snoggle

Hello all,

I'm new to the world of banana growing. I have a 10 x 12 glass/wood greenhouse that will be heated in the winter. I have had my banana plants about a month. One is a double mahoi and the other is a dwarf red. They're currently is smaller pots, but I know they'll need to be repotted soon since they are growing quite nicely.

I have one container like this one: Oval Stock Tank 40 gal - 2229846 | Tractor Supply Company that my husband bought when he attempted goat ownership (lasted a whopping 2 days, LOL) and I thought I could buy a second one and put them both in these after putting in some drainage holes.

I've read that it is better to have wide rather than deep containers. I'm also concerned that if I have them in very tall containers they'll be growing into the ceiling of my greenhouse. It is 9 -10 ft. tall in the center, so I'd like to plant them "low" if possible. Do you guys think these will work pretty well? Will these be large enough?

Thanks a ton!
Sarah

Jack Daw

Hi Sarah,

well, to answer all your questions...
Yes, the wider the pot, the better. Bananas are herbs, growing similarly as grass. They don't need very much space downwards, but they need lots of the space in horizontal line. The taller the variety, the better stability will it need from the root system.

40 gallon is good enough for a smaller plant, but as your Mahoi will be closing on to maturity, you will want to give it much more space and soil to have lots of quality fruit.

Each variety has some max height it can grow to. In your case this height shouldn't be more than 2.5m, regardless of what shape of pot u use.

Good luck and keep us posted.

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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sunfish

The double stays pretty short , mine is two years old ,and 7' from ground to top of leaves.I have a dwarf red about the same age ,10' from ground to top of leaves.

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Tony,Thanks

snoggle

What size container will I need for the Mahoi when it is "closing on to maturity"? TSC has another stock tank just like the one I posted, but 110 gallons. Would I need to go that much bigger? The 40 gal. one we have is up in the barn, so it's hard for me to visualize the size of the bigger one. I'm just not sure how well that will fit in the greenhouse.

What I meant by "planting them low" was that I don't want a lot of extra height taken up by a tall planter with the plant only using the top half or so of the soil. Maybe I can put the planter down in the ground for the taller dwarf red (we don't have the gravel "floor" in the greenhouse yet) to gain another foot or so.

sunfish

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Tony,Thanks

snoggle

Well I just measured the height of my greenhouse. I overestimated earlier. It is only 8 1/2 feet high in the center. So, I guess I'll be burying the stock tank/planter by this winter to get an extra foot or more since the dwarf red can get so tall.