mrthegreek

Hello all!

I've been lurking here for a few weeks, learning what I could before starting to plant my first bananas.

Some history: My wife and I bought a house that desperately needed a backyard makeover. Our house is sitting up higher than the rest of the yard, so everything slopes away from the house which is great for drainage but bad for just walking around... So the first step was to build some decks to level out the areas around the pool, and just outside the back door. (two different elevations) We got the decks installed last summer, so this spring the name of the game has been plants and landscaping.

Since our house sits so high relative to our fence, we don't have a lot of privacy. I started looking into fast growing plants to number one, get us some privacy, and two, just to give us a nice environment to enjoy. I started out looking into bamboo, then quickly decided against that. That lead me to bananas which i had never considered before. That, of course, led me to this site.

After much research, I decided to plant primarily Basjoo. I'm no green thumb, and frankly never really been into planting things. So I figured I should go with a known hardy variety, because I'm not going to dig them up over winter. I am in Zone 8a so this should not be a problem.

I later decided I might want a few fruiting varieties on the off chance we have a mild enough winter and they managed to fruit. I had my eye on getting some Ice Creams, but the vendor I was ordering the Basjoos from was sold out. Well I got lucky and this Saturday I was at Lowes buying too many plants and came across these lovely ice creams 50% off. ($9.50 each) I could n't pass them up, one of them already had a pup!


Anyway, my Basjoos arrived yesterday, and I got them all (temporarily) potted up.


They will eventually go into the ground into harsh direct sunlight all day along my back fence that runs east/west. So I potted them up to get them acclimated to full sun. I placed them all on the eastside of my house between the house and fence, so they should only get a couple hours of direct sunlight:

I was planning to move them to the west side to get a couple more hours of direct sun, after a few days, then on to full sun after a week or so... I potted them in a 50/50 mix of topsoil and compost manure, and added a dash of organic bone meal per pot.

If anyone has any tips on sun acclimation, (or anything for that matter, I'm a total NOOB!) I would welcome them!

H2O

Welcome!

I had to "sun acclimate" some basjoo pups few weeks ago,

I didn't know about the sunburn, so i made the mistake.

After that, i put them behind some chairs so they have lots of shade for about 2 /3 weeks.

Then i placed them so they have morning sun. (2 weeks)

I don't know if it can be done faster, this was my first acclimation!

They do recover very well, and have dark green leaves now.

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mrthegreek

Hi H2O,
I ALMOST made the same mistake. I was planning to just put them in the ground, then came across a thread here about sunburn and acclimation at the last minute. I hear 1-2 weeks for acclimation, so I am going for that timeframe roughly. I'm glad your basjoos recovered though!

Even the larger Ice Creams seem to be having just a bit of sun shock, since they were never in direct sun at the store, but all three have new leaves about to unfurl. I can't wait for all of them to get big!

Dalmatiansoap

You will get a lot of informations about growing bananas but as sooner U start with planting canopy plants of some kind ( I prefer palms ) thats better for times to come. Zone 8 winters can do a lot of damadge on bananas.
Regards from Croatia,
Welcome to .org.

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mrthegreek

My zone 8 winters are why I am primarily planting basjoos. I understand that the ice creams are also hardy in zone 8, but I'm not counting on them as much as the basjoo.

I did recently plant some palms as well!

I'm more concerned with getting my clay rich soil (I'm in North Texas) amended enough to keep the bananas happy. I have a lot of tilling of the clay, and mixing in compost to do. I'm also hoping we have adequate humidity to keep them happy.

Between all the tilling and digging of 14 holes will keep me plenty busy while the new basjoos are getting sun acclimated.

RandyGHO

I took mine and planted them right in the sun. Getting them planted was a good idea. Not providing a shade against the afternoon sun was not. I will note it only burned one leaf on each plant then after that they are fine.

If I were to do it again, I would plant in the ground, then say put 4 small stakes in the ground then add like window screen material over the top to filter the noon sun.

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Thinking outside the peel always.

mrthegreek

Thanks for the tip RandyGHO. I hadn't heard of doing that. I'm not ready to plant them anyway, so acclimation is what they are getting. But based on what you are saying, maybe I can get them in the ground sooner than I anticipated. The thing that I am finding, is that either way it doesn't seem to be a big deal. The plants seem to adapt quickly, and even if a few leaves get scorched, the new leaves that come up handle the sun fine.

barney

Hi mrthageek, welcome to the forum ( Im a newbee myself). Your pups look very healthy,but sorry I think they are too close to the fence. Have you seen thick banana trunks can get? What will happen is as they grow they will lean into the pathway & you may have less room than if you had planted further out! Sorry to give you more work!

mrthegreek

Hi Barney,
Are you referring to the rows of potted bananas? Those are there temporarily because that area does not get much sun, I plan to move the pots around the yard to increase there sun exposure and get them used to full sun. There are destined to go in the ground in another area. If I misunderstood you, let me know.

barney

No, I mean the 3 already planted out. ( top photo)

mrthegreek

Ah, the photo is deceptive, there is actually about 2 feet between the fence and the plants closest to it. Also the fence will be moved another 1.5ft away when the fence gets rebuilt this winter.