I've been contemplating the same thing,I think it's really a personal choice if you
want to give them a more 'tropical' look,instead of vegetative.

Post some pics-I bet they are going nuts in the hot weather your having.

Lot's of water in the heat!

Love the barn sign, Mike!

Great looking musa.

I thought the bottom leaves always yellowed and fell off on their own -- with time.

Barb

Nice nana Mike, I usually cut mine off. I like to see the trunks on them. They are growing like mad with all this heat where having on the east coast,
I'm watering them twice a day here and it's much hotter at your place.

I just measured one of my biggest leaves that I could reach yesterday 24 inches wide by 60 inches long 😯

Bill

Thanks for the advice guys.....I love these things...They grow so well here ...and yeah it is pretty hot...104 degrees today and low in the 80s at night this week...sticky and humid! No rain though for the past 3 weeks to speak of...AYE! I'm watering like crazy.

Hey everyone,
How come some pics are embedded right int he post and some just appear as a link like mine do??

Mike, if you use the "IMG" button with the source of the pic, it'll load onto the page.
Just toggle on and off with the Img (beginning and end).

The URL simply POINTS to a web address, like yours did, which is "clickable".

Depending on what photo hosting you use, some work great with IMG, some don't.
Barb

Thank you Barb.

Here are a few of my latest musa pics. Hopefully I can grow more in the back of our shed to cover the neighbor's ugly garage. Each plant has given off three new pups from the bottom, Amazing....Stuck myself int here for point of reference/scale.

Nice!
My Musa basjoo have done OK this year, but not great like yours have. --Erik

Mike your nanas have grown nicely since your last picture a month ago!!! I wonder if they will start pushing the wall down as they get bigger 😯

Good job! See your neighbors kept them all alive for you 😀 Good thing right!

Bill

Thanks guys...Yeah they are really growing tall and thick at the base. Amazingly thick trunks. One question though????? They are all pushing out smaller shoots on the base. Is that taking away from the main plant? Should I cut them away????

Mike,

The pups are designed to replace the mother plant after it fruits because it dies after. I always leave mine on and never really noticed a difference.

Are you going to leave that one in the ground this winter or dig it up? That makes a difference too, if your bringing it to the basement I would leave the pups on for sure just in case the mother dies for some reason.

I don't see why you would dig it up since there perfectly hardy there I'm just saying.

Bill

Yea Mike,what are you doing 😀

Seriously though,are you going to overwinter?

If mine made it here.....yours will be fine,I did mound up quite a bit of
mulch and put plastic over.

I cut the babies off if I am going to save some over winter or
I want to thin the clump out.

I also,occasionally cut all but 3 leaves off to encourage them to keep moving upward,
I probably won't save to many(if any)pups this year.
The Basjoos have earned their spot though and are staying as long as they keep coming back,
at least for a few more years until it's time to work in some material into the soil-
they will deplete the soil in a few years if they stay in one place.
There are many other bananas I like the look of and want to try,basically I want some monsters-
still trying to get my hands on some Saba banana plants.

Lot's of water in hot weather is the way to go,looks good Mike.

You three are the banana Kings.
Whatever you're doing, it's obviously working.

Mine's heading to John's place before I kill it.

It'll be interesting to read what you're planning, Mike.
Maybe overwinter one, and dig up/repot the other one for the house in the Fall?

Barb