Bantams

Just found this forum and excited to dive it!
I worked on a farm in Hawaii for 6 months a few years back and only recently could bring myself to eat a regular store bought banana again. The farm had a long lane of apple bananas (dwarf apple banana?) and I was teased over my obsession with those incredible bananas.
We live in a tiny house near Seattle and are planning to build an addition on to our house - some sort of conservatory style room with a high ceiling. It's been a lifelong dream to have a conservatory where I can grow orchids and other tropicals (I grew up right near Longwood gardens - has anyone been in their Banana House?)
The goal is to grow a banana plant in the new conservatory room. I'll be reading up on growing requirements and best varieties for greenhouse cultivation.
Thanks!

cincinnana

Welcome to the Jungle....

Good luck with your endeavor.
Have fun here.

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Snarkie

Welcome aboard the Banana Express!

I used to be a general contractor, so if you need any suggestions or want to bounce some ideas off of me, lemme know.

Edit: And just being a smart ass here, my last job was in the Hamptons. I was sandwiched in between Senator Roth on one side, and two doors down was Blake Edwards/Julie Andrews on the other. If you give me days of sun vs. rain, and what you are wanting to accomplish, I can give you a pretty good idea.

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

edwmax

Welcome to the Bunch.

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Bantams

Thanks so much for the welcome!!
I would love to go over my plans for the new space but I should probably start a new thread.
Let me organize my questions and I'll post my plans this weekend.

chong

Welcome Bantams! Very happy to have another member from Seattle. I live just West of the South end of Lake Washington. Hope we can trade experiences with bananas.

Chong

Bantams

Sorry to be one of those people who posts and disappears.
Anyway, I'm back and have some progress to share!

We started work on the conservatory a couple months ago and it's coming along quickly. All the windows and doors are in, as of yesterday. Next we need to do the siding, electrical (in conduit), and floor. Then a heater and it's essentially done.

I'm having trouble uploading photos. I made an album and it says "upload successful" but then there are no pics in the album. Will try to figure that out today.

The building is 14 x 24' with a 12' peak. We went with Suntuf roofing panels. If it ends up losing too much heat in the winters we have it framed so we can change it out for something else.
The floor will be pavers with pea gravel between or along the flanks.

SO, the big question is whether growing a banana in a pot will be sufficient, or if we need to excavate one circular section to be able to grow directly into the soil. Off to research more! Or maybe someone could tell me here - can you successfully grow and fruit a banana in a pot? What size? I could use a livestock watering trough (50-100g)

Anyway, I can't believe this dream is finally coming true! And we're of course thrilled to have more living space, as our tiny house is finally feeling a bit too cramped now that we have a 4 year old.

Snarkie

Keep us posted!

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

Bantams

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Bantams

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Bantams

Lots of windows! We got them off Craigslist - they're all skyscraper windows that we had to frame.
The upper ones still have wrap over them.

Snarkie

Hey, that's looking great! Is that Doug fir you're using?

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

Bantams

Thanks! Yes, Doug Fir is the most common lumber around here.

Snarkie

Like I said, it's looking great! Just keep in mind, that if you are using commercial plate glass, it's treated with low-E coatings, so you may find that it blocks a lot of the beneficial UV light that you need. I'm not knocking your using it by any means; I just wanted to let you know this, in the event that your plants aren't doing as well as they should, that will be the first place to look.

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Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

Bantams

Good to know. It's a living space first and foremost, with plants as a bonus. Orchids and other houseplants should still do well in it.
I wonder if it would then be best to have a banana in a pot and take it outdoors in the summer? I still need to read more about their requirements.

Snarkie

Oh, I misunderstood; sorry! When you said conservatory, I was thinking more of the British version, where that is their word for a hothouse of sorts.

So, if you are growing in containers, yes, bring them outside. Remember to harden them off first. But you can also try leaving one inside and compare the results to determine if the glazing is blocking UV light. If the difference is negligible, you might consider building a large (lined) raised bed or two for additional plants, like peppers or potatoes for a year-round harvest.

__________________
Doug (D.A. Hänks) http://www.imdb.com/name/nm2955582/?ref_=fn_al_nm_1


The Only Eastern Redwood Forest in America




"Nuke my 'nanners, will you?!"

chong

Great job! !

Growing bananas in the ground is obviously a better choice over in a pot. However, you can fruit bananas in a large pot. The choice of variety will be limited to the available height of your conservatory, where in-ground will give you the advantage over potted, which takes from 2 to 3 feet of pot height. There are quite a few varieties that are 6 to 8 feet that you can comfortably grow. From super dwarf to dwarf varieties. Years ago, I used to frequently visit Molbaks Nursery in Woodenville, WA, and they had a 4-ft tub with around 6 or 7 Dwarf Cavendish banana peudostems (including several suckers), 2 of which were fruiting. In another nursery, Gurney's, about a mile South of the SeaTac Airport, on Federal Way, had a group of Dwarf Cavendish in-ground and caged in approx. 12x12x12 hardware fabric enclosure that is shared with coveys of button and California quail. The pseudostem were slightly taller and fatter than the ones from Molbak's. One pstem had bigger bunch of bananas than the ones at Molbak's. I told the workers that since some of the fruit was already yellow, they should cut the bunch down already, and let it ripen in their building, that they should cut the pstem down so that the remaining pstem can receive the nutrients that would otherwise be "consumed" by the fruited pstem. I also asked them if I could have some of the yellow bananas, and they told me that I could have as much as I wanted. There were only 5 or 6, I got them all. They were obviously tastier than grocery bought bananas.

Good luck to you.

Chong G

Bantams

What an inspiring story - thank you! (My family thinks I'm just a bit crazy about bananas so this is very helpful!) I've been to Molbaks a few times but didn't see bananas. Will have to check out Gurney's next time we're out that way.

I think we're going to leave a 2x5' section of the floor open for planting. That should be sufficient, right?

I'm eagerly awaiting my copy of "Bananas You Can Grow".

Thanks for the input!

PR-Giants

Mark's Banana Forest Paradise

This member is south of Seattle and grows in the ground.

Growing variegated cold hardy bananas is also an option.

Variegated Cold Hardy Bananas

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