Bonnie

One of my banana trees have bloomed and has fruit

I put photos on my web site here http://www.bonniesplants.com/_Banana/banana.htm

So far it has 4 hands and it seems to have stopped. The main flower is HUGE. I am not sure what it is called but more of the little flowers form but then they drop off. My question is why do they not form bananas? How do I encourage it to form more hands?

Also does can any one tell what kind of banana it is? I have about 10 varieties but the names wore off the tags?

Another question. Note there are big spaces between each actual banana. Is that where there were flowers that fell off?

One last question the banana tree summers out of the greenhouse. It is about 6' too tall now to go back into the greenhouse. Actually we planned to pitch the plant in the fall because we knew it would not fit back in there. But then it decided to bloom

We are about 4 weeks from frost so what do I do with the plant and the bananas now?

I am sorry for all the questions but I sure would like some help

Bonnie

MediaHound

The flowers didn't really fall off yet. They are dried up at the tips of the banana fingers. They're not part of the spacing between the hands or the fingers.

When you whack the fruit, you can whack the top of the plant off and store it for the winter. It will come back next season when you put it back in the ground. All you really need is the corm, the 20-50lb or so "bulb" at the bottom. You can even cut off the eyes of the corm if it has any while you have it dug up, where it comes to points, each will grow to a new plant.

As far as encouraging it to form more fingers, it's been observed that the more leaves the plant has at fruitition time, the more fingers it'll produce.
So fertilize well during the growing months, provide ample water, and you will be set. You can also prep the planting hole better before you bury it next year, dig it deeper, aerate it, mix in more organic material, remove rocks, etc.

If you can get an extremely close, macro, photo of the flowers, that could help you get a positive ID - they may look familiar to someone with the same kind who knows the positive ID. Hang in there, though, you still might get some replies with ID help.
I suggest posting again in the banana identification sub-forum when you get more photos (or even now with these pics), for better exposure.

Welcome aboard, btw!

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Bonnie

Thank you for the reply.
I can get macro photos of the blooms when more flowers open in the next day or so.

When can I cut off the bananas that are there? We are 2 to 3 weeks from frost now and there is no way I can get the tree back in the greenhouse. We had planned to compost the tree this fall anyway because it was touching the 12' tall greenhouse top this spring.

There are no pups. I am not really concerned because I have another one just like it - one that will fit back in the greenhouse. And I have 6 others that will winter there also.

What do I do with the bananas once we cut them? I can hang them in the greenhouse or I can hang them in the garage. Of course the greenhouse will be much warmer as we will soon be firing up the furnace.

Regards,
Bonnie