I was looking for an answer about where to locate my new musa rajapuri purchased today at the Festival of Flowers in Mobile, one of the Festival plant selections they recommend for our zone 8b. The man did not know if it made edible bananas, so I was searching to find out on this forum. I'm figuring that it will make some edible fruits? lac1361 z9a LA (My Page) on Fri, Jul 11, 08 at 8:25 ericjwi, Raja Puri should do well for you in Houston in the ground. Choose a spot with lots of sun and protected from frost; like up against your house with a southern exposure. Steve Based on this information, I'm putting my new guy just outside the kitchen window on the south side of my house. Next to the heat pump condensate drain, should keep it moist.

It's not at all unusual that bananas that fruit in zone 9 don't produce a lot of hands. It's more of a timing issue. When I have a banana that makes it through a mild winter and fruits in April or May, I will get a lot of hands of bananas; otherwise, it almost always going to be a smaller bunch. How much water and fertilizer do you provide it during the summer growing season? Steve

i went ahead and started to cut the tree down, figuring i would come across the banana flower in the stalk somwhere, and sure enough i did and cut through half of it with my saw. my question is whether you think it would have come up and fruited if i continued to wait. like i said above, 2 months of no leaf growth with no appearance of the flower, so i figured it wasn't coming. last time i got bananas, it was only 2-3 weeks until the appearance of the flower after leaf growth stopped. also last time i got that final small leaf that stood straight up. i didn't get it this time. this time, the majority of the leaves were starting to yellow/brown. thanks

bananafan2 yeah, i have 4, and all now are in full sun the only problem with that is making sure thye have enough water even with a slightly heavy soil, the one in the container still gets leaves burned if not watered every day. The other 3 in ground have LOTS of mulch, one of them (smaller one) gets %50 shade mid-day (2 to 3 hrs) , but full sun in morning and evenings. the other 2 are full sun, and if it doesnt rain, and isnt cloudy, they can only go 1 to 2 days without water or leaves will start to burn. Also... i found they like extra iron. i gave them Chelated Iron FE 11% DTPA, Water Soluble. and they responded well. i did a foliar spray once, and watered it in twice about 2 weeks apart. the color on the leaves changed. older ones got a darker green... just a small bit of Epsom salt 1 to 2 times during the summer helped green-up the leaves also. you can also use Epsom as a foliar and watering it in. that iron is 12oz, and i treated at least 5 larger trees and lots of seedlings and potted plants, and barely used 1/2 the bag.