chong

Hi Paul,
Glad to hear from you. Although I've been reading the posts on this forum for over a year, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I actually joined. And although I had been able to order some plants from a few members, my main reason for joining was so that I could meet more members from whom I could get more plants. After I joined, I have not yet gotten any new plants as a result, but I discovered and have been engaged with a bunch of people who are very, very interested in the same things that I am. The information exchange is tremendous. Although I was born and raised in the tropics, and was active in raising vegetables and trees, living in Seattle presented extraordinary challenges when it comes to raising tropical plants here. (I have numerous other "exotic" tropical plants other than bananas-check out my avatar.)

Talk about inspiration, I had a couple of dwarf cavendish that I ordered from the Canary Islands in 1974. I grew them indoors in our living room and they did very well. Then in 1978, we moved to our current home, where although we had a greenhouse, they stayed indoors because the greenhouse was not heated. We just bring them out in the spring, back indoors in late fall. Eight years ago, we had an early freeze that killed them.

Lucky for me I had been giving pups to friends and relatives. My brother had 2 pots of them that were very robust. However, in late Aug 2005, I asked him if I could get some pups from his bananas. He responded, "Oh, I forgot to tell you that I wanted you to look at them because they don't look so good." My heart jumped. I saw them, they were in the middle of the rec-room next to some desks away from the windows. One pot had 1 pup about 3-inches, the other 1 pup 6-inches. The 3-in pup was rotten at the corm and had a mushy base. the 6-in one was OK. I took it home and carefully thatched the soil around it and put it in a shaded area of the greenhouse.

The following month I was sent by my company to Florida, then to California, then to Mississippi in support of FEMA and this poor plant was left in the hands of my family all this time. Before I left the plant was at least 8-in tall. When I got back last Aug., it was a spindly 6-incher again. I repotted it into a 30-gallon pot 2 weeks later. Just before I covered it for the winter, it was over 2-ft at the base of the topmost leaf. And I am determined to pamper this baby until it fruits, which I hope will be this next summer.

So, take heart, your bananas have a cooler zone rating than my Dwarf Cavendish. They have a better chance. I will continue to share my experience with this group. Hope you will do the same.

Much luck to you,
Chong