Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Banana tree

I thought I'd do an update of my miniature banana tree. It has loved the heat we've had lately!

Here it is yesterday:

Here it was back in April. I think it is time for a bigger pot!

10 comments:

Melody said...

How cool is that?! So will it ever bear fruit?

linda m said...

It has really grown. It must be the "tropical" heat. The only times I have ever seen a "live" banana tree were in Jamaica and in the tropical dome of ou local conservatory. Your plant looks great!

jimmycrackedcorn said...

I ordered one of those 10 or 15 years ago. I grew it in a sunny window, repotted it into bigger and bigger pots until it was in an 18 inch pot I could barely lift. It grew to about 6 feet tall and wide. The new leaves that would come out were each 3 feet long. Eventually it was too much for the pot and died...I probably had it for 2 years. A couple times I accidentally exposed it to temps below 60 F and it did NOT respond well to that.

Carla said...

Cool! Can you train it (by pinching lower leaves) into a tree shape?

Anonymous said...

Looking good, I have seen banana trees around here but they wouldn't probably do well in our climate though.

Christy said...

Melody - It is supposed to fruit next year.

Mom - Thanks! I hope it keeps going well.

Jimmy - Mine is a miniature so I don't think it is supposed to get that big. Did yours ever fruit?

Ceecee - I don't know, I hadn't even though of that. The new leaves grow out from the top, so I don't see why I couldn't pinch the lower leaves.

jimmycrackedcorn said...

No, my tree never made fruit or flowers. It just kept unfurling (spinning out from the top center) new bigger and bigger leaves. I guess I should have tried a miniature! The bottom leaves would die after a while, eventually leaving a rough brown trunk of sorts.

Anonymous said...

The banana tree is looking good. That is something I have been thinking about getting. Seeing yours makes me wish I had one already.
Have a great weekend.

Kathryn and Ari said...

Wow. That's wonderful. I remember Delaware summer heat--it feels a WHOLE lot like the tropics. Hope you've had time for a beach day or two while your banana plant basks in the sun.

Christy said...

Kathryn - After living in Houston for 9 years, Delaware summers are really mild. We did get a beach day which was nice, and I think we'll go again next week after everyone is back in school. We homeschool so we get to enjoy things when no one is there.