petedrummond7

I have a 3' X 5' space and trying to go for the tropical garden/lush look. How many Musa Basjoo bananas can I plant in this space to achieve that goal?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

Pete

john_ny

I would say, only one. I don't know where you're located, but if you have to dig them up in the fall, I would say only one. This will give you a chance for some pups, which you can dig, and replant in pots.

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John

cincinnana

Pete,

One...next year you will be giving them away.

Plant your plant in very good draining well amended soil.
Feed the plant a regular garden fertilizer..whatever is on sale ..12-12-12- is a good start
The plant will divide over the summer

The plant is a beast.
I love this plant as a filler in a landscape.
Easy to take care of also

The plant will divide ...and divide ...and divide.


Untitled by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

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petedrummond7

john_ny, I am in zone 7a, west of Atlanta. I was thinking about one but wasn't sure how fast they spread. We tried one in a pot last year and it produced several pups but I left it over the winter and it never came back. So I wanted to try several in the ground today.

thanks!

Debart

I had them outside of Charlotte in 7b/8a. Plant in the ground. They will come back. One plant will give you more pups than you can use. I even had tons of bananas one year though they aren’t edible. I never fertilized them either and they were about 10 feet tall.

john_ny

As they say, start out with one. (Keep another one in a pot, as a back-up.) There is a botanical garden, here in N.Y. that had some Basjoos growing, and they decided to move them, so they dug them up. The next year they appeared in the original spot. (Apparently, some of the p-bulbs were left, in the old place. Imust say that these had been there for severalyears.

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John

SixtySix

I'm on the east side of Atlanta. One basjoo this year = Five basjoo next spring.

PkiJake

I know this has already been answered, but I agree with the one plant. I started with one in a similar area two years ago. Last year it had about 7 plants and this year I have about 20 coming up. Good thing I am using some in another are this year.

Island Brah

I'm about 30-35 miles NE of Atlanta and my Basjoos in the ground are about 6 feet already this year - no fertilizer yet. Once you hit them with a good dose of fertilizer, they turn into monsters and pup like crazy. I think I had 15-20 pups on one basjoo last year. Biggest pup was probably about 8 feet. You'll have a million of them in 1-2 years.

The ground warmth protects the corms from the cold and the pot will not in our winters.

Watch out for small caterpillars when it gets hot and muggy. They like to sit where the basjoo cigar leaf comes out of the pstem and chow down on the new tender growth. All your leaves will look like a straight lines of bullet holes when they open up lol. My other cultivars haven't been touched by any caterpillars or any other insects ever.

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)