Casa Del Gatos

OK, I have come up with what may be an interesting idea.

Let's say you have a beautiful Kru (or Mysore, or whatever) with pseudostem grown to about 8 feet. This one should fruit at about 14 feet, right? Unfortunately, your greenhouse only has 12 feet of height at the ridge. Obviously, you will have a problem growing to full size.

Now, here comes the crazy part: you whack off the pstem to about 4 feet high. After recovering from your butchery, it starts pushing out new leaves from that level.

Shouldn't it fruit when it gets to about 9 or 10 feet now?

My thinking is, the plant knows how many sets of leaves it has grown, regardless of how many are there NOW, so in theory this could work.

OK, you seasoned experts. Tell me why this wouldn't work.

tropicalkid

I remember someone doing that with a "manzano" when I was still a kid back in Puerto Rico.I had a "manzano" plant with a fruit bunch at approx. 3 feet, (plant on the ground, not in a pot).The fruit bunch was way smaller than normal, though.
tropicalkid

Jetstream

You could always grow it at an angle too...might not be aesthetically pleasing, but if fruit is all your after, you have the extra growing dimensions of the hypotenuse...Z

bananalover

Afraid I am not one of the seasoned experts lol, but I think this could work but then there would also be that risk that the plant would just die the rest of the way back and just send out pups. Definitely worth a try though, I do have a very small greenhouse (we do have a good sized crawl space but I am just not going in there if I don't have to).
Interesting about leaning them, think my greenhouse would still be too small though. Maybe it is just time to add on to the greenhouse, seems like it would almost be easier!

Gabe15

When you do that to most plants, they try to regain height very quickly. They may end up being slightly shorter but at the expense of a steched out plant and a very small fruit bunch. Growing at a angle is an option, although if you dont keep them in check they will curve and bend upwards eventually. If thats your problem, just grow dwarfs!

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Racer968

No room to go up, dig it deeper.

Southern-Grower

hmm

since plants lean when they fruit..
what's gonna happen when it already sideways and starts its bloom lean?? gonna lay on floor?LOL

pro & con thing, right?

only a thought

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Happy Growing,

SG

Enjoy Life as it's too Short

JoeReal

It could snap or break and prematurely terminate the fruit filling phase. So a strong stable support would be a necessity.