Is anyone growing a banana plant?

[wordwiz]

An update:

I got my first baby, know as a pup, a couple of days ago. It was about 16" tall and had several leaves though it grew entirely under the lid! Cut it off from the trunk and stuck it in a pot of potting mix and have been keeping it super saturated. Yesterday, a new leaf appeared.

I also moved my dwarf orange tree under the LED light. It has some blossoms appear yesterday.

Mike

 

[MiLK_MaN]

Banana update:

Both plants survived winter uncovered. Obviously some of the lower leaves looked pretty crappy, but as soon as our Spring time temps went up the plant went straight back into "go grow" mode.

Here's my two plants purchased in September 2010:

 

[Aji hombre]

Does anybody have experience with successfully removing and rooting banana pups? I've done some research but just wondering if anyone has any first hand experience?

Pretty easy, actually. I have passed pups from my Dwarf Brazilian to many friends. In order to get the big stems to fruit, you need to ruthlessly cull the pups to control their numbers--in Brazil they say "mae, pae e filho" that is, mother, father, and baby, which are the three plants you have growing at a time: one that will fruit this year, one next year and one the year after that. In culling the pups if you get one coming off with a lot of its own roots already going, just drop it into a 5-gallon with a 50/50 of soil and potting mix. Leave it under the shade of the parent plants for a few weeks and it will be throwing leaves again for you--at that point you'll know it has established a healthy set of roots. At any given time I've usually got pups in pots ready to go to anyone who wants one.

Side note: bananas consume nutrients like crazy and LOVE compost piled around their base.