Generally, all Banana Plants should be grown in this manner & this guide can help you grow strong, vigorous fruiting & ornamental banana plants!

 Banana plants can grow in full sun to complete 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 retain their perky, pretty and very healthy appearance. Some banana plants depending on variety will not bear fruit in full shade. The White skinned Misi-Luki is one that seems to take a long time to grow in a pure shade environment.

 You should plant your banana plants in an area based on the size of your banana species and give it enough space for the leaves to spread out. Most bananas will grow to about 10-12 feet wide in leaf spans counting full diameter. Some species are smaller and some are larger. Since it is reported that there are around 500 species of Musa varieties, please use the description from on your specific variety. Just as your banana plant will want to grow a nice leaf spread (some large enough to create shade), it is best that you also provide a root system of a minimum 3-4 ft in diameter if you want them to fruit.

 Banana plants love to be mulched and is recommended to all for best growth. The mulch holds in moisture and while it decays, creates added nutrients and beneficial bacteria for your plant's consumption. 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 decaying oak leaves produce an excellent food source and also acts 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. Some other excellent soil amendments are Epsom salts, beer, and just because it will aid in the breakdown process of your soil, a handful of vermiculture (worms).

 When you repot or freshly pot up a banana plant, do not pack the soil tightly. This rule applies to any plant, whether it is indoors or out. When the soil is too compact, it will not allow for roots to find a new place, stunt the plant and die or stay stunted for a long time. If you notice no new growth in rapid growing plants, this is one thing you should check for is compacted soil to start. If you are able to pack your soil too tightly , you should also think about changing your amendments so that it is not even able to be packed to tightly. Compacted soils, other than not allow the plants to grow via the root system also retain too much moisture and can cause rot of the main corm or bulb. When planting in the ground, it is easier to make sure that the soil has enough organic matter, fresh organic matter and even small pebbles that will not allow them become root bound within their planted area.

 Water your banana plant whenever you feel like (once established), but make sure that the soil the plants are living in is well draining. They do like water, but generally 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. this is more common in smaller plants than larger, older corm grown plants. Once the banana tree has formed a corm 4 inches in diameter and larger, they are almost indestructible.

 More about Soil: A Good soil mix for growing banana plants is 1/3^rd compost (if available), 1/3^rd rich potting soil and 1/3^rd perlite for good drainage or if you have available, small pebbles (actually works better than perlite). Dried cow manure is excellent as a soil additive or topping to allow to seep into when watering. 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. When growing bananas, you can’t really go wrong unless you fully neglect the plants from starter size and even then if it was planted in a perfect spot, may just give you a surprise. Bananas plants are not too particular with soil type, but the worst type of soil is a heavy or mostly clay/loam soil that retains too much moisture. Some say that theirs do well in a clay soil, and if you’re one of those people, then hats off to you. I haven't had that success with clay type soil conditions. As rule, the clay/loamy types are not well draining enough and very hard for the roots to spread, gather moisture at times and get the needed oxygen and nutrients that it will devour. They prefer a softer soil for their roots to grow and if you have nothing else, sand can be great. I have even planted a few banana plants in a pure pile of 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. I did have to keep the water supply to them at first. I also added some worms just to get them going then instead of waiting a couple weeks for them to show up on their own.

 Banana plant roots like to grow outward more than deep, so keep this in mind. The outward reach of the roots helps to support and anchor the banana plants in windy conditions as well as for future fruit production and also keeps their nutrient intake active. The roots of the Musa variety is called a corm. you may think of it like a potato. The potato that we all eat is the actual main propagating root of the plant. If you purchase a fresh, plain store bought potato to eat and plant it instead, it will grow into a small flowering bush in about 3-4 weeks and give you a few more potatoes that extend from the roots. If those potatoes were left to stay in the ground, all the edible portions would grow into new potato plants. Potatoes are so easy to grow that you can even section the roots up (separating the eyes that show new growth with a sharp cutting instrument) and those will grow without one single feeder root present in breathtaking speed. The carrot plant is another good example for showing similarities to the growth habits of banana corms and elephant ear plant corms. Carrots can even be bought from your grocer after being stored in a cooler for weeks), remove the top portion of the carrot that has the vegetation on them and plant that with no present feeder roots and that too will grow into a new carrot plant. The same thing happens with Banana plants and their corms. Although I would not recommend removing all the feeder roots if transplanting, it is possible to grow a vigorous group of banana plants from just one large corm that has no feeder roots at all.

Banana plants, mostly referred to incorrectly as Banana 'trees' will eat and drink continually when allowed to do so. Once a banana tree plant is established it can grow to full size and bear fruit within the first season (if planted early), but the rule is two growing seasons or 18 months. This ultimately depends on the quality of AND the cultivar and also depends on how much light, water and warm weather it received during its growing first season. If a banana is grown in shade it will most likely be the following or even the third season that it bears fruit. Some bananas will mature faster than others so please read about your specific variety for more details.

 Fruiting Bananas - Because Musa banana plant varieties vary in time and age of when fruiting occurs, it is difficult to say exactly when they will or will not begin the fruiting process. I have had one variety begin their fruiting cycle as late as mid august and have also had the same begin their bloom cycle as early as April. When these banana plants do begin to fruit, you will notice a different leaf emerging if you're able to view the area where the leaves grow. in any case, soon enough it should look like a sturdy yet slender leaf, very short, followed by the bloom stem. If your variety is known to have a more thin trunk (pseudostem) that is less wind resistant than other varieties, then a proper supporting device should be used to keep the banana plant from falling over after waiting weeks for your fruit to ripen. Water plentiful during the fruiting months, this will give the pseudostem more strength and help support the fruit bunches as well. even with the Orinoco banana, I have had them lean too far over and break without warning about a month before harvest. Unripe bananas do NOT taste good. They are bitter and suck the moisture from your mouth just as if you tasted the inside of the banana peel.

This is easy to accomplish. You can use any stable wooden or metal stake that has a wide and blunt area to rest against the moisture filled stalk, stem, trunk (what ever you wish to call it). It should be firmly attached so it doesn't slip off, but given enough room for natural wind motion without scraping. A plastic based, somewhat elastic tape can do the trick to secure your support and should hold up until harvest time. It is important to note that when you first notice it blooming, you should add another dose of immediately release fertilizer high in high phosphorus NPK ratio with mega micro-nutrients around the leaf's drip line or just about a 1-2 feet outward from its base so that the feeder roots will absorb it. Read the ingredients before buying and make the salt content is low. A slow release will keep feeding it while the bananas mature. This will help your hands hopefully bear more and be more robust. water as much as possible during this time, especially when grown full sun positions.

 Most banana plants differ in the color of fruit and maturing time so please check to see the estimated time for your particular cultivar's skin color and time frame. Judge accordingly. If you have enough on the bunch then when you think it might be ready, pick one and give a little taste test. unripe bananas are terrible and resemble the taste of the skin giving that dry mouth effect.

 Although the blooms are very beautiful, once you notice that no more fruits are forming you can reduce the stress on the pseudostem by removing the lower portion of that bloom. If you think the weight will not be stressful to the plant, then enjoy it as long as you can. I generally remove them once I am certain no more fruit will be forming. They should be removed while leaving about 12" from the last hand of fruit to make sure that any rotting does not contaminate the fruit. This also can give just that much more energy to your fruiting plant harvest.

     If you wish to leave the flowers blooming, you may use them as medicine (you should do your own research as to how to use these flowers) and allow them to grow until they stop producing flowers on its own and then remove the excess fruiting stem to reduce stress from the fruiting parts.

  If your fruit is maturing near the cold weather or you think it will, pay close attention. Some have said (and I'm not positive of the source or if it is true but will look into this), that if exposed to temperatures lower than 57ºF the fruit will not fully ripen. I am not sure how true this is. If the fruit is grey then it is not going to ripen and has succumbed to the cold weather as I remember reading. Personally I have had Orinoco varieties ripen in temperatures lower than 50 (average 24 hour lows in a week) in their final stages and they were perfect. I allowed them to turn yellow on the Banana plant to get the best flavor. Since I mentioned it, the Orinoco is a great tasting banana that is one of the more colder hardy varieties available. The flavor of the Orinoco and Dwarf Orinoco rival that of a store bought cavendish in my opinion and my kids as well.

 Banana plants 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 normally will not reach their full potential in maximum size and eventually if a small pot is used, will be stunted. I have some in containers just for that purpose to keep them smaller. 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.  There are exceptions. I have some in 30 gallon containers that are now about 9 feet tall. I am waiting for the fruit. They are taking advantage of the worm content and oak leaf/dead banana leaf compost that is contained around them. I still do fertilize these plants. They will grow stronger and faster outside of container environments.

     Winter and 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 won't 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 more of the cold damage and then cut it down about 6 inches above ground when all threat of freeze is gone. This applies only to non-fruiting types mainly. Or if I think that I can wait another 2 seasons and the landscape calls for it, I will do this with the fruiting varieties as well. 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. 

     Winter Fruiting of Banana Plants: I have read many reports and have had conversations with people in the north that will dig their full size banana plants up and store them with leaves trimmed in the garage or under the house until spring. This doesn't hurt them if they are not left to fully dry out. They should resume their growth in spring. This is a good way to ensure a fruiting season for those of you in the northern states with short growing seasons.

     If you live in areas where it will freeze and your banana plants will get damaged, try as ugly as it is, to leave on the dead, frost-burned leaves. This will allow your banana plant the pleasure of obtaining maturity that much faster. when they are cut to the ground after a freeze or for the winter, the fruiting process will begin all over again as if you had just planted them from a pup.

      Transplanting: You should remove all the leaves down to the middle (newest leaf) from a transplanted banana to allow the plant to retain moisture and to pillow the transition from one area to another. This is why when you received it from us there are 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 plant depending on size of plant. Or about where the end of the leaves are (the drip line) 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 about every 3 -5 weeks. These should be used about every 3-5 weeks along with a slow release thrown on top for continual feedings.

     You should halt the fertilization about a month before you know winter approaches. The plants will not be able to grow with the food and you can burn or kill plants fertilizing during cold weeks of the year. Here is a great tip for growing tropicals during the growing season, try using 1 cup of Epsom 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!  actually most plants will love this amendment and treat. It is extremely difficult to over feed a banana plant once it is established. However, again winter fertilizing is not suggested unless there are plenty of warm periods between the cold ones.

     Different banana cultivars will fruit and mature faster than others so please see specific information about your bananas for fruit maturation on the Banana Page if the information is available it will be on those pages. 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 Central Florida Farms to fill your garden with good looking, healthy and interesting plants!

David Mattocks