My banana tree flowered, and is starting fruit. (probably technically wrong, it is making bananas)
It is also getting late in the season. would I be more likely to get ripe fruit if I cut off the newest part of the bloom and let the development go to the existing hands of bananas? Or should I just leave things as they are?
If its a tree, its not a banana. Banana plants are just overly large rhizomatous perennials.
If you live in a warm enough climate, you can just let it be.
Be sure the plant is well watered. (Even if you don't even have a well to get water from!)
It's a banana plant. Technically, it may not be a tree, but that is a common term used in referring to them. I always thought it was closer to being a giant form of grass, but the smart people don't agree with me much of the time.
We are warm enough here that the plant will survive, at least the rhizome will, but I would like to get some fruit, just for the novelty.
so the question remains, am I more or less likely to get fruit if I cut off the blossom. (And fruit is probably the wrong term for the bananas I hope to get, but I can't remember all the correct terminology.)
leave it be, you might not get any bananas but it will not help to cut off the immature hands. I have about 20 plants, three of which have bananas on them now, but I don't thing they will have time to mature before Mr. Frost gets them. The plants are burned a little already, oh well they are pretty growing anyway. Good Luck
It depends on the type of banana it is producing. I've had my banana plants flower and set fruit and the fruit is yuk. Tastes more like a plantain than a banana with very low sugar.
Just before a freeze, remove the bananas and put them indoors in brown paper bags with an apple. The apple off gasses and promotes ripening. See if that works. Unless you have a known variety which will provide edible fruit, there is no way of telling how they'll taste.
victoria
We live in an area where the banana rhyzome will live but not the tops. Luckily we have a greenhouse large enough to grow them indoors. We grow Grand Nain in 15-25 gal containers. When the fruiting stem reach a certain length, they slow down and seem reluctant to set more fruit. We cut the stems at that point and the rest of the hands then seem to take off and mature quickly. Sometimes we get 6 hands, sometimes 15 or somewhere in between. I'm not sure what controls it. So I'd say, based on my experience, that if there's a chance to mature any fruit in a questionable situation, cut the tip out and let the 1st fruit mature. Good luck. Gary
I would leave it as is. We have 3 banana plants in zone 10B, and the bananas are delicious. They do need some fertilizer about 3 or 4 times a year. When the bunch is fully grown, we take them off as each one ripens. When the bananas are done, cut the plant down because it will die. A baby plant should be growning next to it by then.
Barbara C. S. Florida
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