Haven't had to cut back my bananas yet, but everything I read shows your plants will jump right back in no time. Sure, you're gonna lose 2-3 months of growth as the Bananas need to make up for lost time, but by the end of the growing season, you'd never know they were cut back. If they were on the verge of flowering, you should definitely see fruit this year. For a great example, read ArcticTropical's thread Gigantic Ensete Pics, Zone 4. It's still on the front page of this subforum. Every year those Ensetes are stumped, and they pick right back up from where they left off.

Simple answer, "a blueberry plant" is your problem. Blueberries have much better pollination if you have multiple plants, often of different varieties. FataMorgana

I'm not sure if my experience will help, but I'll try. I have dwarf cavendish outdoors in a shaded location and they can stand shade in lieu of full sun, but they grow slower, and pup less frequently. I know you read that bananas feed a lot, and they do, but not as much as you plan. When I moved in they were neglected for a year (bank foreclosure) and were fruiting so they were neglected on watering and food. Now that they get irrigated at least weekly whether by rain or hose and are fed more regularly they are still slower to pup and fruit than other cultivars I have that get the same attention but more sunlight. So my advice would be to mulch them, don't let them dry out, feed "regularly" but vary the food source. Bananas also like clean wood ash, but don't use ash from paper or cardboard. As far as pups go, once the korm grows and spreads I think you'll have to find bigger buckets too. I also think you'll do better with multiple pots of bananas rather than one. I find that on occasion my pups will outperform the parent in fruit growth and pup production just by being in a different location. I hace some 8 or 9 different bananas and find very different growth habits based mostly on light.

Sorry didn't mean to imply I was only discussing tomatoes. The issues I discussed above can apply any blooming/fruiting plant, not just tomatoes and not just tomatillos. I too grow both and while there are some cultural differences it isn't a drastic amount and many aspects of the 2 plants are the same - including the causes of blossom drop. Personally my tomatillo plants don't get scraggly or sad looking and they sure don't look like weeds and all my experiments with the various blossom drop sprays have supported what i said above. But then my climate and the effect it has on them is quite different from that in zone 10 (have no idea where the OP is located). They look different from tomato plants in ways but look and act just like them in others. As to the self-pollination issue, it is hotly and often debated and research from Purdue University has the best info on it. https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/mexican_husk_tomato.html Studies show that some varieties are readily self-pollinating while others are not. Some varieties require a wider range of cooler temps to self-pollinate, and some plants it seems will never produce fruit regardless of the growing conditions. So there are no absolutes about them. However 3 plants in one container (without knowing if it is an exceptionally large (ie.25 gallon) container is normally over-crowding. And as floral pointed out 1 large bushy plant with another small plant is often indicative of excess or uneven distribution of N in the container. That 2 holds true for any blooming/fruiting plant. Dave