Banana Care is Here

Bananas for most are a symbol of the tropics, a desired effect for many people in their temperate gardens. The hardiness for some has been overstated. Our experience has led us to call it like this: if on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the hardiest so far) Musa basjoo is a solid 10, Musa sikkimensis would get a 8.5 and Musella lasiocarpa a 6.5 or 7. Musa sikkimensis needs a warmer area than Musa basjoo to leaf out in spring and Musella lasiocarpa a even warmer area. A established Musa sikkimensis approaches the hardiness of M. basjoo but as a smaller plant does not come back if it gets cut to the ground by severe or extended cold spells.

Wholesale prices are available to the trade only. Use the contact form to request access to the wholesale page

Musa basjoo ( the Japanese fiber banana) can be reliably grown in temperate gardens. I have feed back showing cases of having survived temperatures of 0 f without protection and -20 f with protection. Coming to cultivation in the west from Ryuku islands, off the south Japan coast, a mature Musa basjoo will grow 18-20 feet tall with leaves on the order of 2 feet wide and 6 feet long. A one-gallon Musa basjoo will grow to about 5 feet in the first year and produce many off sets (pups). A large clump reaching to 10 feet can be expected in the second year and mature height in the third. With plenty of food and water a Musa basjoo can produce a new leaf in 7-10 days.

The six pack sale is back! Check out the On-Line sales page to order.

Prices: 1 gallon ~ $15.00, 3 gallon ~ $35.00 5 gallon ~ $45.00

Read about banana care by going to the care pages

This robust banana originates from east India and Bhutan. Growing fast to 15-18 feet with a pseudo stem (trunk) up to 15 inches in diameter, and with waxy medium green leaves with red back sides. In the spring, red painting on some of the new leaves may be found. Our experience so far is M. sikkimensis is not as tough as M. basjoo and there is need for warmer days than M. basjoo to come out of dormancy. Appearing to grow much more prolific in warm areas or sited in warm microclimates in cooler gardens. Information coming out the hotter parts of the country we are hearing about better tolerance to intense heat than Musa basjoo. It is looking as if we can safely say as a mature plant the hardiness of M. sikkimensis and M. basjoo are comparable at this point in the evaluation. Having originally been found at 6000 feet in Darjeeling, hardiness was expected to be good. Care would be the same as for Musa basjoo. Only just a few 5 gallon left.

Prices: 1 gallon=$15.00

I get quite a number of calls every spring about when the banana will come back from the winter damaged trunk. If the trunk was severely frozen the banana does not come back from last years pseudostem. Bananas are a corm. The new growth comes back from some where else on the corm, unless of course the pseudostem did not get damaged. I have had many winters where the older bananas with their very fat trunks have only frozen down to maybe half the original height. Then they will come back! The image at right is from a little test I did last year to attempt to find the smallest potted size banana planted in June with no winter protection and would come back. This was a 1 gallon container, fed very heavily and cared for quite well. It got to about 5 feet tall before winter. The arrow points to the old main trunk. One can see by how close the new growth is the corm is not all that large yet. If you where able to notice on the home page that cluster of new growth is about 18 or more inches across.

Planting hardy bananas

Bananas require heavy watering and feeding during the growing season to be at their best. Full sun is optimum but they will grow in partial shade; this is mostly true for Musa basjoo. For Musa sikkimensis and Musella lasiocarpa, full sun seems to be best. Beware of planting in windy sites as the thin leaves are easily torn. Of course the island look isn't all bad! It is best to not allow the soil to dry out in the growing season. Good drainage is essential and, although it seems impossible to over-water, bananas will not survive in standing water. We use a soil mix that is about 30 percent sand, 30 percent native soils (including clays), and the remainder consisting of compost.

Feeding Bananas

Being gross feeders, bananas appreciate plenty of fertilizer. We use 21-7-14 in the spring after the first leaves start to grow. Then, on alternating months, we rotate between 21-0-0 and 21-7-14 during the growing season. We stop the high nitrogen about a month before we expect our first major freeze and fertilize with 0-10-10. Enough can not be said about the importance of lots of nitrogen. We are asked fairly often about why customer's bananas aren't as big as ours; most often it is fertilizer, followed by lack of water. With good growing conditions, a new leaf every 5 days or so is possible.