BANANA PIC

[BobbyinNY]

This was a 3inch plant last year

[spockvr6]

Bobby-

That is damn near the size of mine!

[Exotic Life]

Bobby,

Is the banana in the ground ?

[Neofolis]

Dwarf is a very misleading term when used with banana plants, they are still quite large.  My Musa sikkimensis is far more dwarf like in it's proportions at the moment, having only been planted as a three leaf seedling in June.

[DavePoole]

Nice one Bobby, are you wrapping it and leaving it where it is for the winter or will it be dug up and stored frost-free?

Corey, that's a huge pot for the size of plant.  If it was being grown in the southern states of the US or southern Europe, it would probably relish the root room and make enough growth before winter.  However, the much shorter growing season in the UK means we could easily get to 'shut-down time' before the roots have properly filled the pot and then you might have problems later.  Far better to have opted for a container half that size and then move it on.  

Hopefully it will make it, with luck there's another 2 months growing time left.  If it does, how will you accomodate such a large growing species?  M. sikkimensis suckers furiously once it gets established and produces a 3.5 - 4m. pseudo-trunks so by mid summer, the entire plant can easily exceed 6m. or more.  Presumably you'll cut it back before bringing it under cover or are you going to keep it outside?

[Neofolis]

Hi Dave, yes I know the pot is far too big.  I got the big pot for my previous Musa sikkimensis, based on your advice, but unfortunately I repotted into the pot in the picture too late and it didn't survive.  It had been in a bad way for a few months and couldn't handle the trnasplant.  suspecting that it wouldn't make it, this one was planted alongside it, which would have been fine had the other one survived.

Yes, I know they get stupidly big and my garden is stupidly small and this container is the biggest home it is ever likely to get, so assuming I can get it through the winter in this pot, I will have to adopt a rigorous pruning strategy and keep it down to 5 pseudostems maximum, assuming a couple of those will be small and a couple large and one in between somewhere.  I will have to cut the bigger stems to make room for the smaller ones to grow, etc.  Well, that's the plan, we'll see what happens.  I'm hoping, due to the sheltered, south facing location and proximaty to the walls, it will get through the winter.  I was also hoping that it might just think it's in the ground and respond accordingly.

[TooShort]

Love them banana plants adds to that tropical look.

[BobbyinNY]

Robbin,

yes that's in the ground. I'm not sure if I'm gonna dig it up yet or put a 12ft Polytunnel that I'm buying for that area over it - I really want fruit and I have a feeling that the next leaf might be a flag leaf - if that's the case, I don't wanna disturb it..

I bought that as  a litttle pup last year at home depot and kept it growing in my polytunnel last winter....

[BobbyinNY]

Corey,

I kept my Musa Basjoo outdoors all winter last winter - it looked like S#$t when I re-potted it this spring - here it is now...

[Neofolis]

I think mine succumbed to a fungal attack, going by the white powdery stuff on various parts of the stem.  Oh well, hopefully better luck this time, at least you don't have to wait for 50 years to have a specimen sized banana plant.

[BobbyinNY]

I think mine succumbed to a fungal attack, going by the white powdery stuff on various parts of the stem.  Oh well, hopefully better luck this time, at least you don't have to wait for 50 years to have a specimen sized banana plant

These grow like weeds here... We get ridiculously hot in the summer so you can go from a small pup to almost a specimen plant in 4 months..

[Exotic Life]

Hi

Very nice, i can't have here Musa cavendish outside in the winter ... they must be at that time in the living room, because the die if i don't do that.

I have Musa basjoo in the groudn the hole year round ... Maybe i will try Musa sikkimensis this year ...

Pic : Musa Basjoo July

[chris78]

Great looking banana, Bobby....I do hope it fruits for you!!!!

[BobbyinNY]

Great looking banana, Bobby....I do hope it fruits for you!!!!

my biggest fear is that it's gonna bloom 2 weeks before it starts getting cold here.. in which case I swear I will put a greenhouse over it and keep it warm till I get bananas....

[DavePoole]

(BobbyinNY @ Aug. 09 2006,15:48)

QUOTE

my biggest fear is that it's gonna bloom 2 weeks before it starts getting cold here.. in which case I swear I will put a greenhouse over it and keep it warm till I get bananas....

My sikkimensis started flowering a few weeks ago and since my basjoo clump also has 2 flower spikes, there's a moderate chance of cross pollination taking place.  Bees and wasps swarm all over the flowers so it's not unrealistic to think they are carrying pollen from the male flowers of basjoo.   Unfortunately there's no chance of placing a greenhouse or any sort of covering over the sikki clump.  With many pseudo-trunks varying in height up to 12 feet and leaves adding another 10 feet or more, an form of winter cover is almost out of the question.

[BobbyinNY]

My sikkimensis started flowering a few weeks ago and since my basjoo clump also has 2 flower spikes, there's a moderate chance of cross pollination taking place.  Bees and wasps swarm all over the flowers so it's not unrealistic to think they are carrying pollen from the male flowers of basjoo.   Unfortunately there's no chance of placing a greenhouse or any sort of covering over the sikki clump.  With many pseudo-trunks varying in height up to 12 feet and leaves adding another 10 feet or more, an form of winter cover is almost out of the question.

Yeah, I hear ya dave... but, the basjoo can just stay in the ground anyway - but is the fruit edible on that? - I've heard that it isn't.... and what about the Sikkimensis?.. is that cold-hardy too?.... My dwarf-cavendish isn't cold hardy (I don't think). So, either I protect it or dig it up and store it - which I've never done before..    

Post a pic of your Sikki.. I'd love to see it.

[BobbyinNY]

Here's what that banana looked like in Early May

[Neofolis]

Musa sikkimensis fruit supposedly has quite sweet flesh, but is pretty much inedible due to large quantities of large irregular shaped seeds and hardly any flesh.  It is reputed to be possibly hardier than basjoo, although probably not as root hardy, but also has the benefit of thicker waxier leaves, so is less prone to wind damage.  Dwarf cavendish is less hardy and would definitely need protection.

[DavePoole]

Bobby, sorry about the delay - not been too well recently and am only just back on my feet.  This is my 6 year old sikkimensis from seed, now around 20ft or so high.  It doesn't need protecting in winter and is in a pretty exposed spot that gets the full brunt of winter storms. There's at least 7 ft. of clear trunk on the purple Cordyline to the left and the wires are over 20ft. above the ground to give an idea of scale.!

...and this is a pic of the flower spike.  It's very high up and the flowering growth is right at the back, so I had to perch on a set of very wobbly ladders and settled for this shot.  The dark mahogany bracts are rich crimson inside and show up the creamy flowers quite well ... when you can catch a glimpse of them that is:

Il've been trying to cross pollinate using a brush on a long pole with the pollen from male flowers of M. basjoo and the fruits (the outermost of the first 'hand' is circled) appear to be slowly expanding.  

This is underneath the sikkis - I have to cram things in a bit, but they seem to do OK

[BobbyinNY]

Bobby, sorry about the delay - not been too well recently and am only just back on my feet.  This is my 6 year old sikkimensis from seed, now around 20ft or so high.  It doesn't need protecting in winter and is in a pretty exposed spot that gets the full brunt of winter storms. There's at least 7 ft. of clear trunk on the purple Cordyline to the left and the wires are over 20ft. above the ground to give an idea of scale.

WOW, DAVE!!.. that's incredible.. and it stays in the ground in the UK? .. Kinda like an annual?.. obviously, the leaves die back, right?

[BobbyinNY]

Dave,

I just did a little research on Musa Sikkimensis and found that it's hardy down to USDA Zone 5... that would easily grow in my climate.. I MUST get one..

[jam99]

(BobbyinNY @ Aug. 15 2006,09:54)

QUOTE

Dave,

I just did a little research on Musa Sikkimensis and found that it's hardy down to USDA Zone 5... that would easily grow in my climate.. I MUST get one..

Bobby, don't believe in everything you find on the net. M. sikkimensis is not much hardier than M. basjoo and some people report it being even less hardy. I would say it is hardy down to zone 8a. Still, go ahead and give it a try - you might find out you lose the foliage but with good mulch the plant may rebound in spring.

BTW, I think Dave's sikkimensis doesn't lose its foliage in winter. Cornwall and south Devon are very very mild places rarely seeing subzero temps for a very short period. The guys down there can get away with growing almost anything despite its high latitude.

Cheers, Jan

[DavePoole]

I would say it is definitely less hardy.  Musa sikkimensis has had a lot of attention since its introduction to UK gardens about 7 or 8 years ago.  At first there were very high hopes that it would prove as hardy as Musa basjoo, but the amount of times that I hear of it failing completely or being severely knocked back in winter despite protection, lead me to believe it is more tender.  It does very well here and often holds most of its leaves in winter, even though they get very badly shredded.  However as Jam says, we don't get  sustained zero or sub-zero temperatures here.  I doubt whether it could retain its pseudo-trunk without a lot of protection in a typical zone 8 winter, but it may re-shoot from the rhizome if it is heavily mulched.

[GREENHAND]

NICE DAVE,  is that a chinese yellow banana lower right in your third picture.

[DavePoole]

(GREENHAND @ Aug. 15 2006,18:02)

QUOTE

NICE DAVE,  is that a chinese yellow banana lower right in your third picture.

Yes, it is Musella lasiocarpa.  I planted it out several years ago and by the end of the summer it is usually well over head height.  I seriously thought the oldest growth was going to flower earlier on - successively smaller leaves etc, but instead of the expected 'flag leaf', it sent up a very strong roller and carried on as normal.  Musella always loses leaves in winter but the chunky pseudo-stems remain untouched by cold regardless whether they are the current year's or several years old.

[GREENHAND]

i planted this one in the spring , they say they grow a yellow flower when older, this pict is a couple of months old it is bigger now, did you get a  flower yet.

[GREENHAND]

hey bobby , have you tryed Ensete Maurelii , red, they are pretty cool, and grow fast.

[BobbyinNY]

hey bobby , have you tryed Ensete Maurelii , red, they are pretty cool, and grow fast.

Very nice Mike.....

No, I haven't tried that one yet... I have a few different Varieties...... Dwarf Cavendish, Ice Cream, Apple, Raja Puri, Musa Basjoo - of which only the last is hardy in my climate - but that's ok..... I have a 14w x 14L x 10ft high domehouse on order.... who cares if my electric bill is $400/month....lol

[GREENHAND]

14 x 14 , nice and tall, i think i am going to get a rectangle shaped one , i have started to prep the side of my house , if the home owners assocation dont mess with me, i can fit one 20 ft x 12 , i will need the room,  if it ever gets cold again, 104 today , i have lost two azalaes , and a spike plant to the heat , not to mention my lawn looks pretty bad. they will fine you for watering when you not allowed to.

[BobbyinNY]

14 x 14 , nice and tall, i think i am going to get a rectangle shaped one , i have started to prep the side of my house , if the home owners assocation dont mess with me, i can fit one 20 ft x 12 , i will need the room,  if it ever gets cold again, 104 today , i have lost two azalaes , and a spike plant to the heat , not to mention my lawn looks pretty bad. they will fine you for watering when you not allowed to.

104f?.. wow.... we had that a couple weeks ago - it was unbearable... we're back into the mid-80's now.....

I didn't know you belonged to an HOA... I thought you had a single family house.....