This is my first attempt at growing bananas. I think the tag read (Musa). I bought them in a 1 gal pot. Planted them in my first batch of compost and they have not stopped. John
Bananas
Welcome to the madness.
People are growing bananas everywhere!
John,
They look very happy! Musa is a botanical term meaning banana...but there are many different varieties. Yours appear to me to be a dwarf variety, but I could be wrong. You will need to protect them this winter. Not all nanners are hardy to zone 7. One nanner farm that I have been conversing with constructs wire mesh cages around thet trunks of their nanners in the witner, and then they fill the wire mesh with mulch. I"d be a little concerned abut rot if you have a wet winter. I've wondered if getting one of those water heater blankets would make a better protection for nanners...then you could take it off and put it back on as necessary....but it would probably be pretty expensive to do taht if you ahd a lot of trees.
Don (aka Tropicman) lives in Kansas and he digs his nanners up every winter and puts them under his house. Then he replants them every Spring. Now that is dedication!
Bananas are not considered trees.... They are large, rhizomatous herbs. The "trunk" on a banana is not only NOT woody, but it's not a true stem either.... It's nothing more than a cluster of old leaf sheaths (sort of like if you rolled a bundle of newspapers into a tube).
However, in warm areas (i.e. realatively frost-free), bananas can be treated as trees for landscaping purposes. Even in colder areas, like Zone 8, M. basjoo can be used this way. I remember when I was stationed in Yokosuka Japan (zone 9, more or less), we'd have up to three weeks of consecutive freezing weather that would freeze the ground surface, and the M. basjoo plants people had in their yards weren't even fazed by the cold. I thought it strange at the time, but then again, I didn't know that there were hardy varieties of bananas a the that point in time, either..... When I read about the "Hardy Japanese Banana" being able to survive sub-zero temps (the roots anyways), it all made sense.
These are so gorgeous cant wait til I get one. Have wanted for several years. Waiting for the landscaping to be done...... Gosh you all make me invious (misspell) I cant waiiiiiiiiiiiiit. and i cant spell LOL