Banana Plant Care

When we ship your banana tree to you, we generally cut all of the leaves off because they will die off anyway when you replant it. The stump you get can range in size from about a foot to 3 feet tall. It will grow new leaves very quickly in warm and humid weather, much slower in colder climates. It is very exciting to get your first few leaves! Keep soil moist but not saturated. Fertilize with a mild fertilizer (13-5-13 is ideal) at every watering. You can use stronger fertilizers like Peter’s, Schultz’s, Miracle Grow, even Steer Manure and it generally will NOT harm the plant. A good rule of thumb is: if you get less than 1 leaf per week, you are not fertilizing enough! It’s hard to burn a banana with fertilizers. Use organically rich soil, in warm to very warm and humid conditions. Protect from strong winds if planted outdoors. Bananas shriveled to the ground by cold will re-sprout from the underground corm when temperatures warm up. We now sell banana SEEDS for one variety. Enjoy growing your banana tree from just a seed. What a rewarding way to grow a plant, and at a fraction of the cost. Banana plants and banana seeds also make a marvelous and ingenious gift idea!

A banana plant can grow from 5' to 35' in as little as one year depending on variety and growing environment. Of course a banana's growth will slow if temperatures drop into the 50's. Even though your banana may look like a dead stump in the ground in the Winter, do not remove it, unless you live in a part of the country where the ground freezes solid. Instead, we suggest that you purchase some burlap from any hardware store, and wrap the trunk of the tree down to the ground, only allowing the leaves to be exposed. Of course, do this before first frost appears. Leave the burlap on until all fear of frost is gone. In Arizona, we would wrap our trees just before Thanksgiving and unwrap around mid-March. You may want to refrain from too much water or fertilizer during these colder months. If you are in a colder region, you may just want to dig up your stump, including some surrounding soil and keep it in a warmer place out of the elements, like a garage, or basement, until warmer weather is near. Folks in the East may even want to consider planting the banana in a moveable pot with a saucer in the first place, keep it as a houseplant, and when it’s warm and humid out, move the plant outside. Thank you for your purchase and enjoy!