Spring Bananas

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 7:18 pm

Well we had a cool spring here in Toronto so I had to wait until the middle of May to plant my bananas. The garden was dug out especially for my bananas and consists of about 700 lbs of compost from my composter, peat, sand and perlite. The growth of the bananas was a little slow at first, but now they are really taking off. My quickest grower is the E. Ventricosum Maurelii which puts out a huge new leaf every 4 days. The Banana on the bottom right is a dwarf cavendish and the rest are musa basjoos (except for the hosta grand master). The photo was taken June 2nd. I will post the end result in October before our first frost. Enjoy! don't mind the Mcdonalds cup!

Wes North Van · Post by **Wes North Van** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 10:50 pm

Ryan your banana plantings look great. You should see, if you haven't already, pups forming around your musa basjoo. You should try musella lasiocarpa. It is a smaller banana but forms pups very quickly. It is probably the second most hardy banana next to musa basjoo. You will see pics if you check out my website.
Your E. Ventricosum Maurelii looks fantastic. They grow quickly and get extremely large. Probably the best looking banana of them all.

Kansas · Post by **Kansas** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 5:55 am

How Hardy are the Cavendish?
I was thinking of planting some here in TOpeka Kansas but didn't know if they would make it.

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:07 am

When I purchased the Basjoo there were 8 pups around the base. I cut them off and planted some and sold the rest. The Cavandish is hardy to zone 8. It will have to be lifted before the first frost. I also have a M. Lasiocarpa in another garden. Right now I am trying to track down Musa blue java (ice cream), but these can be difficult to find here. I know that Hawaiian botanicals carries them, but the smallest they have are 5 gallons that are 7' tall.

Post by **Jay-Admin** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:38 am

Looks good Ryan.

I have a small Musa blue java ice cream banana that i planted a couple of weeks ago. I bought it on ebay last year but noticed the seller isn't a member anymore. It's too bad because they had all kinds of banana plants for sale.

Regards,
Jay

DesertZone · Post by **DesertZone** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:44 am

Looking good Ryan

ryan · Post by **ryan** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:30 pm

Thanks guys for the nice remarks! I will keep you posted. Hey admin when you blue java pups send me an PM and we can work something out

Post by **Jay-Admin** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:29 pm

Ryan, When it sends a pup up i will send one to you.

Regards,
Jay