Good companion plants for bananas
 

What are some good plants that bananas will coexist with? Do any for example Cannas transmit diseases to Bananas?

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

I've been reading about sweet potatoes, lemon grass and taro. (I planted sweet potatoes beside mine before I read anything and everyone is happy.) I have read that tomatoes and other veggies work well; they may not be happy with shade. I don't know so I"m watching this thread.

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

i live in idaho and its not too humid here so for the summer time im putting tons of ivey and water in pots on the ground and during the day it will soak up all that water and the ivey helps keep the humidty up. though ill still have to water twice a day :P

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

I have Cannas beside mine and they look really good, especially the yellow ones. I thought about getting different kinds of gingers as well. I bought some Pink China elephant ears that are hardy to zone 6, maybe 5 with lots of mulch ( supposed to be the hardiest elephant ear there is) but kinda wondering if they might push the bananas around. I have three plants in small pots, and they have already made 3 more baby plants in 1 week. I might wait to put them around the Bananas when the Bananas are much, much taller.:08:

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

Figs, peaches, plums, sugar cane, grapefruit, che, pecans, limes, passion fruit, boysenberries, cherimoya, coffee, etc.

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My tomato's went buck wild, Cayenne pepper is doing awesome, and cucumbers are delivering these days.. :^)

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I'm going to be growing legumes (beans, peas, etc.) underneath my bananas this winter. It should both provide a small degree of cold protection and enrich the soil with more nitrogen. The campus garden manager also planted squash underneath my Namwah and they got along very well.

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Good idea with the nitrogen fixing beans, I bet there are ornamental beans of some sort that would look good under them.

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Maybe some Scarlett runner beans like this as long as they didn't smother the banana plant.

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My grandmother was a full blood Cherokee, and she told me her grandfather used to grow beans on corn as a trellis as a space saver. They would probably stick to the pseudostem because the leaves are too floppy.

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Careful with those canna. I was growning tons if them around my bananas and unless you have a very vigorous plant they will compete for nutrients. After I ripped them out it was amazing how much faster my bananas started growing.

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My bananas are in black landscape containers and my companion plant of choice is Oxalis aka Shamrock.
It comes in two leaf colors green and purple has nice flowers and is edible.
The plant does a good job of hiding the containers
It is an inexpensive fast grower, does not seem to compete with the banana and goes DORMANT when I overwinter them and the root is very resilient.

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What are about strawberry as a ground cover?

I ordered 25 plants, I just have space for about 10 of them.

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Damn, all in the same 30 gal pot lol

I like dat me:}

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I'm sure you can put them in hanging baskets too.. :^)

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Why not strawberries? They're not heavy feeders and don't have deep roots. I assume you'd mulch them which benefit your bananas; the plants themselves would act as a living mulch IMO. And they produce fruit a lot faster! ;)

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Bamboo!






(Sorry for the crappy pics)

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I plant tapioca, yucca root, taro, ginger and papaya next to my bananas. Since this is the tropics, everything grows year round. My 14 foot dwarf bananas are gigantic so I don't think there any nutrient issues.

All the plants get watered automatically twice a day and get a regular diet of horse manure compost and zoo compost.

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I planted some Golden Bamboo, and I am going to plant my Mekong giant by it next year. I'm glad I have a big yard lol.

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I hear bamboo can be extremely difficult to manage and get rid of. I'm sticking to edible cover crops. :ha:

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For the clumping types I doubt it would be a problem, but for the running types like mine yikes! If you plant the running types make sure you have a big place to put them, the people I got the start from said that they bought theirs 5 year ago as a 2 cuttings, and now the patch is about 60 foot long, and 25 or 30 feet high. They had 3 types but I got the golden bamboo from them because I noticed this summer when it was 100 degrees and our state being in drought like conditions, it was still green and healthy looking in their yard with no watering.

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Pineapples , Never plant hot peppers they may cross and ruin the taste of your bananas

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Seriously? Peppers are basically self fertile but I know they will cross. I also know you should never plant a currant tomato near your other tomatoes and save seeds unless you want to chance growing crackers the following year.

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Cause they are.....banana peppers? lol

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Just kidding :08:

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

Dredging this back up...still thinking circles...

I've been reading about Ostrich ferns which would be very iffy here but are grown by at least 1 person in the area it seems. They need wet and shade; I'm thinking bananas could provide the shade and wet is a given. (Fiddleheads are yummy!) They can become somewhat invasive in ideal circumstances which FL is not; I think I could control the spread. Any reasons why not?

Also, what about garlic? They love mulch and hate competition but need sun so on the outer edges would be my choice. SF, would it be best to plant them near plantains? BTW, garlic gives some pest control benefits to many plants. Would bananas also like them?

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Monkey Grass?????:}

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Pinto beans

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

Might be a little warm for them there, I would provide lots of shade. These Northern Maidenhair ferns grow wild in my back yard in 105 degree temps in summer( In shade of course), and have a tropical look. I started a tray of spores a few months back and have lots of babies starting so I think they are pretty easy to cultivate. If they are not hardy there, there are tropical versions of the maidenhair available.










Here are some germinating spores, 7 days after being sown.

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

liriope looks cool, is easy to propagate too. I got a pot at lowes this summer for 4 dollars and split it into about 25 plants, all survived.

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Of course they all survived. Talk about invasive! I put some around a red maple when I lived up north. I shipped boxes of it free (you pay shipping) to a bunch of people when I got rid of it. Haha! It was still there! Anyone who sells that along with pachysandra, myrtle and ivy without full disclosure should be shot! I'm looking for ferns that produce fiddleheads for sauteing and pickling. Some ferns you just can't eat.

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Way too much work. So are sesame seeds, lentils and a few others.

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Never tried to eat fiddleheads. There are a bunch of different types of wild ferns growing out back, but they dont look too yummy lol. We have ladyferns and they are supposed to be edible, they also tolerate more sun than most. Bracken is supposed to be edible but I would stay away from it, its full of carcinogens. I may try some of the lady fern just for the heck of it.

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Sweet Potatoes...

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Report back if you can. ;)

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Where'e the banana? I promised pictures today but got sidetracked making onion jam and canning some sweet peppers. I do have sweet potatoes, planted very late, next to my DC. Who, by the way, now has 4 pups! YEAH! (Okay, 2 you can barely see but they're there!)

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Onion jam?! lol

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I went with a slightly spicy version; I smoked jalapenos earlier in the week. Okay, I winged it--combined 2 recipes and made my own. It's really very good but I still don't understand how 1 1/2 lbs of red onions becomes 1 cup when complete.

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My grandmother used to make preserves and it would smell the whole house up, I bet the onions are reallllly strong.

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I did it over 2 days with 3 days off in between. PU!

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LOL!

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coconuts

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I wish I could grow palms here, I have thought about buying a majesty palm because they are cheap, and large for the price, cutting off all the leaves, wrapping it in burlap, and sticking it in my unattached garage for the winter to see if it would live.

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I did get some windmill palm seed but it seems palms are just as stubborn as Bananas to germinate.:2753:

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In the nursery trade "companion plants" are considered a ploy to sell more plants, and not anything horticulturally relevant.

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Agreed. Under the normal stupid landscaping definition companions can even be pachysandra and ivy because, when 1st planted, they look really pretty. A few years later, not so much.

I don't buy into much of the "these plants don't play well with these" stuff (okay, fennel and carrots and dill-NO and black walnuts are verbotten) so I guess I think of companion plants as being those who share the same needs, get along and don't overwhelm the main crop. Bonus if they help deter pests but not necessary. With that in mind, I'm looking for good "bed buddies" for my bananas and other plants. Marigolds are the standard recommended for all plants it seems...I'm kind of a snob...I prefer Tagetes patula...they don't stink quite as much.

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Luffa

you can never have too many

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Met a really cool lady at a Flea market who handed me 40+ seeds to grow! This luffa virgin can hardly wait to plant them!

BTW, those of you you think the 3 sisters garden is the panacea, think again. If you're growing dent/corn to be ground, beans to dry and pumpkins/squash with a long ripening time, fine because the harvest occurs at the same time. But the beans really give nothing back; they just don't take anything. Try picking sweet corn and green beans in a mass of vines and you'll soon be very frustrated. BTDT. Does keep the coons from getting theirs....

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

Re: Good companion plants for bananas
 

Nitrogen-fixing plants do not add nitrogen to the soil, but rather catalyze nitrogen that is already in the soil into a form that is more readily available to plants. In agriculture, the crops listed in the above link are generally grown in off-season and then plowed into the soil prior to planting.