Kevin

I am trying to understand 'pruning' of bananas. I have heard that, if you want to overwinter a banana where it is not hardy, you can chop it off anywhere on the pseudostem, and either cover it if you can, or dig it up and bring it inside. In places where they are hardy, and, for whatever reason, you wanted to control the height, could you cut it the same way, and it would just continue to grow? I'm wondering, because I was looking at getting bananas that do get tall, but I just don't have room for them (full-size) inside overwinter. Could I chop it off, to say, 2' or so, bring it in to a warm grow-room, and would it continue to grow, so that, by spring, it would be a good size, and I could possibly get a 5' or 6' pseudostem out of it by fall? Then, repeat for next year? Perhaps, by doing this, I could get fruit on a banana in Winnipeg? Taking into account for the pot size, I could probably fit a 5' tall (to the tallest leaf) banana inside my grow room. It will be interesting to see how tall my Dwarf Orinoco gets when I can finally get outside in the spring!

Jack Daw

One thing to take into consideration is also the corm size. If the plant has not a very big corm (e.g. it's a smaller plant), you chop it in the middle of the pseudostem and put it out of the soil, it might recover badly in the spring. It's a whole proces...

Part 1 here: Time to put the bananas to sleep for the Winter

Part 2 here: Time to put the bananas to sleep for the Winter

If you have any question to that, just let me know.
Pruning in this case means just defoliation, chopping banana in the middle of the pseudostem is much more radical, if you don't want to take the naners out of the soil.

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Bananaman88

Kevin,

You can do that, but at some point, once it gets old enough, you banana will initiate the flower bud. This bud starts at the very bottom and center (the growing point) of the pseudostem and travels all the way up through the pseudostem. After the initiation of the bud, no more leaves will follow; therefore, if you unknowingly cut it back BELOW where the bud happens to be, you have effectively killed that pseudostem. Pups (if it has any) would now take over and grow, or if you don't see pups already actively growing, that particular corm should have some dormant buds around the base of the corm that should be prompted to grow by you cutting the pseudostem back. Hope this helps.

LilRaverBoi

You can indeed chop a plant off at virtually any height and it will regrow. However, the shock of transplant combined with the chopping might be a bit much and the main plant might stop growing and send up pups from the corm. Also, as Brent said, you could potentially cut off the inflorescence when you chop the pseudostem....killing that main plant. In addition, I've been told that certain varieties do not rely purely on the 'leaf number before blooming' theory....and if you chop them down, they kinda reset and won't bloom until reaching a certain height. So you still might not be able to get it to bloom. If you want fruit in your area, I would stick with dwarf varieties. If you are like me, and don't particularly grow bananas to get fruit, you can rely on the chopping/regrowth.

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Abnshrek

I'd say if your going to cold store for the winter just cut the leaves off if you can store @ pstem height. The other thing to consider is its cooler and unless you keep your place really warm your growth is going to be slow unless in optimum conditions. :^) Small plants (small corms) don't store well since they have less energy to recuperate versus a large corm.

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Kevin

Thanks all! That's a good point about watching for the buds. Hadn't thought of that.

LilRaverBoi - good to know I'm not the only one here that isn't growing for the fruit! I was scared I would run out of town for saying on a banana forum that I don't really care for the fruit!

Getting mine to flower would be a real bonus, but I really like the look of the plants, so what would you advize for getting the biggest possible plant in the shortest amount of time? I am growing mine in my plant room now at a reasonable (for my standards, since this is my first one) pace, and want to continue that outside in the spring. I plan on planting it in as full sun as possible, in straight compost. How likely would it be to get pups before September, when I'd have to bring it back inside? Since the pstem is only 2' right now, I shouldn't expect it to try to flower before the pstem is over 5', right? What has been your experience with Dwarf Orinoco? If there is no chance of a flower, then I could do as I suggested, and chop it off. I didn't realize that cutting it off caused the plant stress. Logical, but from all I've read on this so far, it doesn't seem to faze the plants at all, and after winter dormancy, they keep right on growing. At least, that's what I have understood from various posts so far.

CookieCows

I'm only going on my 3rd summer this year but D. Oriniocos have been my main nana. I started with 2 little tc's and by the end of the second summer counted a little over 20. I found that they grow so big and put out so many pups so quickly in full sun and good compost that if you don't care about the fruit you could forget about the adult plant in the fall and just cut the pups off and bring those inside in pots over each winter.

The adult plant is going to fruit like bananaman88 said and you could easily chop it down too far. I did that last year. Here's the thread that shows the pics. I don't know why but the pics weren't in my photo album to be able to just insert into this post. Chopped D. Orinoco Bloom

Anyway, it sure is fun pushing the zone and overwintering plants. Makes winter not so bad! Good luck!

Deb

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Abnshrek

If your plant is 3ft by the time you stick in the ground late april-may by mid-sept you should expect a flower or better unless you have an unusually cool summer.. and that's with proper water and good soil. I know in kentucky it gets nice & hot in the summer like down here. I'd like to see how its fares in the great white north by the end of summer :^) Good Luck

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Kevin

Good to know, but remember, the growing season here is shorter than yours. I won't be putting anything in the ground in late April! I doubt I can get another foot of p-stem on it by then, but I am hoping for good weather during the summer, and lots of compost to get it growing fast.

Another question: Since this variety is frost hardy, and I have it growing inside now, what would happen if I put it outside when it is still freezing at night? Would it be best to keep it inside until the outside temps are more what it is experiencing now? That would be early June for me.

CookieCows

I didn't get mine dug up last fall before temps dipped into the high 30's and a lot of leaves turned brown died. I wait until our lows are in the low 50's before I plant outside. Now basjoo is probably different. They tolorate really low temps and we plan on getting a lot of those this year.

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ewitte

Mine stayed out all winter Except the leaves were wrapped around it for insulation and tied up. Seems fine even with a week in the teens to mid 20's. Already getting a few days in the 70's!