{"id":2700,"date":"2019-11-07T00:03:48","date_gmt":"2019-11-07T08:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/pal-question-489\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T14:44:47","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T21:44:47","slug":"growing-and-caring-for-red-banana-plant","status":"publish","type":"pal","link":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/pal\/growing-and-caring-for-red-banana-plant\/","title":{"rendered":"growing and caring for red banana plant"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a small, red-leaved banana plant. I am going to give it<\/strong>
\nto my daughter in Iowa. What is the best care she can give besides full<\/strong>
\nsun and moisture? What kind of dirt is best for replanting it and what<\/strong>
\nkind of fertilizer should I feed it?<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You are correct that Ensete ventricosum<\/em> (Red banana) needs moisture and
\nsun to thrive. The information I found about this plant indicates that it
\nis not too particular about type of soil, but it is definitely
\nfrost-tender. Does your daughter plan to overwinter the banana in a
\ngreenhouse or other sheltered spot? The Missouri Botanical Garden
\nsite linked below suggests applying fertilizer during the growing season,
\nbut does not mention a particular type of fertilizer. (See last link
\nbelow for more anecdotal information on fertilizer.)<\/p>\n

Missouri Botanical Garden<\/a> has useful information on growing Ensete<\/i>. Below is an excerpt.<\/p>\n

Winter hardy to USDA Zones 10-11. In St. Louis, plants may be grown
\noutdoors during the growing season (either directly in the ground or in
\ncontainers), but must be brought indoors for overwintering or they will
\nnot survive. Plants are best grown in organically rich, medium moisture,
\nwell-drained soil in full sun. Plants tolerate and often appreciate some
\npart shade or light filtered sun in the heat of the day. Plants need
\nconsistently moist soils that do not dry out. Fertilize plants regularly
\nduring growing season. Site plants in areas protected from strong winds
\nwhich can severely damage the large leaves. For containers, use a
\nwell-drained potting soil mix. Keep container soils consistently moist
\nbut not wet. In St. Louis, outdoor plants must be overwintered indoors,
\neither in a sunroom\/greenhouse or by forcing plants into dormancy.
\nOptions for overwintering include:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Bring container plant indoors in
    \nfall before first frost and place container in a large sunny room for
    \noverwintering as a houseplant, with reduced water and fertilization;<\/li>\n
  2. If container plant is too large to bring inside as a houseplant, cut
    \nfoliage back to 6-8″ in fall after first frost, and store container in a
    \ncool, dark, frost-free corner of the basement until spring, with periodic
    \naddition of a touch of moisture as needed in winter to prevent the soils
    \nfrom totally drying out;<\/li>\n
  3. If container plant is too heavy or too large
    \nto bring inside, remove plant from container in fall before first frost,
    \nwrap roots in plastic and store in a cool, dark, frost-free corner of the
    \nbasement until spring (foliage may be trimmed back or left on the plant
    \nand allowed to brown up in the normal course);<\/li>\n
  4. If growing plants
    \ndirectly in the ground, dig, wrap roots, trim back the leaves and store
    \nas in option #3 above. After flowering and fruiting, the pseudostem dies.
    \nPropagate by seed or tissue culture.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The Plants for a Future database<\/a> also has information on growing this plant.<\/p>\n

    There is information on fertilizing on the site of the Northwest Palms forum (no longer available online). Excerpt:<\/p>\n

    I promised in a thread a while back that I would post the fertilizer I
    \nuse for feeding my Ensete ventricosum maurelii<\/i>. Here’s what I typically
    \ndo:<\/p>\n

    The plants get set out in mid May. They have been dormant in the unheated
    \nbasement since November. When they were dug up they had all their leaves
    \ncut off except the central growing one. The root ball gets covered with
    \nplastic to help keep moisture in. Over the winter they have lost a lot of
    \ntheir water but are still succulent and ready to put on new growth
    \n(usually they are already growing before being set out). Their root ball
    \nwas kept small to make storage easier and they were watered sparingly and
    \nkept just barely moist for their period of dormancy. Last year the
    \nbiggest plant was over 300 pounds (without leaves!) when dug up, but it
    \nwill have lost about a third of that weight by the time it is planted
    \nout.<\/p>\n

    We plant them into areas of the yard where the soil is 100% compost. They
    \nget put in planting holes that have about 6 cups of pelleted shake\/feed
    \nfertilizer (24-8-16 or similar) mixed into the bottom of the planting
    \nhole as well as a good sprinkling of pelleted micronutrients, iron and
    \nmagnesium. But that’s just the start…<\/p>\n

    After planting, they are generously watered in with transplant fertilizer
    \nand top dressed with manure or SeaSoil or both. Then, I wait for full-on
    \nnew growth to start. As soon as it does, the bananas get fertilized
    \nweekly. I use urea (46-0-0), super phosphate (0-45-0) and potassium
    \n(0-0-50) and make my own mix using a ratio of 2:1:1. I dissolve 1\/2 cup
    \nurea with 1\/4 cup phosphate and potassium in a small amount of hot water.
    \nThis super concentrate gets diluted into 10 litres of water and each
    \nEnsete<\/i> plant gets this shot of fertilizer, watered in, every week from
    \nearly June to October. (As they get dug up for winter, I’m not too
    \nworried about late season applications of fertilizer.) Every few weeks
    \nthey also get some magnesium and some fish fertilizer. There doesn’t seem
    \nto be any way to burn them with fertilizer when planted in the ground. (I
    \nwouldn’t use an aggressive fertilizer schedule like this for plants in
    \npots.) Use caution as nearby plants can suffer from such high levels of
    \nfertilizer–good reason to surround your bananas with cannas and
    \nColocasias etc.<\/p>\n

    The other bananas we have (basjoo, sikkimensis, Orinoco, zebrina,
    \nMusella, itinerans) get a similar schedule but smaller quantities of
    \nfertilizer as they just can’t match the maurelii for the “volume” of the
    \nplant (the biggest basjoos get about half the amount).<\/p>\n

    As other people have also pointed out, the amount of water they get is
    \nalso critical. They all love water but must still have good drainage (we
    \nplant ours in raised mounds).<\/p>\n

    So there’s obviously no magic to anything I do–I just experimented with
    \nhow much fertilizer they can take and haven’t hit the limit yet.<\/p>\n

    My only caution is beware of the monster you are creating. Digging up
    \nseveral 300+ pound plants, moving them (in our case, down a flight of
    \nstairs into the basement), storing them and then reversing the procedure
    \nin the Spring is back-breaking work. Perhaps ours will get too big this
    \nyear (this will be their 3rd summer) to do this. Last year they were 17
    \nfeet tall…”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I have a small, red-leaved banana plant. I am going to give it to my daughter in Iowa. What is the best care she can give besides full sun and moisture? What kind of dirt is best for replanting it and what kind of fertilizer should I feed it?   You are correct that Ensete ventricosum (Red banana) needs moisture and sun to thrive. The information I found about this plant indicates that it is not too particular about type…<\/p>\n

    Continue reading growing and caring for red banana plant<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"template":"","keyword":[649],"class_list":["post-2700","pal","type-pal","status-publish","hentry","keyword-ensete"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal\/2700"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pal"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/pal"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"keyword","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/depts.washington.edu\/hortlib\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyword?post=2700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}