Question about banana trees!: Banana plants

» bananaman - Banana plants

Not sure if anyone is actually going to read this post after like 3 years from the last post, but anyway; my quick response to several of the issues raised in the last few years are as follows:

I live in Zone 5, I have been able to produce 10 to 12 foot bananas by transplanting early in the spring, in a good year, and watering and fertilizing carefully.

Growing them outdoors in the summer is not really tough. Getting them thru the winter in good shape is the challenge. I have not tried the cut off the leaves, dig 'em up and dry approach, 'cause I have room for and really like large plants in the house. My approach is as follows: Keep them out of the wind, bring them inside before a killing frost, stop fertilizing as soon as you bring them inside, water really carefully all winter long, do not trim leaves until they are totally dead and brown, (they will draw nutrients back into the plant from the dying leaves) keep them bunched with other plants and you don't have to worry so much about misting.

I have 3 different lines of bananas that started from individual little potted plants brought back from Florida in the middle 80s.

My purpose is to initiate a dialog here, not to pontificate, so any response would be wonderful

Wen

-- posted by bananaman