Banana Site

In brief, the banana is a large herbaceous plant cultivated in tropical and semi-tropical regions in great abundance.It is one of the most productive plants known.

People often talk of the fruit growing on banana trees as the plant resembles a tree in some ways.In actual fact, the main or upright stem is called a pseudostem, which literally means fake stem.

The fruit of the banana is nutritious and the staple food of the natives in man of the Pacific Islands as well as other countries.

The banana bears its fruit in compact, hanging clusters.The clusters are made up of up approximately 3-20 tiers.Each tier of fruit is called a hand and has up to 20 fruit. An individual fruit is known as a banana or finger.

The total of the hanging clusters is referred to as a bunch.They are known commercially as a stem.Their weight ranges from 30-50kg.An average fruit is 125gm.

There are two major kinds of banana:Fruit bananas, which are eaten raw or cooked and plantain bananas, which are cooked as vegetables.

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Red Banana Plant

The same banana plant from 2007, that I carried into the house to stay alive during the winter. This year, as you can see, the plant was too big to keep in a pot. Actually it probably was too big to bring indoors last year!

music by Kevin Macleod.

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New banana species

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Fruiting Banana Plant

Evergreen tropical plant that produces edible fruit, frost tender

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I bought two banana plants last fall left them in pots and bad fall so they both died..now I want to plant my own from seed, and need to know if you need special fertitizer or anything else..

Yes banana trees may be planted in an region of the country when all danger of frost is gone. now as to their returning next year that is another question. I live in hort zone 7a and mine die down with the first frost. I then cut them down and mulch well and they return in the late spring.

They do require food. I use a 15-30-15 on mine (the blue stuff). I have never seen banana seed but I believe they are propagated through off shoots. They can be overwintered in a greenhouse or in a very sunny area in the house.

You also might grow them in large tubs and let the first frost take the tops and move them to an area that doesn’t freeze.

Hope this helps.

My dwarf cavendish banana plant develops very large bunches of bananas. Just before the are due to start ripening they fall over. I water them every second day and they are fed cow manure. Any Ideas???

I used to cut the bunch off but I found that the bananas all ripened at once.

We tried leaving the bunch to ripen on the plant and found that the bananas ripened 2-4 per day, which was really convenient. This worked for about half a dozen bunches the the problem with the plant falling started. The plant is not being uprooted, but folding in half.

I’ve tried propping the plant but just had one collapse right above the prop. I’m not too sure if there is a deficiency, or if I just have a commercial variety that was never meant to support the bunch so long.

The bananas haven’t quite lost their sharp ridge, so I do’t think they would be ready to pick even for a commercial basis. I would estimate the bunches to be around 50-60 Kg

Personal observation in the tropics. Clutches of bananas are cutoff for the market way before they ripen; these hard and green bananas are allowed to ripen naturally until they’re soft enough to consume. The relatively short roots of the plant, over-watering (loosened soil), weight of large bunches would be the likely cause.

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Banana Plant

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There are yellow and brown spots on the leaves of my banana plant. Why is this? How do I fix it?

The leaves always do that. The lower leaves start to turn yellow, and new leaves will be green. At least on my basjoo bananas, when they are small. I get one new leaf a week.

If you have had this banana for a while, and it is just starting to do this it may be a different story. If you have just got it and stuck it in direct sunlight it may be affected by not being acclimated to the difference in light from a green house to direct sun.

My banana plant has been healthy for the last two years and now it has turned yellow and looks so ill. It is not wilting but the leaves are starting to die. Is there anything I can give it to help?

Change the soil it got too wet and has developed root rot new soil a shot of fertilizer and back to a regular watering schedule

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Banana Plant

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