My Indoor Banana Tree

I have been enjoying watching my Dwarf Cavendish banana tree grow...and it has grown tremendously since I bought it. I'd highly recommend this plant to anyone who wants to try tropicals.

I have found it more rewarding to care for than a coffee tree and other tropical edibles that I've owned (although avocado, mango & pineapple aren't too bad). Part of the appeal is that it grows quickly. I find it fascinating how it will naturally drip water droplets on a regular basis from the ends of its leaves.

But, I have a question that I want to ask others about...if any of you even know. The plant has little suckers (that's what I would call them on any other tree) at the base. Are these actually suckers & some thing that needs to be trimmed off and thrown out or could they be taken off & rooted or should they just be left? Does anyone have any advice?

Comments

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    It appears as though I have found my answer. I am supposed to let these little ones grow for a time to grow roots, then cut them off with a sharp knife and put into suitable potting soil in another pot.

    One thing that I found helped my plant grow quickly even in winter was putting it in an room where an infrared heater was close by. It worked wonders.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @LaurieLovesLearning I have a few bananas growing outside and they have more than one leader. When the main one flowers and then fruits, your suppose to cut the main leader (the one that fruited) because it won’t ever flower again. This then gives the opportunity for another leader to be the productive one. Or in your case, produce you another plant.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @JodieDownUnder So are these growing from the base then or branching off the main trunk higher up?

  • marjstratton
    marjstratton Posts: 1,132 ✭✭✭✭

    Wow, you are adventurous to even try to grow bananas in Canada! Sounds like fun, but I'm not sure about the tree dripping all over everything.

  • JodieDownUnder
    JodieDownUnder Posts: 1,483 admin

    @LaurieLovesLearning yep growing from the main plant, in order to produce.

  • burekcrew86
    burekcrew86 Posts: 248 ✭✭✭

    This thread is so interesting. I love this idea!

  • karenjanicki
    karenjanicki Posts: 996 ✭✭✭✭

    Wow I'm not sure. My grandparents had a banana plant but that was close to twenty years ago. Such a cool plant to be growing though! I hope you get your answers.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @marjstratton I found it at the store & just had to try it out. I'm glad that I can!

    In Ontario, there is a guy who wanted to grow tropicals. Now in his area, they can grow peaches & regular cherries & such (those would never survive outdoors here), but he wanted more. He now has a greenhouse full of tropicals and was doing well at the time I saw the article. It looks like there are now videos added as well.


  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    There was a similar banana "plantation" in southern BC for 10 years but it closed in 1995 due to the expense of keeping the greenhouse heated in the winter.

    Bananas have become quite popular garden ornamentals in the Lower Mainland of BC. At first you would only see them near the ocean where it was the mildest temps but now you can find them in most neighbourhoods. I think they are just being grown for their tropical look for the most part and don't produce fruit. The Conservatory at Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver has huge banana trees that do bear edible fruit. I just found an article saying that there is a banana producing fruit outside in Stanley Park (Vancouver) but the fruit isn't edible. The flowers are amazing.

    I have tried to grow a banana once before and I remember the leaves dripping. But my house is very dry and not conducive to growing tropical houseplants so it didn't survive long enough to produce any side shoots.

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited June 2021

    @torey Somehow with as dry as it was here, my plant did okay. I kept it watered well, though. I learned quickly that it also loved the infrared heater! That's great in a room that gets quite a bit colder in winter.

    It is interesting that the tropical grower in ON uses wood heat. I think an outdoor wood furnace would be the way to go. You could produce heat for much longer & it wouldn't dry out the inside humidity.

    It doesn't surprise me that the tropical plants would keep it humid either after watching my little plant drip and taking into consideration all the "weather" that a canopy actually makes on its own in tropical regions.

  • Sharie
    Sharie Posts: 276 ✭✭✭

    I only know bananas outdoors. I tend to chop them down to about 3-4 feet and then they re-grow nice and lush. You'll have a banana farm soon with all those newbies growing!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @Sharie Haha! A Canadian Banana farm...on the Prairies. So funny!

    These will generally only grow to 5'-6'. On occasion, possibly 10', but that's rare indoors. It most likely will never fruit, but you never know.

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    Banana trees that are only 5'-6' tall? That sounds great! Why wouldn't they grow bananas?

    My grandparents had banana trees in Florida and it was such fun to visit and eat them. The trees were huge, so the idea of growing and harvesting bananas on a much smaller tree is attractive. I'd love to know if they do produce fruit.

  • Torey
    Torey Posts: 5,679 admin

    This company sells Dwarf Cavendish bananas (expensive) but also has some info on growing bananas in Canada or indoors in any other inhospitable climate.


  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited June 2021

    @frogvalley Since they are grown indoors, the height is impacted. Also, since the lighting conditions are less, it will change the possibility of flowering & fruiting.

    Now if I put it outside for the summer (recommended), it would do much better. But I read that they are very susceptible to an infestation of a pest (I am drawing a blank), and with my luck it would come back in with it and kill it off. I am not willing to battle an infestation & kill it.

    Also, you need an extended warm period for the flowering & fruiting, which my climate can't provide. I would have to be very careful to give it exactly what it needs for fruiting to actually be a possibility. So...it is possible and I may be pleasantly surprised.

    There are a few companies in Canada that sell banana plants that can be container grown & are edible. I am sure that if we have these, you should have sources in the US as well.

    Let me know if you find some. If not, I will find some names of varieties that you might be able to specifically search for down there. I always wanted to pick a banana off a tree.

    @monica197 I gave my non-green thumb sister a few tropical plants (avocado, pineapple, some type of palm and a type of yucca) because her apartment has huge south facing windows and any dwelling without plants seems dead to me. If ONLY I had her windows! She said she'd just kill them.

    Anyway, I gave tips on when to water plants (the avocado is a good indicator plant) and her plants are thriving! She still doesn't have confidence in her abilities, but her plants look better than mine.

    She will most likely become a recipient of a banana tree too at some point.

    @torey Thanks! I will check it out. 🥰 That was an interesting read. I think I have been to this site before!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @torey Here is another Canadian source with more & less expensive varieties (scroll down), from BC. You may have even sent me to this site at some point. Haha


  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning I am also growing a dwarf cavendish banana plant indoors. The little suckers are called pups and it is recommended to keep 3 in one pot. Bananas are actually an herb so if you cut the top of the pup it will not root and will perish. New tissue (pups, leaves, flowers, etc.) is created from the corm. After the stock fruits it will die which is why it is important to keep 3 at any one time. After that you can separate extras and put them in their own pots (more things to trade). What makes the fruit edible is that it is a trisomy (meaning it has three copies of its chromosomes (like a human having 69 chromosomes instead of 46) and is therefore incapable of producing seeds (since the chromosomes can not crossover during meiosis) which are very hard).

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin

    @Cornelius Very cool. So then is it proper to leave the pups on the plant until after the main one dies then cut them off, or would the main plant dying kill them all if they aren't separated beforehand?

    My other question is that if it doesn't fruit or flower for whatever reason, will the plant live longer?

  • frogvalley
    frogvalley Posts: 675 ✭✭✭✭

    OOooohhhhh! Now I know why my banana plants died. Well, my black thumb had a little something to do with it, too. It was way back before the internet and I was at a loss at to how to care for it. I feel armed and really to fail, errr.... I mean try again.

  • Megan Venturella
    Megan Venturella Posts: 678 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning Did you say you’ve grown mango indoors??? HOW DID YOU DO IT? Did you cut it down and grow it in a pot? Did you get fruit? Please advise I’m pretty excited!

  • LaurieLovesLearning
    LaurieLovesLearning Posts: 7,576 admin
    edited June 2021

    I did, but not to fruiting. I don't even know if that could be possible indoors. It was a beautiful plant.

    I threw it out (I was so disappointed) because the soil had some strange mushroomy mass growing on it and I had young kids. I didn't know if what it was and didn't want them digging in it. I figured that I could always grow another.

    I grew the mango from seed. I did one of those thinner yellow types from the store & not the big reddish-green ones. I was just saying that I want to try another, but I have to wait for those to re-appear in the store.

    I think what I had done was to pry open the seed coat a little at a certain place, hoping not to hurt the embryo inside, and put that all in a zip lock bag with a bit of moistened soil. Then I put it in a cooler, dark place for a bit, checking on the bag's humidity & any signs of growth daily. I did a few because some will just rot. If you get a seed that is already showing signs of opening & growing, of course that is even better!

    Once it looked like it was doing well, I took it out & potted it up.

    I could never grow tropicals outside in my climate. It is too dry and the seasons are awfully short.

    Growing beautiful plants from what is essentially garbage is very rewarding!

  • Cornelius
    Cornelius Posts: 872 ✭✭✭✭

    @LaurieLovesLearning The pups will replace the dying stock and the "plant" will continue growing (its kind of like mint coming back from the rhizome every spring). If there is no pup to replace the dying stock then the whole plant can die instead of continuing on. I don't know how long, but it will live longer if it doesn't fruit.

  • Tave
    Tave Posts: 952 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My landlord has a stand of bananas, and his wife asked him to chop down the mother banana that had finished fruiting because it was going to die anyway. He didn't want to kill it, so he left it, and it died. She had the perfect moment for, "I told you so."

    I think bananas bloom as soon as they have 9-12 leaves, regardless of the time of year. David the Good explained what goes on, but I can't find the video.