Losing My Tropical Banana Virginity

16 years ago

Hello everyone,

I am new to tropical planting in general, and after reading this forum and others, and narrowing down the tropicals I'll like to have in my new garden, started last spring, banana plants was right up there on my list.

Anyhoo....I purchased Musa Basjoo plants today for $15.99 each, from Millionplants garden center in St Catherines ON Canada. I got them home and transplanted them into a bigger pot ( 10" pot ).

Here is the picture

I plan to put one on th efront lawn when the last frost is over ( May 24th )

The other one in the backyard

Please share you tips on how to make this plants grow taller in the first season, care and maintenance, how to wintererize them if I choose to bring them in and store in the basement?

I am also going to be growing castor bean plants, which I have going under growlights in the basement at the moment.

Cheers

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Comments (8)

joey_powell
16 years ago
glaswegian,

I think you have some very interesting Banana Plants. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm fairly sure these are not Musa Basjoo. I have been growing Musa Basjoo for years. First of all the pseudostems appear too thin proportionately to their heights. And second, I have never seen Musa Basjoo with brown/dead leafs run all the way up the Psuedostem, like the one in the right in the pic at the top. Third, the leaves end at much sharper of a pointy shape than Basjoo. Just my opinion. Anyways I'm sure whatever these are they will look great, though!
banana_fun
16 years ago
glaswegian,

Those bananas will grow into monsters by the end of summer. My basjoo that are that size will grow about 5 feet of psuedostem during summer. Remember, the key to growing bananas is lots of fertilizer and water.

btw, They are musa basjoo. I get some of my tropical plants for my nursery from heritage perennials which is where million dollar plants gets theirs. If you look closely at the leaf petiole in the picture you can see a red streak which is common in musa basjoo.
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glaswegian
Original Author
16 years ago
Thx for that bananafun! Joey scared the crap out of me for a second there. Tony the guy at the garden center in st catherines swore they were musa basjoos.

I don't see any sign of growth so far since I brought them home, even though I fertilized with 10-10-10 miracle grow and some water.

Where is heritage perennials?
banana_fun
16 years ago
Your welcome!
Don't expect to much growth indoors and don't over-water/fertilize while they are inside. Heritage perennials is located in Niagara-on-the-Lake. I don't believe they sell plants to the general public.
nyssaman
16 years ago
when you plant them outside put them in some good organic fish compost - keep them out of the *****wind***** in a micro climate - plant them even with the ground don't mound them.You cannot kill these plants with fert - I was giving mine 20-20-20 every other watering - water when soil gets near dry especially when establishing June, July) mid July you can water more.Stop Fert in late August to harden off. After first hard frost cage them and fill the cage with leaves,pine needles or straw apply a good fungal spray first to the stem - your in zone 5b so cage should be at least a foot out from stem then cover with a tarp - also mulch the ground an extra 2 feet from stem..

Jeff
joey_powell
16 years ago
Okay sorry! What I have is different than that. And all the nursuries/Lowe's etc call them Musa Basjoo (at least around here). I'll try to post a pic and see if you guys can ID them. They definitely look different, though.

Oh yeah...all of my Musa Basjoo grew last year from no psudeostems to over 10' tall (one over 12'). Maybe yours will, too! :)
turquoise
16 years ago
They look like the musa basjoo pups I bought a year or two ago. Mine were easily 10' tall in one summer. This is my second winter, none made it through the first year, but I've changed a few techniques.

Looks like you even have pups?
glaswegian
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes....those are 4 pups in total. Here is an update

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Losing My Tropical Banana Virginity

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joey_powell

banana_fun

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Losing My Tropical Banana Virginity

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