Quote:
Originally Posted by MinnesotaNole
This spring my son wanted to get a banana tree. Living in Minnesota I thought this was crazy, but I saw on a site I have bought many trees from that a dwarf cavendish could be grown in a pot outdoors in the summer and brought inside for the winter, so I thought why not. The plant was doing great outside, its sprouted up to about 5ft tall. Fast forward to today, we have moved the plant inside next to our sliding glass door in our kitchen/dining room. Now the leaves are starting to turn brown and starting to die off. I am just wondering if anyone might have some thoughts what I can do to help this plant survive the winter until I can get it back outside. I have cut back on watering it, only watering when the top inch or two of the soil is dry. Do you think its not getting enough sunlight, do I need to go buy a grow light? We keep the house around 70 degrees in the winter. Hopefully the images posted show up.
Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.
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Because of such unforgiving winters and transplant shock and culture and light and water changes, it really is best (unless you have a greenhouse!) to treat your bananas as perennial bulbs and winter over in a dark and cool, DRY spot with temps to be controlled around low 60s F.
Cut back to 1/3 present size and store. Do not water while dormant!
They will react much more vibrantly when you plant the stored corms in late spring.
Your summer is not long enough to get natural height or proper fruiting in one growing season, so treat them as spectacular foliage plants in summer, but store in winter.
Best of Luck!
Gone Bananas,
Mark Anthony