Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

I have a three year old dwarf red variegated banana...This year it has finally REALLY taken off...the main stalk is about 4 feet tall and it has about 4 other shoots that vary from about a foot to two feet tall in the same container. I'm really proud of it.

We had a storm come through and I knew it was best to move it to the garage for a bit...However when I lifted it, it had one good sized, one medium, and one small "tap" roots unbeknown to me coming out of the bottom of the pot. These tore off...it's been hot and this surely helped the plant thrive this year...anything I should do or be aware of or will it be fine? I'd really hate to lose it.

Thanks!
Justin

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

Hi Justin,
Bananas are remarkable plants and are capable of taking quite a bit of abuse. Since the plant has almost all of its roots still in the container with the exception of the tap root, I would say it should be fine. The biggest threat you might face is increased water stress and some shock, but I would say nothing that might kill the plant. If you put it back outside, I would just watch for signs of heat stress (this has been a big problem for mine this year with the record heat) now that it's lost its tap root. Also, roots growing out like that can be a sign the plant is ready to pot up to a larger container. Do you happen to know how large the tap root was in diameter? Hope this helps!

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

The main root portion was between 1/8 and 1/4 inch. I know it needs potted pretty quick...those other shoots are making it really crowded. It is in a 12 wide by 14 or so tall plastic pot. Looking for something around 16x16 next. Is there an optimal time to repot? It seemed just as happy to grow leaves indoors in the winter as outside in the summer.

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

no tap roots on bananas so relax

now that you are calm get a larger container and pot it up

root circling is assured if it's been in there a while, this should be dealt with

most recommend cutting down the outsides of the rootball
How to plant a potted tree - YouTube
I personally like to wash off as much dirt as I can and comb the roots with my fingers. I don't like to damage roots on my valuable plants or one of a kind, new favorite, etc.
sometimes this can double or triple the root "footprint"

For bulk work with ornamentals I'm quite brutal with a sharp shovel.

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

damn 2 replies while I was typing that? wow
of course I had to go find a video :2738:

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

In a pot your anchor roots are fairly useless, don't worry.

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots
 

Ah 1/8 to 1/4 root should be nothing to worry about. Yep, pups growing with the mother plant can definitely start to really crowd out the pot, but that's a good sign that plant is healthy and growing a good root system. A 12x14 pot is a pretty good size, I would say at that point you could make a fairly large jump in pot size from that. The optimum time to repot is in mid-spring once the plant has actively started growing and is putting out new growth, however, most tropicals can be repotted in spring, summer, and fall easily. I just repotted my Ice Cream three weeks ago and its doing much better. Although, I will say growth has slowed notable as its stretching its roots out into all that new soil. I've started using smart pots which are supposed to help support a healthy root system and prevent plants from becoming root bound. I haven't used them long enough to completely recommend them, but so far my bananas seem to love them. Plus, they're quite a bit cheaper than equivalently sized plastic pots. That's great it did so well overwintering indoors. This is my first year with my plants, and I've never had really good success with overwintering bananas in the past, so I'm glad to hear your dwarf red did so well indoors. Did you do anything special? By the way, at some point, it might be good to remove the pups. That can help take stress off of the mother plant and give it more room for its root system. Unfortunately, I've never done this before, so I really can't help out too much there, but there are many people and posts that would definitely know the best way. I believe the best time is if there are 2 or more and if they're at least a foot and a half in height.

Re: Moved Container Grown Banana and tore tap roots