Some Banana Help Please

You can't beat 75% off. So even though I know nothing about bananas (other than eating them of course) I had to bring this guy home with me. There was no tag on it but I was told it was a Cavendish?

But now that I've got it what do I do with it? It looks pretty root bound (see 2nd picture) so I'm going to go ahead and repot it, but what else should I know? I've seen several posts about removing pups, is that something I want to do here? I know I can google for information, but nothing beats having some first-hand advice from people who care for these every day. I've perused some of the threads here in advance, but I sure would appreciate any input from you guys...in regards to overwintering as well.

Thanks so much,
La

Picture of roots.

Looks to me like a Cavendish or Dwarf Cavendish one. If you put it outside, you'll definitely need to protect it in the winter by bringing it indoors. Unfortunately Cavendish don't store very well dormant in the winter (or so I've heard), so you can't hibernate them like most bananas.

Thanks Keoni. No dormancy, got ya. I imagine I need plenty of light...how about watering needs in the winter?

I'd go easy on the water. Keep it on the dry side for a banana - but don't let it dry out completely. Over watering in winter kills bananas in pots. I was probably lucky some of mine made it through last winter, I got a little heavy on the watering at times. If you have really good draining potting mix though, you could probably water more often; that might be what saved mine. I use a mix of perilite and vermiculite in my soil.

I normally use regular MG, but I do have some perlite I can add to the mix. I sure appreciate your taking the time to help me. Thanks :-)

No problem. I use one bag of the perlite and/or vermiculite per cubit foot of dirt - give or take for all of my tropicals.

Lala I'm glad you started this thread. I've got some ee's coming from a DG friend and was wondering what to use to pot them up. I always keep MG on hand. Better run by WM today and get some perlite to add to the soil. I am just trying my luck at ee's and alocasias.

Patty

Hi Patty,

Me too. I had some EEs last year that made it through the winter, but it was probably more dumb luck than anything else. There's a lot of good info and knowledgeable folks here...I need to do a lot more lurking if I intend to keep expanding my tropicals.
;-)

I have my EE's in regular MG potting soil and they like more water. I keep mine growing through the winter and they get big fast in the summer that way. When I let mine go dormant they don't grow as fast in my zone.

Lavender how often do you water them? Just regular houseplant watering? (Which for me is about every 4-5 days in the winter.)

lavender4ever,
Do you have a greenhouse or do you keep them growing inside?

I water them once a week in winter, just enough to keep them growing and in summer flood them with water, so they never dry out. I feed them schultz liquid in the water in winter and mg liquid in summer with occasional high nitrogen mg miracid. They grow fast if they have alot of water and food in the summer. They were in much too small pots for three years and this year their fourth I put them in some larger pots. They did not seem to mind being horribly root bound as long as they got the nutrition and moisture they needed.

I keep them in my sunroom in a darker corner for the winter. It can get as chilly as the low 40's in there on extreme winter nights. But mostly it stays in the 50-60's.

LaLa, I purchased the same bananna tree from wayside gardens. I have brought it in, I think I need to repot, what should we fertilize them with? any suggestions??

EE's, I dig mine up, let the bulbs dry a bit then box them for the winter, this year I did put in pots, but I think I'm going to do the same way

The EEs with the bulbs like the big green ones you can dig and let them dry out for the winter. The ones like Illustris and some of those don't have a bulb so you have to pot them like a houseplant for the winter.

I'm probably wrong, but it looks a lot like a Zebrina or blood banana to me.
Here is a picture of one. http://www.plantoftheweek.org/week271.shtml I have no idea how they overwinter unless just kept growing under good light.

A juvenile DC can have that variegation.

Bananas inside could be tough. Watch for spider mites. I have already seen some this year on my GH bananas.

"Bananas hate winter...low light, low heat, low moisture."

I agree with freely draining mix, but I certainly don't consider MG freely draining. IIRC, it's like 60-70% peat. Go with a large particle mix like that described by Tapla in the sticky threads on the container gardening forum.

Hi Lala Jane,
I think your plant is a musa sumatrana. I had a potted musa sumatrana while living in California. It tolerated cooler weather, but wasn't quite as pretty as in the summer. Mine was extremely rootbound, too. It just required regular feeding and water during the growing season to bounce back.



GRAND NAIN-X-SUMATANA

This is a very unusual hybrid with the leaf coloring of the sumatrana and the growth habit of the ‘Gran Nain’. The plant is short and stout 7-10’, with wide maroon variegated leaves that make it a prized landscape specimen. Has small seedless fruit and is sometimes referred to as “x cross”.

I think it looks like a zebrina also-because of the clumping (excessive) and its obviously mature enough to loose the coloration if it was going to and also the shortness of it.

No one said this but I would divide that and put it into 4 pots. My experience is bananas grow like crazy. Of course I'm in a much warmer climate but they will freeze to the ground then the next year grow likely crazy and multiply. If you get fruit that stalk will die BTW. If you keep it inside over the winter you probably have a shot at getting fruit.

They do grow like crazy here! We're in zone 9A so they are in the ground and our freezes do not hurt them. We only get about four a year for about four hours at a time. The leaves turn brown and then we cut them back in the Spring and they keep on growing! We started out with 29 three or four years ago and last year had over 100. Here they can be invasive. I don't feed them....just water twice a week in the summer, once a week in the fall. It is true that after they fruit that stalk will die.

Tropicman lives in Kansas and overwinters his. He would be the one to talk to!