Bananas as Indoor/Outdoor Foliage Plants by Paula Szilard Few plants are better at creating a lush, tropical atmosphere on your patio or in your home than the banana. Bananas grow well indoors here in Colorado as long as you keep them well watered and give them as much light as possible. South or west exposures are preferred, but if you can’t provide that, an east exposure will suffice. Just treat them as a foliage plant and don’t expect them to produce fruit! Although bananas are self-fertile, to flower and fruit they require uninterrupted temperatures above 57 F with direct sun for 11 – 19 months. Discouraging, unless you have a heated greenhouse! You can see why bananas produce just one bloom stalk and then die from exhaustion, although most will produce plenty of suckers. It is often said that bananas don’t grow on trees. It just seems that way because banana plants certainly can grow as tall as trees. They lack woody stems and are therefore just herbaceous perennials. In fact, their stem isn’t even a real stem, it’s a pseudostem consisting of tightly wrapped leaf stems. These grow out of the stem base, or corm. You have probably observed certain similarities between the banana (musaceae family), strelitzia (bird of paradise), marantas, cannas, gingers and heliconias. That’s no accident. The families in which these plants are classified are all in the plant order Zingiberales. There are three genera in the musaceae family—musa, which includes dessert bananas, plantains, many ornamental bananas and textile bananas; ensete, which consists of a few species from Africa, Madagascar, India and western China, most notably the Abyssinian banana (ensete ventricosum); and musella, a genus with probably only one representative, musella lasiocarpa, relatively recently discovered in Yunnan, China. Because of its northern origin, this yellow flowered plant may prove to be quite hardy, but widespread testing remains to be done. Bananas originated in Southeast Asia and made their way to Africa before the dawn of history. Southeast Asians introduced them into the New World sometime around 200 B.C. Portuguese explorers again spread them to the New World in the 16th Century. picture: musa cavandish ‘Super Dwarf’ Logee’s Greenhouses The best all around plants for indoor/outdoor container culture are the Dwarf Cavendish banana (musa acuminata) and the cavandish ‘Super Dwarf’ banana. After 2 ½ years in a container my dwarf cavendish banana is about 5 feet tall. There are two varieties, the plain and a subspecies with dark red stripes called zebrina. It is noteworthy that the stripes disappear after an extended period indoors, even with plenty of light. The cavendish ‘Super Dwarf’ banana grows only from 2 to 4 feet tall. In mild climates, it is sometimes used as a groundcover or in flower beds for an exotic touch. The Abyssinian banana, ensete ventricosum, is shorter and wider, and has very large leaves with a bright red midrib. There is also a pretty red variety. These plants are extremely fast growing, gaining as much as 8 feet in one season if placed in the ground. Ensetes do not sucker, so starting them from seed is the only option. I had obtained some seeds in Germany and tried this without success a couple of years ago. A friend of mine with considerably more horticultural experience succeeded in starting one plant which I grew for several years. Outdoors it always did beautifully, but when I moved it in it usually went into a state of decline. You will discover a dirty little secret when you grow bananas indoors. Hardly noticeable outside, the light brown liquid that drips from the leaf tips onto flooring, carpets and furniture could be highly relevant in indoor placement of your plants. The plant drips fluid from the leaf tips when it takes up more water than it transpires through the leaves. Be very careful that your leaves do not overhang furniture, bare floors or carpeting. I have linoleum floors in my sunroom and I am able to scrub off the dried residue with cleanser, but I truly don’t know if it would come off soft furniture or fine carpeting. Grow your bananas in a loose potting mix that allows for adequate drainage. I now grow all of my large plants in the light-weight, dense Styrofoam pots, which are much easier to move. Bananas require a slightly acidic soil (pH 5.8 – 6.5). They are real guzzlers and very heavy feeders. I have always used just a liquid or a water soluble fertilizer (Dynagrow Liquid Grow Plant Food 7-9-5) once a month with more frequent applications when outdoors in the summer I used to use Miracle Grow, but found it led to a build-up of mineral salts. Some authorities recommend a slow-release fertilizer (6-6-6, 12-12-12, 6-2-12 or 9-3-27) mixed into the soil at planting time. You will also see recommendations to add compost and manure as top dressings. I have declined to do this because my plants spend most of the year indoors. If you want bananas on your patio, but don’t have space to bring them indoors for the winter, there is a practical solution other than letting them freeze to death. You can force them into dormancy. I have always just brought them in, or given them away to friends, but Susan A. Roth and Dennis Schrader, authors of Hot Plants for Cool Climates, consider bananas to be one of the most fun and one of the easiest plants to overwinter. They recommend the following methods: For bananas grown in containers, chop the pseudostem to pot level. Then store the container in a cool, dark place until spring. This could be a cellar or a garage. If your garage is unheated, then you may need to have a source of heat, such as a heat lamp. Don’t forget to water occasionally. In spring when shoots start to emerge gradually reintroduce the banana to the outdoors. If your container is too heavy to bring into a sheltered area, then your only alternative is to dig up the plant before the first frost. Then store it in a container in a cool, dark place until spring. When using this method do not cut the back the stem or the leaves. In spring, plant them back into your container and put back on your patio. James W Waddick and Glenn M. Stokes, authors of Bananas You Can Grow, offer a slight permutation of this procedure: After the first frost has “melted” the foliage, cut the banana back to the top of the pseudostem. Now you have a completely bare stalk. Dig up the root ball and knock off most of the soil. Wrap it in a few layers of newspaper, taking care not to damage the rhizome or the roots. Place the rhizome with 6 inches of pseudostem into a large garbage bag. Wrap and close plastic bag around root ball and secure loosely at the top. Lay this down on a cool basement floor or garage floor, if kept above 45 F. When the days are consistently 57 F or above, plant outside or in a container. If you plant it outside, then enrich the planting hole with compost. New roots and leaves will appear in short order. Because of our late Colorado spring frosts, it is not advisable to put plants outside until late May or June. Even then, care must be exercised given our unpredictable weather. Around here, storing the plant in a garage is not wise unless it is heated. When it’s –10 F or more below zero outdoors, no unheated garage can maintain a temperature of 45 F. My first banana plant, purchased at a supermarket, had scale and later developed a few mealy bugs. Sometimes spider mites can also attack bananas. If you carefully inspect your plant at the point of purchase, you should have relatively few problems. If you do have spider mites, scale or mealy bugs, please refer to my previous articles on how to deal with these pests. Although this past winter was colder than normal, in creating its new map of plant hardiness zones the USDA has labeled us a Zone 6. This makes gardeners like me who always like to push the envelope wonder what more we can get away with. There is a moderately hardy banana — musa velutina. It not only survives, but fruits, in Zone 7. It is conceivable that it might die down to the ground and survive here if planted in a very protected location and covered with mountains of mulch. If you try this we all want to know the result! The Chinese yellow banana, musa lasiocarpa, is hardy to zone 6, but has not been trialed in lower zones. The Japanese textile banana (musa basjoo), however, is hardy to zone 6 and supposedly hardy to zone 5 with considerable protection. I have seen them grow as far north as Portland, OR and Vancouver, B.C. Since we are verging on being a zone 6, I thought I’d give it a go. I am nursing along 3 plants which I will put into the ground in late May or early June. These are supposed to grow to approximately 10 feet a season, then die back to the ground. Then in addition to mountains of mulch, I will add a string of Christmas tree lights or other source of heat around the roots in case we have extended periods when the ground is frozen. Anyway, wish me luck and I will report back next year. Sources: Crane, Johnathan H. and Carlos F. Balderi. The Banana in Florida. University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service. Purseglove, J. W. Tropical Crops: Monocotyledons 2. New York, Wiley, 1972. Roth, Susan A. and Dennis Schrader. Hot Plants for Cold Climates. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000. Waddick, James W. and Glenn M. Stokes. Bananas You Can Grow. New Iberia, LA: Stokes Tropicals Publishing Co., 2000

Bananas as Indoor/Outdoor Foliage Plants

by Paula Szilard

Few plants are better at creating a lush, tropical atmosphere on your patio or in your home than the banana. Bananas grow well indoors here in Colorado as long as you keep them well watered and give them as much light as possible. South or west exposures are preferred, but if you can’t provide that, an east exposure will suffice. Just treat them as a foliage plant and don’t expect them to produce fruit! Although bananas are self-fertile, to flower and fruit they require uninterrupted temperatures above 57 F with direct sun for 11 – 19 months. Discouraging, unless you have a heated greenhouse! You can see why bananas produce just one bloom stalk and then die from exhaustion, although most will produce plenty of suckers.

It is often said that bananas don’t grow on trees. It just seems that way because banana plants certainly can grow as tall as trees. They lack woody stems and are therefore just herbaceous perennials. In fact, their stem isn’t even a real stem, it’s a pseudostem consisting of tightly wrapped leaf stems. These grow out of the stem base, or corm. You have probably observed certain similarities between the banana (musaceae family), strelitzia (bird of paradise), marantas, cannas, gingers and heliconias. That’s no accident. The families in which these plants are classified are all in the plant order Zingiberales.

There are three genera in the musaceae family—musa, which includes dessert bananas, plantains, many ornamental bananas and textile bananas; ensete, which consists of a few species from Africa, Madagascar, India and western China, most notably the Abyssinian banana (ensete ventricosum); and musella, a genus with probably only one representative, musella lasiocarpa, relatively recently discovered in Yunnan, China. Because of its northern origin, this yellow flowered plant may prove to be quite hardy, but widespread testing remains to be done.

Bananas originated in Southeast Asia and made their way to Africa before the dawn of history. Southeast Asians introduced them into the New World sometime around 200 B.C. Portuguese explorers again spread them to the New World in the 16th Century.

picture: musa cavandish ‘Super Dwarf’ Logee’s Greenhouses

The best all around plants for indoor/outdoor container culture are the Dwarf Cavendish banana (musa acuminata) and the cavandish ‘Super Dwarf’ banana. After 2 ½ years in a container my dwarf cavendish banana is about 5 feet tall. There are two varieties, the plain and a subspecies with dark red stripes called zebrina. It is noteworthy that the stripes disappear after an extended period indoors, even with plenty of light. The cavendish ‘Super Dwarf’ banana grows only from 2 to 4 feet tall. In mild climates, it is sometimes used as a groundcover or in flower beds for an exotic touch. The Abyssinian banana, ensete ventricosum, is shorter and wider, and has very large leaves with a bright red midrib. There is also a pretty red variety. These plants are extremely fast growing, gaining as much as 8 feet in one season if placed in the ground. Ensetes do not sucker, so starting them from seed is the only option. I had obtained some seeds in Germany and tried this without success a couple of years ago. A friend of mine with considerably more horticultural experience succeeded in starting one plant which I grew for several years. Outdoors it always did beautifully, but when I moved it in it usually went into a state of decline.

You will discover a dirty little secret when you grow bananas indoors. Hardly noticeable outside, the light brown liquid that drips from the leaf tips onto flooring, carpets and furniture could be highly relevant in indoor placement of your plants. The plant drips fluid from the leaf tips when it takes up more water than it transpires through the leaves. Be very careful that your leaves do not overhang furniture, bare floors or carpeting. I have linoleum floors in my sunroom and I am able to scrub off the dried residue with cleanser, but I truly don’t know if it would come off soft furniture or fine carpeting.

Grow your bananas in a loose potting mix that allows for adequate drainage. I now grow all of my large plants in the light-weight, dense Styrofoam pots, which are much easier to move. Bananas require a slightly acidic soil (pH 5.8 – 6.5). They are real guzzlers and very heavy feeders. I have always used just a liquid or a water soluble fertilizer (Dynagrow Liquid Grow Plant Food 7-9-5) once a month with more frequent applications when outdoors in the summer I used to use Miracle Grow, but found it led to a build-up of mineral salts. Some authorities recommend a slow-release fertilizer (6-6-6, 12-12-12, 6-2-12 or 9-3-27) mixed into the soil at planting time. You will also see recommendations to add compost and manure as top dressings. I have declined to do this because my plants spend most of the year indoors.

If you want bananas on your patio, but don’t have space to bring them indoors for the winter, there is a practical solution other than letting them freeze to death. You can force them into dormancy. I have always just brought them in, or given them away to friends, but Susan A. Roth and Dennis Schrader, authors of Hot Plants for Cool Climates, consider bananas to be one of the most fun and one of the easiest plants to overwinter. They recommend the following methods:

For bananas grown in containers, chop the pseudostem to pot level. Then store the container in a cool, dark place until spring. This could be a cellar or a garage. If your garage is unheated, then you may need to have a source of heat, such as a heat lamp. Don’t forget to water occasionally. In spring when shoots start to emerge gradually reintroduce the banana to the outdoors.

If your container is too heavy to bring into a sheltered area, then your only alternative is to dig up the plant before the first frost. Then store it in a container in a cool, dark place until spring. When using this method do not cut the back the stem or the leaves. In spring, plant them back into your container and put back on your patio.

James W Waddick and Glenn M. Stokes, authors of Bananas You Can Grow, offer a slight permutation of this procedure:

After the first frost has “melted” the foliage, cut the banana back to the top of the pseudostem. Now you have a completely bare stalk. Dig up the root ball and knock off most of the soil. Wrap it in a few layers of newspaper, taking care not to damage the rhizome or the roots. Place the rhizome with 6 inches of pseudostem into a large garbage bag. Wrap and close plastic bag around root ball and secure loosely at the top. Lay this down on a cool basement floor or garage floor, if kept above 45 F. When the days are consistently 57 F or above, plant outside or in a container. If you plant it outside, then enrich the planting hole with compost. New roots and leaves will appear in short order.

Because of our late Colorado spring frosts, it is not advisable to put plants outside until late May or June. Even then, care must be exercised given our unpredictable weather. Around here, storing the plant in a garage is not wise unless it is heated. When it’s –10 F or more below zero outdoors, no unheated garage can maintain a temperature of 45 F.

My first banana plant, purchased at a supermarket, had scale and later developed a few mealy bugs. Sometimes spider mites can also attack bananas. If you carefully inspect your plant at the point of purchase, you should have relatively few problems. If you do have spider mites, scale or mealy bugs, please refer to my previous articles on how to deal with these pests.

Although this past winter was colder than normal, in creating its new map of plant hardiness zones the USDA has labeled us a Zone 6. This makes gardeners like me who always like to push the envelope wonder what more we can get away with. There is a moderately hardy banana — musa velutina. It not only survives, but fruits, in Zone 7. It is conceivable that it might die down to the ground and survive here if planted in a very protected location and covered with mountains of mulch. If you try this we all want to know the result! The Chinese yellow banana, musa lasiocarpa, is hardy to zone 6, but has not been trialed in lower zones. The Japanese textile banana (musa basjoo), however, is hardy to zone 6 and supposedly hardy to zone 5 with considerable protection. I have seen them grow as far north as Portland, OR and Vancouver, B.C. Since we are verging on being a zone 6, I thought I’d give it a go. I am nursing along 3 plants which I will put into the ground in late May or early June. These are supposed to grow to approximately 10 feet a season, then die back to the ground. Then in addition to mountains of mulch, I will add a string of Christmas tree lights or other source of heat around the roots in case we have extended periods when the ground is frozen. Anyway, wish me luck and I will report back next year.

Sources:

Crane, Johnathan H. and Carlos F. Balderi. The Banana in Florida. University of Florida Cooperative Extension Service.

Purseglove, J. W. Tropical Crops: Monocotyledons 2. New York, Wiley, 1972.

Roth, Susan A. and Dennis Schrader. Hot Plants for Cold Climates. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000.

Waddick, James W. and Glenn M. Stokes. Bananas You Can Grow. New Iberia, LA: Stokes Tropicals Publishing Co., 2000