kbrown12887

Hi Everyone! I am new to the forum... well actually joined a while ago but just finally activated.

I was hoping to get some information on anyone who has successfully grown bananas in Massachusetts area. I have to DC bananas (since last September) and they are still only around 5 inches high (slightly larger than when I purchased them). I didn't fertilize them much until this past weekend. I also added a good handful of compost to give them more nutrients. They are in a small container (about the size of a standard US 1 gallon container). Should I transplant them to a larger container? I was thinking I should wait until they got bigger but they haven't grown much. They keep producing new healthy leaves (at about the rate of 1 per week to two weeks) but never get any taller. The lowest temperature they reached in the winter was about 50 degrees (we kept them in my mothers room with cathedral ceilings and skylights but it is north facing). Sometimes I also brought them near the wood stove in the kitchen and kept them near a window (not too much light but they were very warm and I sprayed frequently to keep humidity up). Also, I made a little makeshift greenhouse around it (just took barbeque skewers and placed around the edges of the pot and put saran wrap around them so it is about 6 inches high around the edges of the pot, with the top completely open.

Does anyone have any suggestions that about when I should transplant/nutrients/etc... I want to eventually get bananas from these babies!

Thanks!

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Investments in educating yourself will always produce the best returns. -"Benjamin Franklin"

kbrown12887

Thank you!

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Investments in educating yourself will always produce the best returns. -"Benjamin Franklin"

RandyGHO

look in youtube. There is a guy I think in New England tries to grow bananas and post some interesting videos. Here is one of them.

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Thinking outside the peel always.

palmtree

Welcome! Im in NYC so its a bit of a different climate than New England, but I'm not too far away. I have 5 banana species currently, I thinned my collection down from last year when I had about 8. We had a ton of heat last summer so the bananas all grew a lot in heoght. Make sure to give your bananas lots of water and lots of heat (dont water unless it's hot outside). And fertilizer high in nitrogen would be great to add during the heat of summer. My bananas really havent grown much yet this spring (other than my Ensete Maurelli which is a much more cool tolerant banana it seems) and they dont seem to grow fast until temperatures are consistently in the 80s. My Basjoos are just sprouting from the ground now.

Welcome again! Hope you learn a lot. You can DEFINITELY grow bananas in New England!

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Location: New York City, zone 7b

william sienes

Hi!

For me, I'm not familiar on the characteristic of bananas on your area because of your diffferent climate. For us in the Philippines, we transplanted tissue cultured bananas even as it is only 6 inches tall.