New to growing bananas
 

Hello. I live in zone 7a. I just bought three dwarf Cavendish bananas and I was wondering if I should put them in the ground knowing I'll have to dig them up when it gets cold. I'm afraid digging them up will injure the roots. If I may ask, how do you are growing tropicals out of their natral environment grow your bananas, as a general rule? Thank you.

mtilton

Re: New to growing bananas
 

My understanding is that naners can take alot and they should be ok when digging them up. Or you could always mulch over them in the winter. But some of the more naner pro's here will definatetly let you know...by the way welcome.

Re: New to growing bananas
 

when the night temps in your area stay above 55 degrees go ahead and put the bananas in the ground. your bananas will grow dramatically bigger verses keeping the root system confined to a pot. the roots need to spread out to grow like a banana should. give the banana plenty of water and plenty of organic material like dry leaves from trees newspaper,home made compost or whatever.try to get the sucker as big as you can.that sucker will eat and drink and should be a big corm with suckers by the end of the summer. when the winter comes let a good frost hit the bananas before you dig them up..you want them dorm and not trying to push up new leaves after its out of the ground.

you cant really cause any serious damge to the root system just by digging it up if you listen to me. just insert the shovel in the ground and go straight down about 1 1/2 -2 feet from the stem. go in a circle and keep away from the stem dont dig just keep the pushing the shovel down like you are cuttin pie or cake. once the circle is complete grab the end of the shovel handle with the shovel in the ground and pop the corm out of the ground.
when the corm is out of the ground shake some dirt off the corm and put it somewhere cool,dry,and dark..too easy. a wet and or cold corm will die. a lot of corm rot or death is caused by keeping the corm wet,and or cold. bring the corm in during winter. or be sure to get a good sucker for insurance,if you try to over winter it outside.....why??

some of your fellow banana collectors hoard suckers and would rather let them rot in the ground than share. it is a good idea to give a sucker to anyone interested in bananas because if all of your corms ever get destroyed they may remember your kindness,and let you have a few to rebuild your collection.sharing corms is also a good way build your collection without paying $40-$50.00 and getting something that may not be what you asked for.there are bad suppliers out there only driven by profit,and wouldnt care if they sold you ragweed.half the people selling bananas online are not reputable,they sell common varieties and rename them and make outrageous claims about their super delicious rare banana. i have done it and its a real let down.its just good policy to give back.. if someone paid shipping fee what am i losing by giving an extra sucker?? im not in the business of selling bananas or corms. its no big deal for me to give one thats when and if i have an extra one... real talk.

good luck in sure you will have plenty sucker by the end of the summer..so give a few away..or trade em .:nanadrink:

Re: New to growing bananas
 

Welcome the Org mtilton! :bananas_b You should be able to grow Dwarf Cav. in the ground during the summer but will need to pot it for the winter, or you can just grow them in big pots and move the pots inside for the cold months. There are several members that dig their plants up in the fall and replant in the spring. All of my plants are in pots as I'm in zone 4b-5a, right on the edge. This past winter was my second year overwintering and didn't work quite as well as I thought it would, (couldn't control the humidity in the room where the plants were). Killed off two Bajoos two Ensetes a siam ruby and my lasiocarpa, strange, but the more delicate plants, Gran Nain and Dwarf cav. survived, alittle ruffed up but survived, and I'm looking forward to the warm weather staying around for a while so they can recover and start growing like crazy again. http://www.bananas.org/f15/time-put-...inter-310.html is a good thread to start with for a search of info on this subject matter. Best Wishes

Bill

Re: New to growing bananas
 

Thanks for your answers. I decided to put the plants in the ground today. I put a photo in the banana gallery. Later in the afternoon the leaves seemed to be curling up. I hope it's not anything worse than transplant shock...

Re: New to growing bananas
 

[quote=ronaldmcblunder;73579] when the winter comes let a good frost hit the bananas before you dig them up..you want them dorm and not trying to push up new leaves after its out of the ground.

you cant really cause any serious damge to the root system just by digging it up if you listen to me. just insert the shovel in the ground and go straight down about 1 1/2 -2 feet from the stem. go in a circle and keep away from the stem dont dig just keep the pushing the shovel down like you are cuttin pie or cake. once the circle is complete grab the end of the shovel handle with the shovel in the ground and pop the corm out of the ground.
when the corm is out of the ground shake some dirt off the corm and put it somewhere cool,dry,and dark..too easy. a wet and or cold corm will die. a lot of corm rot or death is caused by keeping the corm wet,and or cold. bring the corm in during winter. QUOTE]

Do Not try this with a cavendish i have tryed for years and killed probly around 50 of them it dont work!!!! and if anyone has had luck on dwarf cavendish storeing them bare root i would love to know your secret! orinoco, basjoo, ice cream, rajas, musella, ensetes, kandarians, and a few others this method works great for but the cavendish dry up and die big or small they die i tryed it with 5 six footers this last winter and still couldnt get them to work i now plant them in ground and in fall dig them up pot them in 20 gallon pots the bigger ones and cut most leaves off i leave a few on and they will push out 1 a month in winter for me the roots dont worry about if you get a few thats all u need they will grow more in a few weeks. i water them about once every 3-4 weeks just enough to wet the soil so they dont rot and let them dry out before u water again the dwarf cavendish dont get that bigaround 6 feet of p-stem so this is easy to do on these if there big and the leaves are to big just cut them in half it wont hurt them most of the leaves are gonna dry up on the edge and look like **** anyways they will put out new one as soon as u get them out side in spring then when u got some new leaves what i do i cut all the older ones off that where on it over winter u dont have to do this but when there out on your yard and everything else is nice and green they look better

Re: New to growing bananas
 

I don't know if you're any relation, but Martha Tilton (1915-2006) was an amazing singer in days gone by. More information is here: "AND THE ANGEL SINGS ..." The Career of Martha Tilton