Find out how to Develop a Banana Tree Plant

With their giant, dramatic leaves and powerful upright type, banana bushes are a placing plant. And also you don’t should stay in a tropical local weather to develop them!

“If environmental situations are proper, banana bushes may be grown as an indoor plant,” says horticulturalist Byron Martin, co-owner of Logee’s Plants for Home and Garden.

However not like easy-care houseplants that tolerate low mild ranges, reminiscent of snake plant or pothos, this one wants tons of sunshine—particularly if you need it to fruit.

“Banana crops are high-light crops and want direct daylight for a part of the day to develop properly and fruit,” says Martin. Meaning giant, sunny home windows (ideally a south, east, or west-facing window) or a develop mild to offer it no less than six hours of direct daylight per day.

As you’d anticipate, banana tree crops additionally want loads of area. “The smaller or dwarf varieties are the most effective to decide on for indoors except you will have an atrium or room with a excessive ceiling with giant, sunny home windows,” says Martin.

In case you stay in USDA Hardiness Zones 8 or hotter you might be able to develop banana bushes outdoor. (Find your zone here.)

When shopping for, examine the plant tag or description to decide on a range that can thrive in your local weather. Additionally, make sure that to purchase a fruiting sort—not a decorative selection—in case your purpose is to develop fruit you may eat. Decorative varieties won’t fruit.

Attention-grabbing facet notice: Banana are literally bulbs, much like daffodils or tulips. Their non-woody trunks are known as pseudostems as a result of they’re made up of leaf stalks (petioles) that develop tightly bundled collectively.

When the bud emerges from the bottom of the plant, it rises up by way of the pseudostem and emerges on the prime to flower and type bananas.

Right here’s what else you want to learn about easy methods to develop banana plant bushes:

Banana Tree Plant Fundamental Data:

• Frequent Title: Banana plant, banana tree
• Botanical Title: Musa spp
• Plant Household: Musaceae
• Sort of Plant: Herbaceous
• Native Origin: Southeast Asia
• Solar Publicity: Full solar to half shade
• Mature Measurement: 5 to 30 toes tall
• Poisonous to pets: No

What Are the Finest Forms of Banana Bushes to Develop Indoors?

The most effective fruiting varieties that can keep manageable indoors embody Tremendous Dwarf Cavendish, which may attain 3 toes tall, and Dwarf Ladyfinger, which may attain 5 toes tall, says Martin.

Each of those varieties must be in a container that’s a minimal of 14 to twenty inches in diameter. Make sure that there are drainage holes within the pot as a result of no plant likes to remain drenched.

Find out how to Look after a Banana Tree Plant

The largest problem when rising these crops indoors is to offer enough mild. Make sure that they’re in a sunny window or use a develop mild, which may also help them efficiently develop a banana indoors, says Martin.

Banana bushes additionally profit from fertilizer throughout their lively rising season, which is spring to fall. Any balanced fertilizer is ok. Observe the bundle directions, however select one which has pretty even NPK ratios listed, reminiscent of 3-5-4, says Martin.

How Do I Water My Banana Tree Plant?

Wait till the soil floor appears and feels barely dry to the contact. Then totally saturate the pot till water runs out the underside, says Martin. Don’t let it dry out fully, which is able to stress the plant and decelerate progress.

Do I Must Prune My Banana Tree?

Not likely. If you’d like, you may clip off leaves from the pseudostem that grow to be yellow.

If the plant begins getting very giant, you may trim leaves again to make it match within the area higher. However this can sluggish the plant down by way of its fruiting cycle, says Martin.

There’s additionally a time when the fruiting trunk has completed (after it has flowered and fruited), so that you’ll have to take away that plant and let the facet shoots take over to develop and mature, says Martin. This makes extra room within the container for the brand new progress.

Ought to I Put My Banana Tree Plant Exterior in Summer time?

Your banana tree would love a visit outdoor in the summertime. “Bananas do very properly when rising outdoors in the summertime and may placed on further progress, which helps them towards fruiting,” says Martin.

Place them outdoor when all hazard of frost has handed, and produce them again indoors within the fall before a frost occurs.