lloydy

Hello! I was very happy to find this site while looking for advice on how to grow bananas. Looks like there's a lot for me to get reading! Anyway I'll just ramble on a bit about me and my banana plant, so you might want to stop reading now if you get bored easily.

I have very little knowledge of gardening and how things grow. Me and my lass have hardy plants that can go for a while without much care because we're a bit useless. In any case, I've started taking a more active interest lately, especially with the notion that some varieties of banana plant can bear fruit in climates such as ours.

Anyway, I bought my banana plant from a giant gardening store in Malmö, Sweden where I currently live. At some point he (Bartholomew) grew a shoot so I removed that and planted it in a different pot, and was amazed to see more shoots come off both the original plant and the newly planted one. Since then there have been ups and downs. I'm currently using a kind of cactus soil (mixed with sand - drains easily) with a bedrock of small, marble-sized pebbles. The plants seem to like this, though to be fair I previously had them in regular potting soil when they had their first change as I was pretty clueless. Don't think this is ideal. In fact I'm planning to try getting hold of some really nutrient-rich soil produced here in Sweden from composting food waste. Of course I'll have to mix it with some other stuff.

In any case, I've just this eve removed more shoots from the original cactus, making a total of five separate plants. I left one really big shoot after having read the advice on this page:

How to Grow Bananas - A Guide to Banana Plants and How to Successfully Grow them.

and had to leave another few because some were too small and for the bigger one I didn't have any more pots. Right now they're sitting on an east-facing window sill in our apartment. Naturally, plants on that side get the best of the sun. I imagine that they would ideally have pretty strong sun all day long, so I'm looking into a home-made greenhouse solution on an allotment.

Okay I think that's my ramble! Thanks for hanging on, if you did. As I said, I'll get reading, but if anything comes to mind when reading this, please do chip in. It'd be much appreciated. Once again, nice to have found this community!

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Saving the world one banana at a time

http://banarnia.posterous.com/

Abnshrek

Hello, Welcome, and Happy Growing. :^)

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

a1nipper

Welcome to the forums! Banana plants are pretty easy to grow but getting them to fruit is another matter.

trebor

Boy that was quite an introduction! Welcome to the banana world its great fun and the rewards are eating bananas that we grow.. Plus you can become the person in a crowded room that people look at and say “ Why is that guy talking about his bananas ? ”
YES You can have fruit , read the posts here to see how its done in your growing zone . You might have to purchase one or two specific bananas types . Ones that grow in you area that other people have had success with . But once your over that hump then your on your way to enjoying fruit that very few Swedish folks can get ..
Happy growing and take you time

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If ya can't eat it, it ain't growing in my back yard !

lloydy

Thanks very much for the warm welcome guys. I've been reading peoples' posts and it's great to see so many enthusiasts. I'm actually now looking into growing hydroponically as it could prove a great way of combining with some kind of heating to help the plants survive the winter. Anyway, I'm also blogging about it. Hopefully it will come to something.

Banarnia - On the other side of the wardrobe was a land too bloody cold to grow bananas. Or was it...?

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Saving the world one banana at a time

http://banarnia.posterous.com/

Jose263

Enjoyed your blog - welcome and Happy growing

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Growing: Orinoco, Rajapuri, Dwarf Cav, SDC, TT, Dwarf Red, Dwarf Namwah, Tall Namwah (aka Ice Cream), Dwarf Brazilian, Veinte Cohol, California Gold, Double Mohai, NOT-Goldfinger, Gran Nain, Velutina