Banana Shoots...?

[45ure]

This is the first year I have grown bananas in the UK (all are in pots).

Thehy havea ll done really well some reaching almost 6ft now, over the last couple of weeks several of them (mainly musa ornata and veluntinas) have started to show shoots from their bases ... is this anything to worry about ? should I remove them or should I let them grow and pinch htem out at some point to make new plants ?

[ghar41]

Means they're happy!

Yes, let them get some size and preferably some of their own roots and they can be cut off and replanted.

[BobbyinNY]

Here's a pic of my biggest banana as of today... It's about 15ft oa now with a 7 inch wide trunk

[MattyB]

That looks so nice Bobby!  Where do you live again...Florida?

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

45URE, veluntina and  some ornata species form mats differently....Veluntina tends to form offsets very close to the mother plant, where some of the ornatas send shoots a foot or two before the new plant breaks the surface.

Because the flower and fruit vigor is determined very early in the spears developement, make sure that the mat has adequate fertilizer and water, a little tricky since winter is coming on and you'll have to cut back a bit.

Also, I wouldnt divide them until the mother flowers, since that may stress the main shoot.

Here's a pic of my biggest banana as of today... It's about 15ft oa now with a 7 inch wide trunk

Hey Bobby, nice looking naner....hard to tell from here, looks like a cavendish, thats a pretty good sized pseudostem...do you have any Basjoos?

[BobbyinNY]

That looks so nice Bobby!  Where do you live again...Florida?  

Thanks, Matt

Hey Bobby, nice looking naner....hard to tell from here, looks like a cavendish, thats a pretty good sized pseudostem...do you have any Basjoos?

Yeah, I think it's a cavendish, Rusty... It was labeled Dwarf Cavendish (obviously by mistake, lol)... Yeah, I have 3 musa Basjoos, 2 Ice Cream, 1 Raja Puri, and an Apple Banana.

[GREENHAND]

SHOOTS ! mean baby bananas, most of mine started from one banana( goldfinger variety), dwarf cavendish really make lots of babys, here are a few picts

[GREENHAND]

another

[GREENHAND]

more

[GREENHAND]

more

[GREENHAND]

goldfinger musa

[GREENHAND]

last one

[BobbyinNY]

WOW.. Mike.. Nice stuff... have you gotten any fruit yet?.... Do you dig em up for the winter or do they stay in the ground?

[GREENHAND]

thanks bobby, no fruit in dallas garden, but got some at the lake, but i still got over six weeks before a freeze, mabey  longer , i still got some time. forcast says 97 deg on friday. i have to keep trimming the leaves so you can walk around the pool,  some times my wife gets irritated and slape them around, i cant walk around the pool, so i say just swim to the other side. i will dig up the dwarf cavendish, all the others i will cut back about six inches from the ground and cover with mulch for the winter,

[Exotic Life]

(GREENHAND @ Sep. 21 2006,10:58)

QUOTE

thanks bobby, no fruit in dallas garden, but got some at the lake, but i still got over six weeks before a freeze, mabey  longer , i still got some time. forcast says 97 deg on friday. i have to keep trimming the leaves so you can walk around the pool,  some times my wife gets irritated and slape them around, i cant walk around the pool, so i say just swim to the other side. i will dig up the dwarf cavendish, all the others i will cut back about six inches from the ground and cover with mulch for the winter,

Mike,

Do you protect your bananas ? Al that species i can't grow them here in the ground because te winter is to cold for that guys.. My only banana species that stay in the ground in the winter is Musa basjoo.

[Exotic Life]

Some photo stuff ... spring 2006 after the winter he start to grow again then ...

[Exotic Life]

June bigger leafes are coming

[Exotic Life]

July

[Exotic Life]

Trunks

[Exotic Life]

The banana is on the background ... it's gonne be huge next year

The picture is from today !

[Exotic Life]

I have also have a Musa sikkimensis, Ensete ventricosum "Maurelli", Musa cavendish in the ground, but before the winter is coming i will take them out and keep them frost free

[GREENHAND]

great pictures robbin.  great garden. i think most of mine would survive our winter if i left them in the ground, i just dont have the heart to watch them turn brown . the dwarf ones i will put them in pots in the green house and then next year put them back in the ground. i have two big maurelli ensete at my lake property i love em! if your are in 9a you should be able to mulch over them they would come back with no problem. i think bananas go great with palms.

[Neofolis]

(Exotic Life @ Sep. 21 2006,18:00)

QUOTE

I have also have a Musa sikkimensis, Ensete ventricosum "Maurelli", Musa cavendish in the ground, but before the winter is coming i will take them out and keep them frost free

The sikkimensis should be OK in the ground.  There are some in this country which stay out all winter.  Mine is staying out, so it had better get used to it, although it may recieve some minor protection, probably only mulching.

[BobbyinNY]

I can leave out my Musa Basjoo no problem, but I agree with Mike and don't like watching the leaves turn brown... I will put all my bananas in my new, expanded, greenhouse that I just bought and keep everything growing - I want  HUGE banana plants next year....

[GREENHAND]

also the older they are the better chance you have to grow bananas. if nothing else you can drag them in the garage in pots and keep them there for the winter. that is i did before i had a greenhouse.

[BobbyinNY]

Mike,

I was curious about that..... My biggest banana (15ft) is too big for my greenhouse...  I've hear that you can force them into dormancy in a dark, cool place.. Is that true?... I don't wanna lose this banana, but it's Way too big to keep anywhere, and if I don't dig it up, it'll definitely die.

[GREENHAND]

YES they will go into dormency, i have some florcent lights in my garage i turn on anout 8 to 10 hours a day in the winter,  i just put them in a pot and they will act kind like a house plant just give thrm a little water every now and then, and on sunny days you can drag them out for a while. i have even put them in the living room in pots , but that did not go over real well with my wife, o well!! you can cut it back if it is to tall also.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Bobby and Greenhand...another way of storing them that i had some success with was to 'baseball bat' the plant before storing...basically just digging it and cutting off the foliage, and wrapping the reduced rootball with pine needles and newspaper and then putting the wrapped root ball in a plastic bag to reduce moisture loss. A cool dark  place is required for this to work, 50 degrees tops.

    Once the time has come for growth, planting it up and increasing heat and  water (slowly, following the growth curve), and it'll come out of dormancy.

    This helps when you have lots of naners but only so much winter space to keep them all growing through out the winter.

Rusty

[BobbyinNY]

Bobby and Greenhand...another way of storing them that i had some success with was to 'baseball bat' the plant before storing...basically just digging it and cutting off the foliage, and wrapping the reduced rootball with pine needles and newspaper and then putting the wrapped root ball in a plastic bag to reduce moisture loss. A cool dark  place is required for this to work, 50 degrees tops.

   Once the time has come for growth, planting it up and increasing heat and  water (slowly, following the growth curve), and it'll come out of dormancy.

   This helps when you have lots of naners but only so much winter space to keep them all growing through out the winter.

Rusty

That's exactly what I was thinking, Rusty... as this one is WAYYYYYY too tall to be a house plant - the pseudostem is almost 10ft alone... and that's in the ground... If I pot it up, it'll be another 1-2ft.... I'm just not sure when I should dig it up.... Our temps are about 75f/day, 55-60f/night now on a regular basis, but in about 2 weeks, it'll drop by about 10f.....so I'm thinking when it starts to drop to about 40-45f/night will be a good time... what do you guys think... I don't want it to suffer a frost.

[Neofolis]

Bobby you may still have a problem keeping it cool enough during the day.  Our daytime temps are currently 18-21°C/65-70°F for the most part and my sikkimensis is still growing, admittedly slower than in mid summer, but still at a reasonable pace.  I would think you would want to wait until daytime temps are at consistantly below 15°C/60°F.  I would say in New York you are looking at late October at the earliest, but obviously keep an eye on the forecasts.

[Rusty on Pine Is.]

Neofolis is right on the temp , Bobby.......you will want to wait until the day time temps are down a bit.

    Most naners stop their active growth at somewhere around 53-57 degrees f. ,but remember allot of that caveat concerns soil temps as well, which take a while to drop.

    Digging too early might mean a growth spurt for the plant, and that isnt good with a reduced root system and no water.....all plants have carbohydrate bank accounts that they make withdraws from, but also pay back when they are actively growing....if the naner is layed off from work it need to stop spending , too.

      It is a guessing game, but wait a little later until the temps are lower in the day time and before frost hits to store them, and store them someplace that will stay cool and dark.

[BobbyinNY]

Neofolis is right on the temp , Bobby.......you will want to wait until the day time temps are down a bit.

   Most naners stop their active growth at somewhere around 53-57 degrees f. ,but remember allot of that caveat concerns soil temps as well, which take a while to drop.

   Digging too early might mean a growth spurt for the plant, and that isnt good with a reduced root system and no water.....all plants have carbohydrate bank accounts that they make withdraws from, but also pay back when they are actively growing....if the naner is layed off from work it need to stop spending , too.

     It is a guessing game, but wait a little later until the temps are lower in the day time and before frost hits to store them, and store them someplace that will stay cool and dark.

Thanks alot for all the great info, guys..... It's gonna be a little like rolling the dice though, because after the 2nd week of October the weather gets really tricky..... Our daytime temps are around 70f, but the nights start dropping to around 50f, but at anytime after the 2nd week a frost is possible from one of those canadian air masses - then we could go till late november without a frost - really sucks.... Last year we didn't get our first frost till almost thanksgiving.

[BobbyinNY]

Ok, everyone...

I finally dug this monster up.... here are the pics....

[BobbyinNY]

Without leaves for wintering-over...

[BobbyinNY]

Rootball......

[GREENHAND]

yea that one is a big un!! i see it has a offspring beside it, man that thing is almost touching the roof. if it is that tall when you put it in the ground next year, watch out!!

[BobbyinNY]

yea that one is a big un!! i see it has a offspring beside it, man that thing is almost touching the roof. if it is that tall when you put it in the ground next year, watch out

That's what I'm hoping, Mike...  I really wanna get fruit from it next year.... This will be my first year letting it go dormant... The guys on 'bananas.org' do it all the time, but I've never done it before - just usually let them keep growing, but this one is too big to put anywhere - so, I'm gonna follow the advice of some people who've put them in their garage for the winter and kept them at 45-50f in tje dark .

[GREENHAND]

that will work , i sure dont have to worry yet, we are in the 90.s all week. this is the first time i remember swimming in october.

[spockvr6]

(BobbyinNY @ Sep. 20 2006,18:31)

QUOTE

[Yeah, I think it's a cavendish, Rusty... It was labeled Dwarf Cavendish (obviously by mistake, lol)...

I also have Dwarf Cavendish and there is nothing all that dwarf about them to my eyes!

But, I guess they are dwarf when compared to some other varieties which do get much taller.

[DoomsDave]

Bobby!

That banana's probably proposed marriage to everyone nearby.

They spread and spread and spread . . . . .

dave