Eric Bana(na)

I live in NY. My in-laws have a banana tree that they got as a gift from some family down in FL. The tree is doing just fine (indoors), but doesn't bear fruit. Is it possible to get one to bear fruit while potted? Can it ever survive outside in a climate where it gets freezing during the winter?

SteveW17

Eric -

I think the first step is to try and ID the banana variety you have. There are several varieties that are cold tolerant and will even take freezing temps (Musa Basjoo), but as far as fruiting and cold tolerance, I couldn't say. I am a beginner myself. There are a lot of experts on here that can ID your plant just by looking at the leaves, psuedostem, and other plant parts. So, I would take a couple photos and post them so you can find out what you have! Good luck!

-S.

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harveyc

Eric, you'll see in various discussions where many of our members live in cold climates and dig up their plants in late fall and store them in their house, garage, crawl space, and even attic during the winter and then plant them out again around this time of year. Some get fruit (i.e., Taylor's "California Gold" gave him 23 fruits last year after being dug up the prior fall).

Welcome!

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Chironex

Hi Eric, and welcome! You may be able to get it to fruit, but getting the fruit to ripen and whether it produces edible fruit are two important questions.
There are so many bananas, some are edible while others are purely ornamental and the fruit is filled with seeds.
If you can put up some photos of it, we may be able to help you more. If it is still quite small, it may not be easy to identify.
Good luck!

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Scot

buzzwinder

Welcome to the Org. Eric, post some pics of the banana plant and someone may be able to ID it for you, that way we'll have a better idea of how to help with care and such, there are several dwarf edible fruiting nanners out there and some that aren't really all that palatable, but fun and beautiful plants none the less, container growing in the colder climates can be a challenge but very managable. Best Wishes

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Bill for my friend

sirmoebly

Hello Eric, welcome to the site. Lots of good people here and great information, lets see pictures... Hopefully its a bassjoo or a good old ornioco!!!

hammer

welcome to the site

Eric Bana(na)

It's probably about 7-8' tall now in the pot, but it's at my in-laws so I don't know when I'll get a chance to grab a pic. Who knew bananas had so many varieties?

I've mostly been growing misc. plants, but now that I'm a home owner, I'm looking to see if there's anything fun and interesting I can grow. I already got some hop rhizomes going for my own homebrewing purposes. One more newbie question...how much of a root system do full grown banana plant typically grow? I'm not exactly a seasoned horticulturalist, but I know some plants, even some smaller ones have extensive root growth. I'm still debating whether I want to get me own plant.

mskitty38583

hiddy hello! welcome to the org. the place where not all bananas grow on trees, we walk around on 2 legs saying got to have more bananas!

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WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION

Bob

Welcome Eric. What part of NY are you from? Musa basjoo would be the standard answer if you want to try and over winter a plant outside. There are plenty of threads on this, look in the cold hardy banana section. There's also a few others to try but your choices might be different if you lived in Staten Island as opposed to Syracuse.

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Eric Bana(na)

I'm on Long Island. So are my in-laws (though they're further out east).

It gets bitterly cold during the winter, but I know it's warmer downstate than up. And we do get nice, scorching summers that can hopefully help make up for some of the winter.

EDIT: By the way, thank you for the tips. There's a lot more banana info here than I was prepared for. Gonna take me a while to get through it and figure out what I need to read and what I don't.

Bob

Oh Man, you're zone 7(wish I was) the sky's the limit!

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Eric Bana(na)

Really? We're in different zones? You're like...maybe 50 miles west of me. :lol:

I grew up in Jersey btw. My sister's boyfriend is originally from your town. I only moved out here to Nassau county this winter.

Eric Bana(na)

Haven't had a lot of time to dedicate to reading up, but so far I've learned a lot. Didn't think I'd actually be engrossed in a banana forum. You guys get an A+ in bananas. Back to lurking until I get a pic of the banana plant from my in-laws.

Bob

I didn't figure to spend much time here when I first signed up either. Funny how it works.

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