Are there any that produce fruit this far north?

What part of DFW are you?

Not sure what type of banana I have, but we live in Ft Worth and I have had fruit two times.

Rigo

Oh jeez, now I must have a banana tree! Someone help me pick and track down a variety that we can eat from in Dallas.

i'm not in your zone, but i hear they are hard to get
to fruit even here in houston

my husband and i were talking about this just last
night

i told him, build me a greenhouse, and i'll grow you
some!!

tesa

Rigo74, what variety do you have??

Most bananas like sun, lots of sun. Mine that grow in less than full sun have a tendency to stay smaller. I grow some in pots for the same reason, to keep them on the smaller size.

What about growing something like a dwarf? You can move it to shade, to sun, drag it into the garage or somewhere for the winter freezes.. Super dwarf cavendish is a beautiful one, so is the dwarf cavendish.
The problem in our area (Houston/Galveston) is more wind/storm related. About the time nice bunches form it's hurricane season & a storm blows through knocking over the trees. If you can plant them in a little bit of protection you should get bananas with no problems.
Tally HO!

It's fun to try and grow eating bananas as a novelty. The bloom is a pretty maroon, but the bananas never got very large on any of the trees I had and never ripened sufficiently to make a good eating banana. I've brought the bunch into the garage for ripening when the weather turned cold, but they still never tasted good. Maybe it is the variety. Be aware that the trunk needs to be in its second year to flower. After flowering it dies, but has already produced many pups.

Here in San Antonio I've always grown bananas for the graceful foliage in both sun and shade.

As an aside, there is an interesting small blooming variety of the banana plant. The yellow bloom persists for about three months. It grew well in the yard here for a several years and then didn't come back. There are several clumps of them outside the S.A. Botanical center along the driveway on the left of the entrance.

I would do a search on craigs list. Go under farm and garden and search for keyword banana. There are people who who sell their "pups" online. This would be great for you as they normally sell them for a very reasonable price. In addition you'll be able to see them in the ground and ask the owners questions about them.

And lastly, you'll know for sure that they are Dallas friendly. You definately want a plant that will overwinter. What will happen, is that at the first freeze all the leaves will die. But much of the stem and all of the root "corm" will be alive and regrow in the spring.

Planting is full shade is far from ideal, but if that's the only spot you have, I'd go for it. Since it won't have as much sun as it needs, I'd make sure it has everything else. That being, compost improved soil, periodic fertiler and plenty of water.

Muso Basjoo is a very cold hardy big plant that will grow as far north as Chicago and tolerate of some shade and is normally available at places like Walmart. A very popular plant. On the down side, it does not produce fruit.

Orinko is a fruit producer that should do fine is Dallas. But that is probably one that you will have to buy online.

Good luck!

Orinoco is grown all along the US Gulf Coast and produces fruit almost every year in our zone. It grows to over 15 feet. Dwarf Orinoco is a smaller version to 6 feet that could be container grown. Two other bananas that are popular here in our area and are not quite as cold tolerant but in a protected spot would produce fruit here in our zone, but not every year are Musa Ice Cream and Musa Raja Puri. Both are very tasty. A new banana called California Gold has been offered for a few years and it is possibly more cold hardy than Orinoco and fruits at about 7 feet. They are more expensive and harder to find. The fruit is very tasty. If you are serious about growing bananas to fruit, you will need to plant them in a southern exposure next to the wall of your house. A lot of folks wrap the pseudostem with blankets on the coldest nights. My Orinoco, Ice Cream, Raja Puri and Cal. Gold have tolerated temps down to 24 for a few hours and fruited the following summer but they are all grown in protected spots in my yard.

Steve

"Missinformation" I live in far north Dallas near Coit & Campbell. Do you all think a person could get bananas from a potted plant? I may try the ordinary musa basjoo in ground and an orinoco in a pot in more sun. What's the root structure like?

gardener972, Not sure what type of banana I have. Sorry at the time I planted them(4 yrs ago) I was not into keeping track of the names and so forth.

Just bought a Musa Basjoo this past weekend, now where to plant it?

Rigo

We grow the Raja Puri variety and it fruits every year. It's pretty fast growing (as all bananas) but it dosen't grow nearly as tall as the typical Musa x paradisica, or whatever they call the common banana everyone grows. I believe that allows is to begin flowering earlier. Our common banana plants get to be about 20-25 ft tall but they still bloom almost every year for us.