Chippy

Hi all,
New to this forum. Was recommended to post here from another site as to a strange banana plant I got. My main concern is what will happen to this banana? Should I pot it? Leave it as is? Will it die since its using energy into fruiting? Any opinions will be greatly appreciated. The pictures seen here are from 1/7/08. Ive never seen a fruiting banana, but as of today, it appears that 12 bananas have popped up and the flower is about to open up.
Here is a copy and past from the other forum:

Hi all,
Here is my crazy banana plant that I have stored in the basement. I have about 6 here. I removed them all but they don't want to stop growing.
I think its probably too warm and theres about an hours worth of light through the window which i need to cover.
I think it was beginning of Nov. that I removed them and stored them.
And here is one of the plants flowering with no water, soil or barely any light. The roots are in a bag. The others are growing as well but no flowers.There was no sign of flowering when I cut them in half. Excuse the mess of an unfinished basement. Any thoughts why these don't want to hibernate? lol Will it make it another 3 months like this before I can replant?
Note, its a lot darker in here than it appears. The flash makes it seem really bright.

mskitty38583

welcome to the forum! . and congrats on your flower! i cant tell you how to handle that one im new here too. but i can say welcome. there are a lot of senior members here who have been growing nanas for a long time. so they can give you their expert advise. your flower has a very pretty color to it.

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Chippy

Thanks Ms Kitty! Ive been growing bananas for about 3 years and always wanted to see a flower / fruit.
But not like this in the basement!! loll I'm just unsure if I should leave it or plant it in a small pot.
I haven't a clue why they all keep growing with barely and sunlight!

bencelest

I am not an expert myself but allI cantell you is from my own experience last year.
I have almost the same situation last year except my Californiagold was planted on the ground.
I bought a CG on Nov 2006 and planted on the ground right away.Because of the arctic blast I lost all the leaves of my CG.
I found this out when I opened the banana that was wrapped up during the Spring. I was about to chop it up when someone told me to leave the fruit and expose the Pstem green bark because as he said this would be enough to feed the fruit. It took a long time almost all summer and all my patience before one of the bananas turned yellow.They grew but very very slow. But they turned out tasting real good.

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saltydad

Chippy, where are you located?

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Chippy

Thanks all for your replies.
Salty, I'm located on Long Island, NY. Im in Zone 7A/B (though its been more close to an 8 these past years).

saltydad

Good Luck! I moved here from Westchester, so I know your area well.

__________________
Men In Nursing- "A Few Good Men"

"Gardening is the purest of human pleasures." - Francis Bacon





"If by a liberal, they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind; someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions; someone who cares about the welfare of the people, their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties; someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicion that grips us; that is what they meant by a liberal, I am proud to be a liberal."
John F. Kennedy, September, 1960


http://flickr.com/photos/saltydad/ and
http://community.webshots.com/user/saltydad
http://s751.photobucket.com/albums/xx151/saltydad/

Chippy

Thank you!
I noticed your in a 7a zone. Is it like our 7a zone? I always wondered if it were much different in another part of the country with the same zone...

Chip

STEELVIPER

My belief is that some musa's will flower due to stress.Remember flowering is the end of the life cycle for the mature/mother plant.(not the corm) I had a musa ice cream flower right after a harsh cold snap last year. There was no sign of a flag leaf prior to the cold snap,and after showing some damage due to frost and freeze.A flag leaf appeared all of a sudden. I think the prob. that your going to have is, how do you get the bananas to ripen? Chances are not very good that they will ,but you never know. Maybe there is enough energy in the p-stem and corm to ripen them. Then again, you will lose the corm for a few bananas. If they do ripen.

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Chippy

Thanks Steelviper for your reply.
I'm not quite sure how it works when it fruits..... When you say its the end of the life cycle of the mother plant, what happens to it? Does it die back? The plant is done? I always thought once it started to produce bananas it would keep doing so.
Also, would you recommend me planting it in a small pot so it will at least be in soil and get watered?

Thank you!!
Chip

magicgreen

Chippy iam glad you made it here from GW. Told you would find help here. :-)
After the mother plant has made the fruit, she dieds. But there should hopefully be 'pups' at the base of her ready to continue on, grow, and make more nanners for you!
As for repotting it now, i dont know! Iam still a newby! Iam sure someone else will come by and answer that one. But if i were to answer it i say........Pot it up, bring it upstairs to the warmth and hope to get pups from her. If the pups are growing in the black plastic bag, give them about a cup of water and leave well enough alone till spring in your area. Hope this helps!

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

Chippy

Thanks Magic.
So once the plant produces fruit/flower, it dies? That's weird, poor thing! lol Ill have to check tonight to see if there are pups or not.
I could always plant it in a small pot, cant hurt I guess, the plant is going to die anyway....
Chip

magicgreen

Chippy, from all i seen and read, bananas seem to like tight spaces. Just look at photos here on this site of nanners in pots. I also read that bananas like company in the ground where they are grown. Look at pictures with mats of banana clusters, they are tight, so tight that sometimes pups grow 1-2 ft from the mother plant.
Yes, the flowering mama will die, but her babies will live on! Just like us.

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

STEELVIPER

After the mother produces a flower and then fruit, it slowly dies off. At the base of the plant is the corm. Or bulb. The bulb does not die(in most cases) It produces what are called pups( baby or younger plants) from the same corm.In your case its hard to say what to do.There are quite a few experts here that could give you a full expert answer. I just do not see how the fruit can grow and ripen with no heat/sun to fuel them. Not to mention no water. But i would think that maybe there is enough energy in the p-stem(trunk) and corm(bulb) to keep them growing. But them again if they do ripen you may lose the corm due to the fact that it would be spent trying to ripen the fruit. So its a tuff call. As for bananas in pots. Most bananas just grow to big to be in pots there whole life. The dwarf and a few other species do well in pots. But the reason you may see many bananas in pots is because people in the much colder zones have no choice. Gets to cold to put them in the ground year round. I think people forget that bananas are very tropical. In most cases. But then again, that is why we grow them. We love tropical plants.

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Chippy

Thanks all for the great info! I think I'm going to leave it as is if there are no pups. Then maybe ill just replant it in the ground in the spring and see what happens. It did have a pup or 2 but has been since separated when I removed my plants. Ill have to verify.
I have a bunch others as well that I can plant and will be ordering Ice cream and one other kind as well to add to the collection (maybe cavendish).

Actually, now that I think about it, can anyone tell what kind of banana this is that I got? I just assumed it was a basjoo, but for some reason its reminding me of a Orinoco. It was giving to me by a family member who didn't want it. They just knew it was a banana plant lol. Here is a pic in the beginning of last summer. By the time the fall came and I removed it, it was higher than the rear garage:

P.S. I CANNOT wait for the spring to come around!!!! Just seeing this green grass and flowers lifts me up. My yard is all yellow and sorry looking right now.... :-/

mskitty38583

dont feel all alone. everywhere i look in my yard is brown and yucky.i miss seeing green in the yard. however i get all the green i want when i come into my den/ green house. lol. springtime is sure taking her time this year. wish shed hurry up!

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"BCS Champions"!!!!! 24 to 14! boo-ya