Spring has arrived here in southeast Virginia!
Warmer temperatures and no threat of frost informs the gardener that the time to plant is now!
Time to plant the bananas!
Yes, I said bananas.
I bet you didn’t realize you could grow bananas in states other than the deep south!
We started growing banana trees 3 years ago and I’m addicted! It’s so easy!
I like to prepare the soil for planting by giving it a light tilling. This tilling tool attaches right to the weed wacker! How cool is that?
Now don’t yell at me about my posture. I hear you screaming, “Bend your knees, girl!”
Uhg. I wish I’d listened to you all…. oh my aching back!
Take my advice…bend your knees.
We dig up our banana plants each fall, before the first frost.
We cut off all branches, shake off the excess dirt, and lean them in a corner of the garage for the winter.
That’s it, really!
Below is a pic of a few small, bareroot banana trees just pulled from the garage, (along with my preschooler swinging).
Another option is to transplant some of the smaller trees into pots, with potting soil, to bring inside your home. We kept 4 potted banana plants inside this winter and stored 6 in the garage. I love a bringing in a bit of the tropics indoors, but be aware, they grow fast!
Now it was time to bring them back outside to plant in the backyard.
So I hired my yard boys (husband and sons) to help prepare the ground for planting.
We decided to relocate the kids’ swingset and plant 4 trees along one side of our fence. This area gets the most sun (8 hours at least). It will also provide a lush screen of privacy once the plants grow. Notice the two outside trees were from indoors and the two center trees were the bareroot trees from the garage.
This banana tree below was our “Big-Bubba-Banana-Tree” from last year.
Each banana tree only produces one crop of bananas. But each tree will also send out approximately 4-5 smaller shoots from the base of the plant. When these are larger (at the end of the season) you can split off each shoot and you will be able to plant that shoot as a new tree in the spring! I love plants that mulitply themselves! Pass a few shoots along to friends.
My mini garden, as seen below, is only 24 feet long and 3 feet wide. You don’t need alot of space to produce alot of veggies! This year I’ve planted 3 types of tomatoes, jalapenos, salsa peppers, red peppers, zuchinni, yellow squash, cucumber, artichokes, leeks, Italian parsley, basil, dill, mint, and cilantro. It doesn’t look like much now, but it will be incredible in a few months! I love heading out to the garden to pick fresh veggies and herbs for that night’s meal.
Back to bananas… like I said, each tree produces only one crop in it’s lifetime. Look at that gorgous red banana pod below! Under each red petal are multiple (tiny) stamens and pistols. Each one slowly develops into an individual banana. Amazing! To ripen the bananas you have to cut off the entire bunch from the tree and allow it to sit in the bright sun. This causes the bananas to ripen. If you leave them on the tree they will never ripen.
Banana trees should be watered generously every day to every other day in the hot summer heat. They also LOVE to be fertilized with each and every watering. I use one tablespoon of Miracle Grow fertilizer dissolved in one gallon of water every other watering. It sounds like an insane amount of fertilizer but other veteran banana growers swear by this method for HUGE and fruitful banana trees.
Look at the size of that banana tree! When it was planted last year in May it was as tall as my daughter. By August it was at least 14 feet tall! Give banana trees a try this year and have your kids join in the fun of marking the plants progress. Your yard will feel tropical and you will have free bananas! How fun is that?!
Kim
Wow…this is just amazing, Kim. I knew nothing about growing bananas! I bet they look wonderful along your fence when they are all leafed out! And it is neat how they can multiply. I love it! Thanks so much for sharing!
XO,
Jane
Such a fun and cool thing to grow! Do they taste any different than store bought ones?
Yes, the bananas taste the same, except we found they had to get REALLY ripe (brown spots and all) before they tasted like store bought bananas. I’m not sure why that is though. I just like my bananas frozen and covered in chocolate anyhow. 🙂
Your Banana Trees look amazing. I live in the South and have only seen a few here.
You wrote that it only produces a crop once in its lifetime…. did you mean only once a season?? If it is once in their lifetime, why do you keep the plant? To gain more shoots to plant? I live in New England. Would I need to take the dug up stalks in the basement? My garage is certainly freezing in the winter. Lastly, how did you get the tree started?
I had NO idea! Where did you get your original trees? I think I may have to give this a go.
I live in the Philippines and there are all kinds of bananas here! I love to eat them with my meals. 😉
What a fun and unique garden idea! Wish I could grow them up here in MN. We love banana’s in our smoothies and of course banana bread.
Susan- Each shoot only produces bananas one time in it’s lifetime. I keep the plant because I love the look of lush foliage. Also, the banana producing plants seem to be the hardiest, largest, and most populating (ie- lots of healthy shoots). I’m quite sure you would not be able to grow these in New England, because of the temps and climate. My area is safe for storing the plants in the garage (some people store them under the home’s crawl space)because we rarely have sustained temps below freezing. Great questions though!Thanks! 🙂
A few years ago a friend gave us 3 small shoots (12-18inches tall). That is how the banana plant addiction started! We did not have a plant that produced bananas until year #2, and that was from the largest plant. Winter storage in a basement would be ideal also, but we don’t have basements in this area of Virginia (we are at sea level).
My husband has been dying to try banana plants in our landscaping plans. I saw you were given the plants as a gift. Do you know what type of banana plant you own?
I have no idea what kind it is. I’m sorry 🙁
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Hi. Great article on planting the banana trees! I have about 15 in the garage on a huge shelf up high in the garage where it stays a little warmer over the winter. (N.J.) My question to you is do you find the plants that you brought in and kept growing over the winter grew larger than the ones you cold stored in the garage? I used to bring them in but some of them now have corns that are a foot across! They weigh a ton and no way to bring those inside…no room for plants that big. So first year storing them cold. The picture above in the summer shows just the two plants on the right, and the one that was kept growing all winter seems to be much larger. Is that the case? Thanks!
Hi, your information in your article was very helpful to me. I just have a question my banana tree has bananas but the red pod at the bottom keeps losing the other bananas and bees are all around it is it normal. I have two banana plants with bananas. I have 12 banana plants in my yard I also plant them next to canas they grow well together. Thanks
They appear to be Musa Orinoco if you’re still not certain about the type, probably dwarf looking at the thickness of the stems. Some of the traits are powder on the stems and under the leaves, closed leaf petioles, triangular fruit that needs to be very ripe to eat with black spots, and ease of storing bareroot, not all bananas will store this way. I have tall Orinoco and I let them sleep bareroot under my house every winter. I have some 10 foot stems that weighed more than 100 pounds under there now that reached close to 20 feet including leaves last summer. They definitely draw attention here lol