and hopefully it will be enough to protect it from breaking till the fruit fill out. This past week, the first tree to bloom broke under the weight of the fruit. Fortuantely, they were almost ready to be cut anyway. The second bloom is on a stronger tree than the third one and has a small crop, so I"m hoping it won't break as I have no way to support it. However, it is laso close to being ready to cut, so if it does break, it should be OK.

Anyway, by now you know that once a tree blooms, it dies. The trick is to cut the bunch and bring it inside to ripen. When you cut the bunch, you also need to cut the tree down in three foot sections (otherwise the falling tree can damage other plants). Finally, when you cut the tree down, do not throw it out. Banana mulch is high in potassium. I cut up the dying tree trunk, the leaves, dead leaves, etc.... I use this mulch on top of the ground like compost, and also in the bottoms of pots and in new holes.

Be sure and post pics of your new nanner trees when they get happy again!

Marcie

Boy Marcie! Lots of info!!!! Thank you!
I also feed the chopped banana stalks to the chickens and pigs. I tried to run the rest thru a chipper and clogged it up. Back to the machete!

Dang Marcie! Thanks for all that!!!!! And what do you know... that's where we put 3 of the trees, away from the north wind near the foundation of the house!!! Lucky me on that one!!!!! The other one I planted on the north side... so, I will keep that in mind winter mulching time....

this is the best board ever!!!!! :)

Hey betty! Here's a fun thread for ya...http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/626749/