Can someone tell me if I can delay the blooming of a banana tree specially in Winter?

Forget I asked.

If you keep the banana below 57F the growth will stop, but be sure not to let the banana be at a temperature below 45F. - Millet

Here's what I told Benny in an email to him and I wish to share with others:

Joe: There is nothing much we can do. One way is to place bags of ice around the base of California Gold and then cover the whole plant with frost blanket. Bend each leaves and snug tight around the trunk before covering with frost blanket. The ice when they melt, would give time to induce the California Gold to dormancy, which hopefully should delay. The melted water around the plant and the ice would be in equilibrium, always slightly above freezing so it will not freeze the plant stems and corms but induce it to dormancy. This is only true if the banana has been hardened gently by cold as is the case when we are going into winter. It is just letting winter come in quickly to put the plant in stasis

I on the other hand is too late for that. One of my bananas bloomed yesterday!!! Well, I can always cook the "puso ng saging" (literal translation: banana's heart, but techinically, the banana's inflorescence ) instead of the fruits!

Anyway, there is wisdom in Benny's reply: Thanks Joe. That's too much work. I'll let nature take its course.

And that's the meaning of Benny's saying to the group that "Forget I asked."

Benny
It probably will not work but I am going to try two things to delay fruiting.
Next year I am going to whack the top off on one plant if it has not flowered by the middle of August. I am hoping that this might cause it to re-grow and not flower before winter. I have noticed that my bananas that don’t flower before the first freeze will resume growth in the spring and produce fruit. In the spring I have cut out the tops that were mushy. I am hoping to create the same situation except much earlier. I have no idea if this will work if it is cut back so early.
Second thing I am trying is to grow them as big as I can in the greenhouse before planting in the spring. I figure 12-15 months in a container then plant in the ground Maybe I can give them the head start that they need. Again I don’t know if this will work on bananas but it is proven to work with papaya. With papaya you just keep them throttled back in a small container. They will still get 3-4’ tall by spring but it’s enough to get fruit much earlier.
Karl

Whacking the top off is one of the techniques that I have tried. And it has failed at times:
1) if variety is new, most often, I cut off the bloom near the tip. If I cut low, then I might cut off the bloom, not having much experience with the new cultivar on how it grows in my yard and under my care.
2) if I didn't cut the bloom, sometimes, it will choke after the winter, trying to regrow but the dried up end of the pseudostem constricts to a strong mass, and hence it cannot push itself out. And if I try to assist it by chopping off further, the end of the stem cut dries up faster than the leaves can push out because of slow growth in spring causing it again to choke out, not pushing the leaves out. So instead, the plants diverts its energy into the pups, and many pups indeed grow, while the main corm gives up and dies out eventually.
3) but about 25% of the time, like when we have wet warm rains in spring, the leaves pushes out, and then the bloom follow suit. But because the banana is so small and there are few leaves, the resulting bloom is tiny and so are fruits. Perhaps you can get a hand or two with about 6 fruits that would develop, but better than nothing. We know that plant food are stored in corms and stems. The stem itself would be a photosynthetic apparatus, that is why we remove and clean them by spring time. Too short of a stem reduces your translocation of fruits into blooms, or the photosynthetic area, and so you have small flower and resulting fruit bunch, unless the cultivar has a large corm storage (which others actually do, and I've observed them in tropics when storms accidentally cut the bananas in half but the fruit bunch and individual fruits are normal size ). I have of course set the bar higher, and I know I can get them to fruit, and so I want to have the biggest bunches of fruits possible in my growing environment, without a greenhouse.

So I am still trying other approaches.

One of the very successful approaches that I have done so far is culling out selectively the pups. Select the pups based on keen observations and history of the plant. You try to project what size and height the pups will get by first frost. If they will be a foot before blooming height at that time, leave the pup alone. The other pups, cut them back to the ground always or give them away. This way, you will produce the biggest bunch of fruits in this colder Northern California. while the most effective method tested so far, it takes years to know the behavior of your plant. And still, you suffer some mistake like what happened to me. All of my best estimates applied and during summer, I culled out the pups and leave one of my stalk that I estimate to have a bloom by spring time, so I left it alone and cut out the others. But during late summer to up to today, and including the forecast, it has been warmer than average and sometimes with record breaking warm days in between, and that stalk bloomed well ahead of my projections. If it had been normal, and not excessively warm, then I would have hit the jackpot by spring time.

But alas, here's the poor thing, with no hope of forming into fruits:


By joereal at 2008-11-20

My apologies.
I should have said, Joe already answered my question so please forget I asked.

Benny

I need your opinion Joe.
My IC nannas are in pots now. This was the 3rd summer for them (bought as TC 3 inch babies early June '06). One is in my cool sunroom (ave 50's) with a pup having over 2ft pseudo stem so will grow slowly. Other is at Mike's house, room temp with 2 small pups. That one just put out a new leaf.
If I cut all pups off in spring (to give mother more energy), is there a chance I will finally get a flower next summer??
Oh please say YES!!
They had 12 months of summer growing plus some winter growth. I got banana fuel & good potting soil to mix with soil for planting inground next May, so they will do some good growing next summer. I guess I'm overanxious!
I wonder how many peopl this far north have had nannas grow & ripen.
Should I start a contest as to when I'll get a flower? Winner will get a pup!
I am determined even if only 1 hand, but of course I want a 80 lb bunch.

Patty,

You can separate the pups and hope for the best. Only cut back the pups if you can't give them away. The IC is quite a very tall plant. It may take another year before a chance at blooming, but you will be rewarded. Keep on the good work. Remember to put more K than N and least amount of P. Micros will definitely help.

Start a contest and give away the pups! Its the best thing you can do to help your banana.

Joe

Thanks Joe, I have 15-5-30 fert called 'Banana Fuel'. The plant in my S room won't get any but the one at Mike's house will get maybe half dose because it is growing -slow but sure.
OK OK, I won't get my hopes up too much