Tivona

I just got a Musa Basjoo and considering location, soil and climate I expect it to do fairly well. I plan on placing it in full sun with lots of horse manure.

I read that the fruit is inedible. Any particular reason why?

Also can the leaves and flowers of Musa Basjoo be used in cooking? I know some banana leaves and flowers are used in cooking in some places. I figure in a few years this thing will be huge and just wondered if I could use parts in cooking even if the fruit isn't possible to use.

john_ny

Fruit is full of seeds, which can be as large as peas. They will not hurt you, but can be rather unpleasant to eat. We have used the leaves, several times, to wrwap things, when putting them on the grill. I certainly don't think the flowers would be harmful.

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John

Tivona

Thanks. That's what I was needing to know.

JuniPerez

I give lots of leaves away before the frost hits them... and perfect timing since it's approaching the holidays, which is time for making what we call "pasteles". We wrap them in basjoo leaves before cooking.

Tivona

Thanks for the tip on harvesting before frost. I think that sounds like a great idea and I will definitely try the pasteles. I googled recipes and it looks fun. I am an adventurous cook and not a picky eater and love gardening so I it sounds like I am going to have some fun!
Any other varieties that are cold tolerant but might be better in fruit that I should keep an eye out for?

banana13

Hi, does anyone know if the stems of these are edible like some other bananas?

Hammocked Banana

Tivona, where do u live/what zone are u in? Orinoco and namwah are good varieties with decent hardiness, however they will still only survive outside in zone 8 or higher.

Banafan

A very timely post for me as I was about to order 3x Basjoo this morning thinking they were quite hardy and produced eatable fruit ... I'm back to square one, narrowly missing my first mistake, thanks.

sandy0225

I don't know why you couldn't eat the stems of the basjoo. You certainly can eat the leaves, and they are really just extensions of the stem. You can eat the flowers but mine has never bloomed.
So far, I haven't found a hardy and fruiting banana for our zone (5-6, depending on which chart you look at). I think the main problem would be that it would probably run out of time to finish the fruit before the stalk froze up and fell over, unless it bloomed in the spring. Which I haven't had an edible-type banana bloom in the spring. The edible ones always seem to bloom in the fall here, maybe they are triggered by shortening day length? Maybe some one knows the answer to that. If that is the case, it would be fun to play with some mature ones and a grow light and see what happens.
I have had many bordelons bloom towards spring, or in early summer, but they don't set any fruit.

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banana13

I don't think that bananas are triggered by day length. I am not an expert on this, but I'm pretty sure that fruiting time has more to do with the size and number of leaves on the plant rather than the day length.