My second banana plant
 

Hello everyone I'm new here and new to the world of banana plants. I tried growing my first banana plant when I was about 8 years old, it didn't do too well, now I'm 25 and I just received my banana plant yesterday. It's the Ice Cream variety, and it's about 6 in tall. This time i'm going to keep trying until I get it right. I just have some basic questions:
1. The plant came with two of the leaves sliced in half. What does this mean?
2. What is the best soil/potting mix for the plant?
3. I live in Chicago, we have HOT and HUMID summers, 90+ degrees with 80-90 percent humidity, in this weather how fast will the plant grow? And how long till I can expect bananas?
4. What size container should I plant it in? I have a 10 gallon tub and a 17 gallon tub.

I've gotten completely different answers from my research, I just want to know what you guys think, I heard there was a wealth of information on this site. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it!

-Matt :0519:

Re: My second banana plant
 

What is the current size of the banana plant? You should only pot it up to the next size that is needed if it has currently outgrown the pot that it is in. If it is an "ice cream," it is more than likely a tall namwah variety. Either way, I hope you have a green house or a 20 ft ceiling next to a south facing window because it will grow to about 15 feet tall before it fruits.

Re: My second banana plant
 

Yea its the Ice Cream variety(Blue Java) and right now it's 6in tall, I have it in a 6in diameter pot, and I have 20ft ceilings.

Re: My second banana plant
 

Actually its more like 8in tall

Re: My second banana plant
 

Nice tomato and basil? seedlings! Ok so some online nursery cut the leaves of the bananas like that for shipping. It is simply because they figure the biggest leaves are gonna get smashed anyway for shipping so if they cut them, they probably will look nicer to you when you receive them.
I agree with Country Boy. Those big pots are nice but you need to start much smaller and just pot up until the banana get's bigger to lessen chance of rot. Get a fast-draining mix for the small guy.

Z

Re: My second banana plant
 

Yea, San Marzano tomatoes and basil, my first attempt at gardening, and I love it.

Re: My second banana plant
 

Viper,

The cut leaves don't mean anything. Some get trimmed to fit into their packaging, that's all.

Potting soil is largely inconsequential. Anything that retains moisture but doesn't sit soggy for days should be fine. I used some cheap stuff from Home Depot for my latest batch of tissue cultured plants, and they're all doing great.

For pot size, you won't want to use anything larger than, say, a 2.3 liter pot (medium sized black pot used for 2 to 6 dollar plants in most nurseries) until the roots start filling up. Too large a pot means a lot of wasted water and nutrients. A smaller (yet roomy) pot means you can more accurately focus your efforts on feeding it, and the soil should warm up/remain warmer longer.

Though your Chicago summers should provide a lot of opportunity for growth, you're going to have (at least) a few months of slow-going. A 6" plant likely came from a tissue culture seller, like Wellspring Gardens, Florida Hill Nursery, etc. There's nothing wrong with that, but contrary to all the advertisements, tc banana plants don't generally leap up to 15' heights in a single summer.

Healthy pups that grow 8-10' in their first year usually start as healthy corm offshoots from a mother plant. They've got a lot of stored energy to work with, while tissue cultured bananas have only a few tender roots to get them going. Mind you, that doesn't mean you got a raw deal or anything, but it's like spending months learning to do something for yourself as opposed to having someone there to give you advice and tips to speed you along.

Spend the next two weeks letting it adapt to its new environment. Make sure it gets some sunlight, but don't put the pot out in direct sun until it adapts. After a week or two, start feeding it lightly with a low-dose of liquid soluble fertilizer regularly.

After the first month you can consider up-potting it and upping the fertilizer dose a bit.

March 13th, the day I received my Musa Black Thai



May 9th, almost 2 months later. Full sun, regular (light) fertilizing. Unpotted one of these the other day, roots fill less than 1/4 of the pot. Still plenty of room to grow.

Re: My second banana plant
 

Thanks man! Yea I got the plant from Wellspring Gardens, in the future where would you suggest buying them from? I was thinking going-bananas.com. I can tell already that planting banana plants is going to be an addiction for me. Glad I found this site.

Re: My second banana plant
 

All my banana purchases came from Wellspring. 20+ Musa Basjoo, 8 Musa Black Thai, 1 zebrina, 2 maurelii, and 2 IC/BJ, and A LOT of Alocasia/Colocasia elephant ears. I haven't had any problems with anything I've bought from them.

Re: My second banana plant
 

I have ordered from Wellspring too and been happy with my purchase. The plants purchased are generally very small but that's OK considering the price. The plants at least for me are growing very slowly being TCs even here in San Diego. Of course we don't have high temps yet.
However, once the TCs start developing their own corm and energy reservoir, they should take off.
I will definitely order fro Wellspring again and also am thinking of ordering from Florida Hill because I really want a Veinte Cohol. I'm just nervous because you hear about them mixing up the plants and sending you the wrong one. Then you don't know if it's what you ordered until months later or longer! Oh well, it's still a good price.

Z