Aquariums and gardening.

[esoxlucius]

Need some advice on this bad boy Fishman Dave . I got my musa basjoo banana plant in Sept last year. It was tiny and almost dead when it came through the post. Fast forward to now, and as you can see, it's turning into a triffid!

My plan was to leave it in this pot as a house plant but I'm beginning to realise that is a bad idea. At the end of this summer this thing could be 8ft tall and 5ft wide!

I've researched overwintering them if they're outside, which seems easy enough. Cut back leaves and wrap basically. Would now be a good time to plant it in the garden, or would it be better just putting the pot outside and bring it indoors when the first frosts of winter start?

I've also just ordered two Ensete maurelii (red banana plant). These will need even more winter care than the Musa basjoo.

Deadeye , how's your banana faring?

 

[Fishman Dave]

Not something I have kept but personally I would start by taking it outside through the day and bring in at night. Then as nights are a little warmer leave it out over night by a wall (as a little warmer and protected). Just be prepared to bring it in if the weather turns and temps drop again towards freezing. This way your hardening it off until it can be left completely outside and put in the ground.
You could of course just wrap the pot in a towel or similar when you leave it out over night to start with to stop shock of cold round the pot.

 

[Deadeye]

My banana tree has been doing great! Not as tall as yours (it’s been in a rather small pot for a bit and was only recently transferred to a bigger one to get some size), but a lot of leaves. About 2-2.5 feet tall. It puts out a new one every week at the fastest.

It started similarly sized to your first pic but with only one or two leaves, browning and barely holding on. A bit of care and it shot up in growth.

I want to move it out soon, but the weather by me has been weird. Every time it creeps up to 70, it snows the next day. Once it’s consistently warmer I’ll keep it out. Not sure if I’ll bring it in for winter though. I’m sure once it gets a taste of summer weather it will start growing really fast.

 

[esoxlucius]

Mine came in a bad way but improved quite quickly. Spring is well and truly here in the UK and mine seems to sense it, as it has started growing a lot faster these past 3 or 4 weeks.

They don't half take some feeding and watering. Mine is planted in compost from my worm heap, it's like rocket fuel, lol. And it gets watered every day with old aquarium water which has also had my filter sponges washed out in it too. So it's getting some fantastic nutrient.

I am very quickly realising that this plant is not really an indoors plant. And I've two red ones coming soon, I'm going to have my hands full, lol.

 

[jjohnwm]

What a great thread, just found it for the first time. I will live vicariously through those of you who can grow such cool vegetation, especially those who can take it outside for at least part of the year.

When I was in southern Ontario, I remember being envious of those further south; it seemed like we had such a limited selection of plantlife that was hardy in our climate zone compared to most other folks. Fast forward to Manitoba; there is, relatively speaking, nothing that can live here!!!

A particular favourite of mine was the Banana Plant I had, which I believe was identical to the one shown by Deadeye . Left it behind when we moved. It spent at least 6 months outdoors every year. I would love to get another one now, but if I do it will be outside for maybe 4 months tops.

Full retirement later this year; after that, let the gardening experimentation begin!

 

[esoxlucius]

Full retirement later this year; after that, let the gardening experimentation begin!

Taking your climate into consideration I wish you the best of luck! On a plus note though, I suspect you'll be able to grow some fantastic iceberg lettuce, lol.

 

[Fishman Dave]

Just picked this up today for the princely sum of £6.99



Not sure it’s musa basjoo though, in fact would be very surprised if it was. Think it’s probably musa acuminata, but not a bad place to start as I had not gone looking for this, just stumbled upon it at home bargains.
Has a side shoot too.

 

[esoxlucius]

Congrats on your purchase!

There's a few now with banana plants on here. We need a new sub forum, "MBK".....MonsterBananaKeepers, lol.

 

[esoxlucius]

Just a heads up regarding these banana plants. During their "growth" period they are extremely thirsty. The size and lushness of the leaves shows you where the vast majority of all that moisture is.

Mines started growing vigorously again after slow winter growth. I'm watering it every day now with nutrient rich water squeezed from my filter sponges. The gunk out of those sponges is like rocket fuel, and to think I just used to let it go down the plug hole at maintenance time! Now I store it in tubs for my house plants. Plus mine is planted in extremely rich organic compost from my wormery. No wonder it's thriving!

That picture of mine in post #121 shows a large leaf just uncurling. That was last Sunday. A week later and that leaf is fully out, about 3ft long, and just behind it is the next one! They really are aggressive growers.

 

[esoxlucius]

I've just been looking on line and from what I can see it looks like both your plants Fishman Dave and Deadeye are dwarf bananas! A lot shorter, very compact squat little things. Could be wrong but yours look more like this in comparison to my sprawling triffid, lol.

If so, yours will probably be well suited as a year round house plant, whereas I'm going to have problems with mine indoors unless it spends a few months of the year outside!

Dwarf below...