Generally all bananas should be grown in the same manner and this guide can help you grow strong fast fruiting bananas!

 Bananas can grow in full sun to shade. If they are grown in full sun, they should receive more water than if grown in 50-80% shade as the sun will suck the moisture out and the leaves will fold down during the hottest part of the day.  Keep in mind that the sun’s hot rays can sometimes burn the leaves of full-sun grown bananas. If you wish to keep your banana plants looking excellent at all times, I recommend growing them in about 35-50% shade. They will not grow as fast in shade and will take longer to bear fruit but they will always look perky, pretty and very healthy.

 Plant in an area based on the size of your banana’s species and give it enough space for the leaves to spread out. Most bananas will grow to about 12 feet wide in leaf spans counting full diameter. Some species are smaller and some are larger. Please see care sheet on your specific variety.

 Bananas love to be mulched and is recommended to all for best growth. The mulch holds in moisture and while it decays, creates added nutrients for your plants. Since bananas are heavy feeders and drinkers, it is important to keep a continual supply of food for them. If you have Oak trees (or if your neighbor does), place as many dead leaves as you can around the base of your planted banana plant. The acidic levels in oak leaves produce an excellent food source and also act as mulch. The more biodegradable composting components around the base of your banana, the better. It will grow so fast you wont be able to keep count of the new leaves! This information really cant be stressed enough for good growth.

 Water your banana whenever you feel like (once established) but make sure that the soil the plants are living is well draining. They do like water but do not like standing water. Standing water can cause corm rot and/or could stunt the growth or even kill it eventually. They can stand short periods of standing water, but as a rule they don’t sit well in that environment.

 Soil: A Good soil mix for bananas is 1/3^rd compost (if available), 1/3^rd rich potting soil and 1/3^rd perlite (for good drainage). If you don’t have access to compost, just mix the parts ½ and ½ and they will do just fine. They do prefer a more acidic soil and compost will do that for you. You can’t really go wrong, bananas are not too particular with soil type but the worst type of soil is a clay/loam soil. Some say that theirs do well in a clay soil, and if you’re one of those people, then hats off to you. But as rule, the clay/loamy types are not well draining enough and very hard for the roots to spread. They prefer a soft soil for their roots to grow. I have even planted a few bananas in pure oak leaves as an experiment and watched them grow with lightning speed! Talk about well drained, these things ate up every bit of fertilizer and drank gallons of water through out the season. 

 Banana roots like to grow outward more than deep, so keep this in mind. The outward reach of the roots helps support the bananas in windy conditions and also keeps their food supply up. Once a banana is established it can grow to full size and bear fruit within the first season. It depends on how much light, water and warm weather it received during its growing season. If a banana is grown in shade it will most likely be the following season that it bears fruit. Some bananas will mature faster than others so please read about your specific variety for more details.

 Bananas are not salt tolerant in general and should not be grown in salty beach sand. I learned the hard way a few years ago when I used some coquina rocks taken from a local beach here and used them around the base of the bananas for decoration. After about a month they were not growing and after about 2 months I realized what I had done. I thought that the rocks were washed good enough but apparently not. After I removed the plants from that area, they began to grow like mad again.

 Containers: If you are planning on keeping your bananas in a container, I recommend a large as possible container. Most can produce fruit grown in a container but they will not reach their full potential in maximum size. I have some in containers just for that purpose. They stay as small as the container is and make excellent patio/porch plants. Some will tolerate indoor life as well but make sure that you mist the leaves on a regular basis to keep them from browning.

 Frost Protection: Bananas are a bit more cold tolerant than some people admit and even though they do not do well in a frost/freeze, it will not kill the plant unless the weather stays too cold for too long. Some bananas are not as tolerant as others but there are a few sweet fruit producers that will easily take quite a few freezes during the winter and come right back when the weather warms up again.

 If you live in an area that will freeze or get winter frosts, you should mulch heavily around the base of the plants, cover them with frost cloths, or even cut them down and cover the corm (main root) with a thick layer of soil. 

If your area will only suffer a few frosts, it is better to cover them with frost cloths. If they are going to suffer a few mild freezes, covering wont really help unless you have added heat to the area. If not, no big deal. The leaves will look terrible but I leave them on during the cold weeks to allow the dead leaves to take the cold damage and then cut it down about 6 inches above ground when all threat of freeze is gone. This will promote babies and shorten the re-growth time. All the new pups that grow will bear fruit as well and will be strong plants that you can either leave where they are to form a stand/fence of bananas or can separate by simply cutting straight down with a sharp, clean shovel and getting a couple roots for transplant. 

Transplanting: You should remove all the leaves from a transplanted banana to allow the plant to retain moisture. This is why when you received it from us there were not too many leaves. They will usually wilt anyway and it just looks better faster when you trim it. Don’t worry, they will grow back rapidly! 

If you use fertilizers, make sure that you place the right amount (see label of fertilizer for measuring) and sprinkle it about 1-3 feet away from base of banana. About where the end of the leaves are is best for an established plant. Their root system will pick it right up and love it! They don’t need to be fertilized to grow fast but it is fun to watch them grow faster and is better for fruit production. You really can’t over fertilize your bananas and I like a quick release type. These should be used about every 2-3 weeks. If you want a great tip for growing tropicals, try using 1 cup of Epsom’s salts (Magnesium sulphate) and sprinkle it around the base every 3-4 weeks. Not too many know about this but the tropicals will eat it up! It is extremely difficult to over feed a banana plant once it is established. However, winter fertilizing is not suggested.

Different banana fruit will mature faster than others so please see specific information about your bananas for fruit maturation on the Banana Page.  If we are aware of when it fruits, then it will be in the description.

I hope this is helpful and we thank you for choosing us to fill your garden with good looking plants!

David Mattocks