mandyg

I have a crazy/interesting questions that I would love someone to help me with. I have searched all over the internet to find out what could possibly be wrong. I have had a banana tree for almost 6 years now. It has beautiful green leaves, produces baby shoots often, gets plenty of sun, is planted in old pasture land, and seems to get plenty of water. My problem is...it has never grown above 3 feet (the main tree/not any of the baby shoots) and the baby shoots don't reach but maybe a foot...oh yea, and obviously has never produced bananas. Is there ANYTHING I can do to help this tree out or am I destined to have a miniature banana tree garden for the rest of my life. I just purchased another banana tree so I'm really excited. I'm just not quit ready to give up on this one. Thanks.

mskitty38583

it sounds like you have a dwarf tree on your hands. congrats on the new nana tree. its exciting getting a new tree.

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mandyg

I actually got this from an old friend of mine who gave me one of his baby shoots (not sure what they are called) and I know his original tree grew nanas cause I had some of them. That's why this is so weird to me....

mskitty38583

maybe its growth is stunted for some reason. ok you big time nana gurus we need help here for some info. btw....welcome to the forum!

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Last edited by mskitty38583 : 01-24-2008 at 12:26 AM. Reason: add

bencelest

Mandy:
A picture or two would help.

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Banana Nut

Taylor

Kylie2x

Taylor..LOL not quite worthless.... Seeing it would help tho.. Sounds like it may be a dwarf.. which I think is really cool..they produce bananas.. BTW Congrats on your new Banana .. Soooo What did ya get???
Kylie

Taylor

I know...I don't like that emoticon thing. It seems rude,

I wish it said "Thread needs Pics!" or something!

chong

How far south is your friend located? Or, is he from the same town as you? The reason I ask is because his climate may be warmer than yours. And if so, then that may be one explanation. If temperature is not an issue, then other things are influencing your plants growth or lack of it. One that comes to mind is the condition of your soil. You may need to check your soil for several things, i.e., is your soil on the high ph side, is it too wet, too rich or too low in nutrients, etc. Even if your plants are watered sufficiently, but the soil doesn't drain well (the water is stagnant around the area of your plants), you will have a problem. What other plants are thriving in you yard? Are there any near your bananas? Have your ever fertilized your bananas?

Try planting some of the pups (side, baby shoots) at another location where the soil may be not as wet (or as dry, whatever your situation is) but with good drainage. Ideally, at a higher ground level as your current location.

Oh! yes, as Bencelest has posted, a couple of pictures will be of big help.

Welcome to the banana world!

Taylor

To make it easier to change...THIS THREAD NEEDS PICS

jellyfish_sky

You can also mention how tall your friend's banana is (original plant). It sounds like it's not a dwarf species...
Well, pictures help
Have you ever separated the baby shoots from the mother plant? How many baby shoots do you have?
Like Chong added, there are lots of potential causes...
Well, welcome to this forum, we'll find a solution/answer

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Celine

Bananaddiction~!

mandyg

O.k. Sorry it took so long, but here is the picture of my banana tree(s). We have had a surprisingly pretty bad freeze or two so far this year so they have died back. They do this during the winter but come back with beautiful leaves in the spring, but like I said, never get ANY bigger. The big one in the picture is my original one that I received almost 7 years ago. I did separate the pups this past summer and mulched all of them as well. I probably didn't separate them far enough away from each other though. Some answers to the other questions are....yes, the person I got the original from lives in the same town as me. I'm not sure how tall it was, I actually never saw the tree, just ate the bananas from it. As for my soil, I've never tested it, but it is old pasture land and everything else grow like a charm. I think that the drainage is fine, I am up on a hill and it seems like the water would drain just fine. Any suggestions after seeing these? If it was a dwarf by chance would it take 7 years or more to even show signs of developing bananas? Is there anything I can do about this? Thanks so much for yalls help!!!!

mandyg

Oh yea, the new banana trees I got are a Basjoo Banana Tree and a Red Dwarf Banana tree. Any one have any of these? Don't know much about them. Just wanting something that might get bigger than 2-3 feet high The Red Dwarf I think I'll be keeping in doors. They just seemed to cute to pass by.

chong

I just looked at the satellite map of Micanopy, FL, and saw that except for patches of meadows, it's pretty much wooded. That would suggest that the soil and climate are conducive to growing plants. Assuming that the soil in your meadow has not been treated with weed killers in the past, I would suspect that the soil has something to do with it. I did notice though, by looking at the photos in your gallery, that there are weeds only near and under the mulch around the bananas. Or is just that area where you took those pictures that is like that?

Again, I would suggest that you take several of those pups and plant them elsewhere on your property, where the soil may be different than at the spot they're in now. Better yet, plant a couple of pups in separate containers, in the 20 to 30 gallon range, using potting soil from the garden center (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.). Put one near where they were taken from and the other neat a partially shaded area but warm area and see how each responds. By putting one near the original spot, and another in a slightly different environment, depending on how they respond, you will have at least eliminated either the soil or the environment, or both, as the cause.

Make sure they are adequately watered, and fertilized regularly.