jazzdrumbum

Hi there! I'm new to the forum, but I'm not new to my banana tree. I purchased it at Home Depot (tag said "grow your own bananas!") over 3 years ago, but it has not really gotten any taller and has never flowered. I live in the Tampa, FL area, and I see many neighbors with healthy fruiting groves of banana trees. They tell me they don't do anything to them and they just keep growing and producing fruit. I fertilize with compost/manure every few months and have a drip line down for the dry season, and my tree still just keeps growing leaves but not gaining any height or flowering. What am I doing wrong?

Thank you!



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pitangadiego

Maybe it is a very dwarf variety. Otherwise, needs more water and fertilizer.

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Manowaiopae

Three years seems like a long, long time for a banana plant to be growing. But I only grow Dwarf Brazilian and they fruit and die in less than 2 years. I'm guessing (and only guessing) that it might be an ornamental? I'm interested in learning what your issue is - hope someone with knowledge gives you an answer. Good luck and aloha!

Jeff zone 8 N.C.

You have a dwarf banana but if the right type it should produce too. It may not be a type that produces an edible banana. You may want to get another type. The grass and bush next to it is competing for fertilizer and water and winning. Ask your neighbors for a small plant of theirs or look on this forum for plants for sale and get a known banana that bears fruit easier. Build a new bed in all day sun, if possible, just for it, loosen the existing soil as deep as is reasonable, and amend the soil with good bagged soil as well as bagged manure and a good fertilizer. Make the bed as large as you can. Maybe at least 4x4 foot or more so grass does not compete. Mulch. Irrigate. Bananas can use a lot of fertilizer. Give it a little fertilizer at 1st. As it begins to grow add more as it gets bigger. Ask more questions if you need. This is a helpful friendly board that wants you to succeed.

chong

I don't know if the the thick mulch around the banana is wood chips. If it is, wood chips may be acidic and also can deplete nitrogen from the soil. Try removing the mulch and cultivate the soil around the plant and leave it bare for a few weeks. After 2 or 3 waterings, or rainfall, replace mulch with a different type, e.g., fir bark, straw, landscape fabric, etc. Disadvantage of landscape fabric is that as suckers push out, they will restrain the growth of the sucker. However, when you see one pushing out, just slit the fabric long enough and open the area where the sucker is growing.

Dalmatiansoap

Even looks like Basjoo from this angle. I would choose another cultivar. Maybe it was even a water pup that never established properly.

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