🍌 B a n a n a s 🍌 ba ba bananas

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok, while I wait for these seeds to maybe or maybe not sprout, and I wait for my friend to send the Dwarf Cavendish that @5am contributed to the John and Sancho East Mississippi Palm Conservatorium, I broke down and bought a nanner off of eBay. 

Flashback to when I bought a queen palm because they grow fast.... I bought a Mekong Giant, and supposedly these get huge and run wild. Anyway, I guess I'm gonna dig through here and Reddit and YouTube because bananas.org is a great source of knowledge but the website only works when it wants to. And when I Google things like, the best fertilizer (hoping to find something ideal for both bananas and palms), everyone who has an opinion is selling something. There's a dude on YouTube who has a bunch of 12 and 16 foot tall nanners in Seattle that swears by Banana Fuel, so there's that. 

Anyway, I look forward to planting this out in the spring and hopefully having a yard full of pups and a giant lightning rod in my yard by this time next year. 

[Mazat]

On 9/9/2025 at 4:22 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Ok, while I wait for these seeds to maybe or maybe not sprout, and I wait for my friend to send the Dwarf Cavendish that @5am contributed to the John and Sancho East Mississippi Palm Conservatorium, I broke down and bought a nanner off of eBay. 

Flashback to when I bought a queen palm because they grow fast.... I bought a Mekong Giant, and supposedly these get huge and run wild. Anyway, I guess I'm gonna dig through here and Reddit and YouTube because bananas.org is a great source of knowledge but the website only works when it wants to. And when I Google things like, the best fertilizer (hoping to find something ideal for both bananas and palms), everyone who has an opinion is selling something. There's a dude on YouTube who has a bunch of 12 and 16 foot tall nanners in Seattle that swears by Banana Fuel, so there's that. 

Anyway, I look forward to planting this out in the spring and hopefully having a yard full of pups and a giant lightning rod in my yard by this time next year. 

Waiting and being patient is really important. We often find that we can't resist many plants, meaning we want them...
I'm glad that, as we've already established, I have a trump card up my sleeve, or rather in my house 😁

We're keeping our fingers crossed for you and Sancho that everything arrives safely and then thrives extremely well...

[JohnAndSancho]

1 minute ago, Mazat said:

Waiting and being patient is really important. We often find that we can't resist many plants, meaning we want them...
I'm glad that, as we've already established, I have a trump card up my sleeve, or rather in my house 😁

Lol yeah, you do. She's a keeper for sure. From what I've read and seen, this is an incredibly aggressive species of banana that is known to have pups 20 feet away from the mother, so I'm either gonna love this or regret it. 

[Mazat]

17 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Lol yeah, you do. She's a keeper for sure. From what I've read and seen, this is an incredibly aggressive species of banana that is known to have pups 20 feet away from the mother, so I'm either gonna love this or regret it. 

Yes, John. After checking, it will be very large at your place anyway, and it could also grow quite large at ours, certainly around 5 m / 16 ft and maybe more.
At your place, I would expect it to grow to around 8-9 m and more / or about 30 ft.
Yes, there is a risk that you'll end up with a banana jungle. Is there no boundary at your place, or is it not possible to put one up?

[JohnAndSancho]

I kinda want it to run wild tbh. I mean, I say that NOW, but the only underground utilities we have are the water line and there's a propane tank and I'm not planting it anywhere near those. I'm just hoping to get some shade and all the pups I can sell off. And I think I'd definitely regret it growing to 30 feet tall in winter when I'll have to cut it back 😂 I've read that chainsaws are worthless against them because they're not really trees, it's basically like a celery stalk with all the fibers. That'd be plenty of compost and mulch though! 

[JohnAndSancho]

Is there a more active source of info on bananas? I mean there's sprinklings on here, the bananas.org forum isn't very active (I'm guessing because the site is down a lot and their software looks like it's from 1995) - please don't say I have to rejoin Facebook. 

[JohnAndSancho]

I bought a bag of Black Kow and 8 quarts of perlite. Supposedly if I mix this with cheap potting soil and some bark I'm good. 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok. Mekong Giant pup. I read nitrogen is important in the baby stage so I plan to dig a large hole and fill it with all the grass clippings and leaves I can rake up, then surround the hole with an entire bag of Black kow and put it right under my power lines and wait. 

[Hu Palmeras]

Very cool my Friend

[JohnAndSancho]

Just for the record I'm not actually going to put this anywhere near the power lines as it'll supposedly get anywhere from 12-16 ft it's first year in the ground, allegedly. 

 

Anyway there has to be some nanner folks on here. It's currently in a 2" pot and potting up to a 3-5 gallon was recommended to me, and as a palm person going from 2" to 5 gallons seems insane. Even my damn grass doesn't grow that fast. Speaking of grass, I was also actually delighted to read that these things will spread out and suck the available nutrients from grass too so that's a bonus if true. 

 

Thoughts? Insights? Is this for real? 

[RJ]

I put this one in the ground this spring as an 18” pup. It’s considerably bigger now with several pups off shooting. It’s probably pushing 20’ tall now and has become even fatter at the base. 

[RJ]

11 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Just for the record I'm not actually going to put this anywhere near the power lines as it'll supposedly get anywhere from 12-16 ft it's first year in the ground, allegedly. 

 

Anyway there has to be some nanner folks on here. It's currently in a 2" pot and potting up to a 3-5 gallon was recommended to me, and as a palm person going from 2" to 5 gallons seems insane. Even my damn grass doesn't grow that fast. Speaking of grass, I was also actually delighted to read that these things will spread out and suck the available nutrients from grass too so that's a bonus if true. 

 

Thoughts? Insights? Is this for real? 

They grow very fast… see my post above. They’re hungry feeders, I have mine on irrigation. Which around here is a must. I haven’t seen rain in probably two weeks, and nothing for cast for the foreseeable future. 

[JohnAndSancho]

2 minutes ago, RJ said:

They grow very fast… see my post above. They’re hungry feeders, I have mine on irrigation. Which around here is a must. I haven’t seen rain in probably two weeks, and nothing for cast for the foreseeable future. 

Holy poop on a stick. I love it. I think the growth of these is what's fueling my obsession. 

 

Meanwhile I just potted this one up from a 2" pot and I was kinda surprised to see it wasn't rootbound in that tiny little pot. Just like a fingertip sized rootball. Well, it's on a heat mat under a light so time for it to take off and whatnot. 

I think @5am is sending me about 700 Dwarf Cavendish pups and I've got 40 or 50 seeds marinating. 

[RJ]

2 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Holy poop on a stick. I love it. I think the growth of these is what's fueling my obsession. 

Meanwhile I just potted this one up from a 2" pot and I was kinda surprised to see it wasn't rootbound in that tiny little pot. Just like a fingertip sized rootball. Well, it's on a heat mat under a light so time for it to take off and whatnot. 

I think @5am is sending me about 700 Dwarf Cavendish pups and I've got 40 or 50 seeds marinating. 

Looks great. I’ll grab a picture of it tomorrow, it’s certainly bigger now. That pick is maybe a month old or so. They say bananas ate the gateway drug to growing tropicals. It wasn’t for me as this is my first one and I’ve been into palms for almost 10 years. They’re fun to grow for sure.

[JohnAndSancho]

13 minutes ago, RJ said:

Looks great. I’ll grab a picture of it tomorrow, it’s certainly bigger now. That pick is maybe a month old or so. They say bananas ate the gateway drug to growing tropicals. It wasn’t for me as this is my first one and I’ve been into palms for almost 10 years. They’re fun to grow for sure.

I am so looking forward to March and planting out a big ass nanner patch in the front of the house for some shade. Still think it's gonna look kinda funny surrounded by an entire county of non tropical stuff, but hey - 

[RJ]

17 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I am so looking forward to March and planting out a big ass nanner patch in the front of the house for some shade. Still think it's gonna look kinda funny surrounded by an entire county of non tropical stuff, but hey - 

Here is a shot from today . The stick at the base is 3’ tall to put the size in perspective. 

[JohnAndSancho]

4 minutes ago, RJ said:

Here is a shot from today . The stick at the base is 3’ tall to put the size in perspective. 

YESSSSSSSS. What species is it? And the Butia and the canna and the Sabal with it? That's what I'm talkin about right there. 

[RJ]

9 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

YESSSSSSSS. What species is it? And the Butia and the canna and the Sabal with it? That's what I'm talkin about right there. 

That palm on the left is a triple hybrid BxYQ. To the left of that out of the picture is a butia yatay.

honestly can’t remember the species I’ll have to go back and look. I purchased it from Plants Delight. The sabal in front is a small sabal casarium 

 

looking back, I should mention the POV I’m using is the last picture with the stump in the front 

 

in the first picture that’s a “super mule” front and right 

[JohnAndSancho]

Just now, RJ said:

That palm on the left is a triple hybrid BxYQ. To the left of that out of the picture is a butia yatay.

honestly can’t remember the species I’ll have to go back and look. I purchased it from Plants Delight. The sabal in front is a small sabal casarium 

I'd love to order from Plant Delights but $57 for shipping is brutal. I'm germinating some seeds that I hope are Causarium to go along with the dozens of Mexicana and Louisiana I've already sprouted. I guess in 15 years I'll have a Sabal forest but in the meantime I'll have nanners and philodendrons to watch. 

[RJ]

I ordered a bunch from them so in total the shipping wasn’t horrible, but it’s still the biggest drawback to ordering from them. 
 

getting true casarium is the hardest part. I’ve been Burt by what was sold as casarium and we’re not 

[JohnAndSancho]

2 minutes ago, RJ said:

I ordered a bunch from them so in total the shipping wasn’t horrible, but it’s still the biggest drawback to ordering from them. 
 

getting true casarium is the hardest part. I’ve been Burt by what was sold as casarium and we’re not 

The same seller sold me some Musa Sikkimensis seeds (red tiger banana) that definitely weren't correct, so I'm not optimistic. And the great thing about Sabals is it could be 5 years before I actually know what it is.

I guess when I get my money right again I'll call Plant Delights and see if they'll just charge me $10 for a box and let me email them my own shipping label.... Or just go to Wellspring Gardens. 

[RJ]

1 hour ago, JohnAndSancho said:

The same seller sold me some Musa Sikkimensis seeds (red tiger banana) that definitely weren't correct, so I'm not optimistic. And the great thing about Sabals is it could be 5 years before I actually know what it is.

I guess when I get my money right again I'll call Plant Delights and see if they'll just charge me $10 for a box and let me email them my own shipping label.... Or just go to Wellspring Gardens. 

I’ve got a red variety , seems to stay pretty small. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, RJ said:

I’ve got a red variety , seems to stay pretty small. 

Oh man that one's real cool. I love how there's so many green bananas with splotches of red but that ones red with splotches of green. Do you get lots of pups with that one too? 

[dalmatiansoap]

That looks like a Siam Ruby! Beautiful specimen, it's hard to keep it so healthy. Congratulations 

[RJ]

1 hour ago, dalmatiansoap said:

That looks like a Siam Ruby! Beautiful specimen, it's hard to keep it so healthy. Congratulations 

It's actually looked better until this recent string of no rain. My irrigation is just keeping up, you can see the leaves on the ground from the hickory above it. It's not happy with the lack of rain. The first two weeks of August it did nothing but rain and everything looked MUCH better. Hasn't rained in weeks it seems. My elephant ears look pathetic even though they get water every day, 🤧

[RJ]

2 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Oh man that one's real cool. I love how there's so many green bananas with splotches of red but that ones red with splotches of green. Do you get lots of pups with that one too? 

They're several around it.  All pretty small. 

[JohnAndSancho]

On 9/16/2025 at 5:47 PM, RJ said:

They're several around it.  All pretty small. 

@RJ want some Sabal Bermudana? I'd gladly swap a couple for a couple pups. 

[meridannight]

Here's my Musa sikkimensis:

 

He's a little over a year old. I grew him from seed. Was supposed to be 'Red Tiger', but I clearly got just plain sikkimensis seeds. I'm not disappointed, they're beautiful plants, and the 'Red Tiger' grows out of its red anyway as it matures. 

 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, meridannight said:

Here's my Musa sikkimensis:

 

He's a little over a year old. I grew him from seed. Was supposed to be 'Red Tiger', but I clearly got just plain sikkimensis seeds. I'm not disappointed, they're beautiful plants, and the 'Red Tiger' grows out of its red anyway as it matures. 

 

 

How long did the seed take to germinate? Asking as I'm impatient. I've got my seeds in Tupperware with coco coir and baggies over them, switch the heat mats off at night, vent the baggies every few days or so, make sure the soil isn't drying, etc etc etc 

[JohnAndSancho]

Ok there's 2 schools of thought on potting bananas. Some people say slowly pot them up just like everything else. Some people take a fresh pup and put it in a 15 gallon pot because it's going to fill it up anyway. As someone who's owned bananas for like, a month now, I can see both sides at this point. 

This guy (Mekong Giant, probably pictured above in this thread or in Mississippi Squad) had almost no roots a month ago so it went in a 16oz Coke bottle. This is a month worth of rooting with no rooting hormone and before I learned about willow water and now I kinda wish I mixed willow water for them. 

Same with the Orinoco pictured above. About a month from zero roots, you can see it was rapidly filling the cup. 

Anyway I guess this is what I do when I can't sleep now, I repot bananas. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

Sweet merciful crap I just repotted these what, last week? 

 

I guess I'll have to go bucket scrounging and maybe look for perlite and coco coir by the dump truck load 😭

[meridannight]

On 10/7/2025 at 4:25 AM, JohnAndSancho said:

How long did the seed take to germinate? Asking as I'm impatient. I've got my seeds in Tupperware with coco coir and baggies over them, switch the heat mats off at night, vent the baggies every few days or so, make sure the soil isn't drying, etc etc etc 

I got home to my Mac, where my records are, and it took me 2.5 months. Seeds were sown in the beginning of February 2024, and they germinated in the second half of April. I didn't get a good germination rate either. It was in single digits. I also soaked the seeds for ca 48 hrs.

Personally, I only vent the bags maybe once or twice a month. I check for action and to see that there is no fungus or other problems. And if there aren't I don't really vent the bags. 

 

[meridannight]

On 10/7/2025 at 1:04 PM, JohnAndSancho said:

Some people take a fresh pup and put it in a 15 gallon pot because it's going to fill it up anyway.

I am a huge believer in overpotting. Not just with bananas, but with pretty much any plant (except succulents and orchids). I have never rotted a single plant in my life. It's the substrate that matters. As long as you have a very well-draining substrate, you're not gonna rot anything. But that's the thing -- most people don't have a well-draining mix, and yeah, in that case large pots can be problematic. Bananas have aggressive roots, so I don't think going with a couple sizes larger containers when repotting is a problem. 

[JohnAndSancho]

13 minutes ago, meridannight said:

I got home to my Mac, where my records are, and it took me 2.5 months. Seeds were sown in the beginning of February 2024, and they germinated in the second half of April. I didn't get a good germination rate either. It was in single digits. I also soaked the seeds for ca 48 hrs.

Personally, I only vent the bags maybe once or twice a month. I check for action and to see that there is no fungus or other problems. And if there aren't I don't really vent the bags. 

 

Yeah I don't vent them much, except one bag ripped because the container is too big. I can't help but notice that like, 98% of the YouTube videos of people germinating bananas never have a followup video showing their new plants. I've only seen 2, and one lady got like 3 plants from 20 seeds and the only guy that was really successful gave up trying everything else and just put them in pots outside with his pepper plants and they eventually sprouted that way. Those were Velutinas. 

4 minutes ago, meridannight said:

I am a huge believer in overpotting. Not just with bananas, but with pretty much any plant (except succulents and orchids). I have never rotted a single plant in my life. It's the substrate that matters. As long as you have a very well-draining substrate, you're not gonna rot anything. But that's the thing -- most people don't have a well-draining mix, and yeah, in that case large pots can be problematic. Bananas have aggressive roots, so I don't think going with a couple sizes larger containers when repotting is a problem. 

Yeah. I mean after what I'm dealing with right now, I don't think taking pups and putting them straight into 5 gallon buckets is overkill at all. I just ordered a 5kg brick of coir and 4 cu ft of perlite for mine, that should handle like 3 or 4 of them 😂

[JohnAndSancho]

Nanner in a bucket. 

 

[JohnAndSancho]

My bad for not getting root porn pics, but they made this look a wee bit premature. But like, I really didn't want to have to just repot them again in a month anyway and if this soil doesn't drain amazingly I have problems because there's an insane amount of perlite. I threw a few big handfuls of Black Kow in all of them and mixed that in (very well this time, no clumps, didn't throw it in the bottom) with 5lbs of coir and 2 cu ft of perlite and yeahhhhh the tub at the end was full 2 hours ago. Speaking of 2 hours that's probably how long it'll take this crappy wifi to load a 2 minute YouTube but it's coming.