Any zone pushers on this forum? Are any of you trying bananas or palms in the ground? Musa basjoo banana is root hardy to -20f.
who's growing palms or bananas?
Hi Nucci60,
I'm new here, but yes, I have 7 Musa Basjoo in the ground and 2 in pots.
And, a pup from last season's Musa, which got to be 7-8' depending on the wind ;o).
The pup was late and lean, only about 2' tall, so I'm not expecting much growth now.
I had cut the plant down after frost and covered it with an old papasan cushion.
This year I'm trying straw on all of them.
(and baiting, I get vole infestations with all the mulch)
Here's a picture of last year's Musa. This year they got a later start
and the three biggest are only half this size.
Do you get bananas?
Yankee cat, we grow bananas for their huge tropical leaves. they can put out six or more feet of growth in a season, and shock the neighbors and passerbys. they are a lot of fun. We do not have a long enough growing season to have the tender commercial varieties planted and bear fruit. THE cold hardiest banana is musa basjoo, that can be left in the ground in zone6. YOu can simply cut it to the ground after frost kills it, put about a foot of mulch arund the base, and it will come back bigger next year with pups. (babies)
nucci60 - Thanks for the info. I will have to think about shocking passerbys any more than I do now with huge tomato and cucumber plants instead of a lawn. :) Banana leaves make great biodegradable containers for food preperation.
Don't forget that you can also grow them in the northeast by keeping them in containers and overwintering in a cool basement. Musa basjoo and Ensete ventricosum can be coaxed into dormancy by frost and carried over the winter to break dormancy in spring. Some seasons I have grown them in the ground and then dug and potted them in fall. In general, they seem to grow bigger when they're in the ground, but it's a big job to pot them up. I find that it's easiest to keep them in large pots. They are cumbersome, but you can still get large, dramatic plants.