Nancy

I suspect most people will tell you full sun. I'm guessing your summer conditions are fairly similar to mine in Tallahassee, though: hot and not as much rain as we used to get. Most of my bananas are to the east of my house, where they get direct sun all morning and then are protected from the afternoon sun where it's really hot. They're quite happy. My other bananas are to the west of my house, which is not nearly so good when they're small. However, the tall varieties pretty quickly grow beyond my roofline and are able to get plenty of sun while their roots spend most of the time in shade. The banana trees around my neighborhood that are in full sun all day routinely look pretty droopy when it's hot; mine look good as long as we get normal amounts of rain. I'd recommend looking around your immediate area and see how bananas look under various conditions. I routinely get flowers; if we don't get frost too early, I also get fruit.

As for the soil, I added quite a bit of peat moss and I make sure they get some compost (especially banana peels). Bananas like to eat and drink quite a bit.

Good luck!


Nancy