t1109d1

Hello everyone.

I am a complete newbie. New to this board, and new to Bananas!

I ordered a dwarf cavandish ad it is due to arrive soon. I was planning on building a small greenhouse (somewhere between 7' x 10' and 10' x 12) to house the banana year round, along with a lemon and some figs.

My question is how much room will this plant need? I understand they can grow to about 10' in height, but what sort of diameter does the foilage take up? Also, most people seem to move their banana in and out. Is there any downside to leaving it in the greenhouse year round, and just opening up the ends for the summer?

I am in Canada, but I could hit a baseball into Detroit MI.

Thanks for all you help!

David

Michael_Andrew

If you try to hit it a little farther I'll try and catch it. I'm in Toledo. We go up there to the casino a few times each year. I've never grown in a greenhouse so I can't speak to that. But, my bananas seem to really take off when I get them in the ground outside.

Michael

kaczercat

Well welcome aboard,

I'm in Canada too just a bit north of Toronto and i have a few types of bananas. i am building a much bigger greenhouse then what i have now, in the fall. that sized greenhouse should work but you never know how tall the mother plant will get before flowering. Might need to be 12 feet or so tall just to be careful.

The not so good thing is having the banana in the greenhouse year round is the weather, how warm will the greenhouse be year round? Because it might be warmer outside then in the greenhouse and the plant will thrive more. One more option is for you to plant it in the ground. Thats what i do with some of mine. Its warm enough here in southern Ontario. But then in late October or early November It would have to be dug up and put in the green house,Also you could put the plant out for the summer and use the greenhouse for other plants during this time. Anyway good luck

-Matt

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Matt

t1109d1

I have a compact tractor with a backhoe and I *still* can't wrap my head around the concept of digging out the tree every fall! I can get 12' to the peak of the roof in my greenhouse, but I don;t know how wide these plants will get. IE plant spacing between the banana and the walls, and between the banana and other trees...

Dig it up every year... You do this and still get them to flower?

It seems with bananas you could read up on them for years and still know very little!

Thanks all for the replys

David

kaczercat

But yeah i dig mine up inn late Oct. I haven't had mine flower -yet . That height sounds good for the peak , normally the leaves can get up to 5 to 7 feet. of course that's a plant that's about year old. It wouldn't hurt for the banana leaves to be lightly touching the walls. but with the other plants its hard to say with the spacing. How big is the pup your getting ?

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Matt

john_ny

Whatever size you build the greenhouse, you'll soon find out it's not big enough.

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John

harveyc

I agree with John, but if you're really just concerned about the one banana you can do okay with 10' x 10' and 12' high in the peak would be tall enough. Mine is 16' high in the center and it certainly wasn't tall enough for my Ae Ae. I thought about building a tall door to facilitate moving things in and out but decided not to, figuring I could always remove some film temporarily, if needed. Instead, I really had a struggle getting my big Ae Ae out earlier this month. You might try some other small ones like Logee's Dwarf Ladyfinger.

Welcome and good luck!

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sunsetsammy

The effort going into building a greenhouse will be WAY more than digging your plant and storing. Of course it would be great to have a greenhouse for other things too but if you are mainly building it for the banana you might want to consider just digging and storing.

Despite their large size these plants are very easy to dig up. The roots are soft and are cut simply by sinking the shovel in a circle around the base of the plant. Tip the thing over and it will pop right out of the hole. Have a dolly handy and roll the plant onto it. No lifting required.

I dug 8 large bananas last fall and it took about an hour and a half.

I'm building a greenhouse this year too but it will be mainly for getting plants started sooner in the spring.

The banana trees in the local nursery's greenhouse look terrible over the winter anyway. I can't imagine their heating bill.

1aday

Windsor is a lovely town- at least it was in the late 80s, when I lived in Detroit. I used to row on the Detroit river and look at all the houses and neat yards in Windsor- so many ancient, huge trunked Magnolias.
One of the worries with keeping plants in the greenhouse during the summer is heat. You just can't believe how hot it gets in there. My greenhouse is 24 ft x 36 ft, has double wall polycarbonate, has 2 doors at each end, has 4 foot vents running the length on each side, and has a 2 ft vent running along the roof. Even with all the doors and vents open, things cook in the greenhouse over the summer- it gets up around 120 degrees or even higher.
Putting a shadecloth over the top can help a little, but it will still get hot-hot.
As far as I know, the leaf span on Dwarf Cavendish should be up to around 6 ft.
And it's true what John said, no greenhouse is ever big enough. You'll build your GH, then want more citrus types, more bananas, start adding a few tropicals... LOL
Good luck! And welcome to the board and to bananas, I'm pretty new to both too, but completely addicted!

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Susan

LilRaverBoi

LOL...yeah, that was EXACTLY my thought!

Well, if it's a DWARF cavendish, it won't get to 10'. From everything I've seen, read and heard, they get anywhere from 6' to maybe 8' max. If it's in a pot, consider it will add another foot to the overall height (depending on the pot, obviously). If your greenhouse is 10' tall, you shouldn't have a problem. As for leaf spread, probably around 4'-6' for the full diameter of the plant.

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mskitty38583

i promise you......it wont be big enough! youll soon run out of room.

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harveyc

You really should make it bigger than the plant will get since it gets especially hot right next to the film and you would want room to walk around it to spray for mites, etc. and you might end up putting in misters or shade cloth (I use Aluminet shade cloth in my greenhouse and it helps a lot), so all of those things take up additional room. Plus, you'll want room for some other plants, etc.

Good luck,

Harvey

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