Hello from the Frozen North
 

I just joined and am looking forward to growing several varieties of banana near the south stucco walls of my house and garage.

I understand that if I keep the soil from freezing that some varieties will die back in the fall and recover from the roots in the spring. I plan to use styrofoam insulation and a heat tape to do this. While it would be nice to have fruit, I use my house to grow bananas, palms and other exotics from seed and do not have room to winter the bananas inside.

I am looking for something relatively short, under 12', to grow with trunkless or dwarf palms. Ultimately, as the palms grow over the next 10 years, I am hoping to cover and overwinter the bananas without any die back.

I have some M. velutina seed coming and will be getting M. basjoo in the spring. I am considering dwarf cavendish and would appreciate advice on it and any other banana variety that might work for me.

Thanks in advance for your help

Allen

Re: Hello from the Frozen North
 

Hello Allen!

Your best bet is probably Rajapuri. It is supposed to have one of the shortest production cycles of the cultivars. Doesn't get too tall either, and is one of the cold-hardier cultivars.
If your zone is truly Zone 3(!), I would rather reccomend the approach of storing the plants cool at just above freezing over winter. (I have an ensete in my basement, but unfortunately it's still a little too warm, over 50 degrees F sometimes.)

I think a typical Z3 winter will kill everything above ground, and you will never get fruit by leaving it in the ground.

Best of luck

Erlend

Re: Hello from the Frozen North
 

Unfortunately my basement is well insulated and seldom gets below 60 F.

While Edmonton is zoned at 3b, we live well into the city and our temperature is higher. Between urban heating and the microclimates that I have, with the exception of 7 days in the past 5 years my climate is zone 5a.

Over the next 5 years I will be covering the palms with taller and taller enclosures so that eventually I may be able to maintain a temperature of 35 F in the enclosure throughout the winter.

About how long does it take Rajapuri to go from first new leaf formation in spring to fruit harvest in the fall?

Allen

Re: Hello from the Frozen North
 

Even though I think you are very far north of traditional banana-growing-country, I love your dedication and your spirit!

Even Rajapuri will not grow to produce bananas in a single season, I think 9 months of frostfree growing is needed to produce fruit. Probably around 6 months of growing & flowering, and then another 3 months for proper ripening. But this is not my field of expertise, Pitangadiego, JoeReal, and many other people here know more about fruiting than I do.

Just remember, even with musa basjoo the stems must be virtually frost-free during the winter. They can take a few hours of -2, but prolonged and penetrating frosts eventually kills the stems. If you are going to leave them outside, heat-cables (frostguard) and wrapping is probably the only way to go.

Erlend