Growing a musa indoors

Bananas are amazing in that the roots will try to grow a new plant when the main one dies, almost every time.

If new shoots are allowed to grow when the main plant is going though, it will likely kill off the main plant, and the shoots will take over, at which point you should separate them or history will repeat itself probably.

Banana plants LOVE big containers, always upgrade to a bigger pot way way before you need to. The tricky part is watering, since too much water will make it rot. The more light it receives, the less tricky the watering will be because it will just use the extra water. Someone stated to let the top 2" get dry before watering - that sounds like I was doing. I used regular potting soil (peat moss, black earth and vermiculite) but if I did it again, I'd probably add sand to reduce the chances of over-watering.

I've found a banana will grow on any south-ish exposure, but during the winter you get less light so you must water less. My 4 year old banana plant succumbed to that :( The roots started new shoots, but I was through with it - I wasn't about to start over. Maybe next time I will try a banana plant that can produce edible bananas.

 

I've got the same super dwarf cavendish although my main plant croaked during a move and I lost two pups to mealies thereafter.....sigh. I've got one decent sized pup left and one tiny pup. I planted them into LECA and am growing them in semi-hydroponics also known as hydroculture and they're going insane with new root and leaf growth. They're growing much faster than in soil. Not sure if this method would help other musa growers.

Cheers,

Ryan

 

It's not always feasable to hydroculture bananas, and it will make the period to fruiting slower, since there won't be the same volume of corm on a hydrocultured plant as there would be on one in soil, and it's the corm size and health that ultimately determines bunch size....