I just an ediable banana and I am very excited, i don't know what variety it is , and i would like to know the basic care of them. Here are some pics.

There's absolutely tons of info on banana care all over the web. I would first transplant your nana into a larger container with some good Promix potting soil. They require lots of water but not waterlogged. They are heavy feeders as well. Get it as much light as you can. Wait for the pups and keep two...a small and big.

From the way the leaves form and how densely they are packed even in a shaded environment, I am 95% that you got a Super Dwarf Cavendish. It was designed for foliage not fruit production. I have mine growing for more than 5 years, without bearing any fruit. I drag it into the house every winter, and bring it out during late spring. It was on a 20 gallon plastic tub, and planted in peat moss and super soil potting media. Basically loaded with fertilizers that are high in K. I gave up on these and gave mine away, since I want fruits and not foliage. So I got the Dwarf Lady Finger, which I think is a better candidate for indoor growing on a container since they are designed with fruit producion in mind and not foliage.

The SDC makes dark green very impressive dense foliage, truly marvelous, but that's not what I wanted.

Thanks Joe...not very encouraging!! I have the variegated SDC. I've had it/them going for nearly 3 years now and all I've gotten are dozens and dozens of pups! I planted two out in the ground in my greenhouse. I may give them a little more time and then chuck them altogether. No room in the greenhouse for non-performers...fruit or get the hell out! A friend just sent me a dwarf cavendish pup. I may replace those two in the ground with this one instead.

Another funny thing with these are that mine get a little taller than I thought they would. I gave a co-worker a pup a few years ago and his grew to nearly 8 feet tall over this past summer! He had to cut the top out to get it in the house. What's up with that?

Hey Ohiojay! When it comes to variegation (white or yellow and not red), you got me hooked on that. Can we do a pup exchange? Your variegated SDC with any of my pups (Dwarf Brazilian, Raja Puri, Dwarf Orinoco, Misi Luki). Best time to do this is spring, so that the pups will not freeze in transit during the cold weather.

OJ, in addition to the DC, keep your eye out for 'Dwarf Namwah' and 'Double Mahoi.' I've planted plenty of "dwarf" bananas in the greenhouse, only to have to rip them out when the crumpled leaves grow into the greenhouse ceiling. These two varieties are supposed to be good tasting and yet they will fruit at a height that you and I can manage. SB

You bet! By spring I should have a bunch of them. I am seriously considering pulling them all out come spring after your revelation. I only want something that is definitely going to fruit. Here's a shot of the nanas. I have them planted in the ground.


On another note...would you mind posting again where you keep your grafting pics and instructions? I want to start trying to graft a few things in the greenhouse soon. Thanks!

The red variegated ones are either Sumatrana, Zebrina or Cross. The Cross is actually a gran nain X zebrina hybrid and is the one that bears small edible fruits. The Sumatrana is cold hardier than Zebrina but both of their fruits are not palatable and are very seedy. Almost all sellers out there interchangeably use Sumatrana, and Zebrina, when there are differences when it comes to cold hardiness. Other synonyms used are blood or rojo bananas.

So did you buy the Cross? Some people would say that the Cross is a gran nain x sumatrana hybrid, but because it is so cold sensitive in our area, I believe that it is a gran nain x zebrina hybrid. Mine died the first year, a full month before the first frosts came. It never came back, so it is really cold sensitive. It is the same with Ae-ae, they die when min temp reaches down to 40's.

Also, the dwarf brazilian and dwarf orinocos would easily fit inside your greenhouse. dwarf brazilian is more productive than dwarf orinocos.

Honestly couldn't tell you which variety they are. I bought a pup in a grocery store a couple of years ago! You know how informative they can be...almost as bad as Lowes when they label their tropicals as "assorted foliage"!!!! That's always good for researching.

Actually, 'Dwarf Orinoco' is one that I had to dig out. It is lanky, for lack of a better word, with a long pseudostem. It might work for you, J, depending on the height of your ceiling, but it was too tall for me. SB

SB, you may have obtained a mis-labeled DO or one of its intermediate sport mutations that makes it higher than the usual dwarf that we have. The DO that I've got usually blooms at just 4.5 ft trunk height, and has very stout stem. I feed it with 6-20-20 lawn starter fertilizer.

There is also a very nice trick to keep your bananas dwarf inside the greenhouse. When it forms pups, you cut off the pup's pseudostem at the ground level, it will always regrow but do this every month without mercy for 8 months, then let it alone. You can experiment how many months you are cutting them back and then letting grow. But if you have one trunk that is blooming, this technique will help you produce bigger bunches of fruits. Also when you separate the pups that you let grow after cutting them back several times, they will have the healthiest corms which are very good for transplanting.

Well I do want fruitting plants but I will let this one grow a bit before i decide, i also found a nursery that sell dwarf cavendish for 15 bucks and i just have to pay shipping best deal i have found so far.

Joe, so if my DC has 2-3 pups, do I need to cut them all back, or just one? How does this work, does it just stress the plant enough to make it flower?