I am interested in buying a dwarf cavendish since it would be the only banana that would that fit in the house. Does anyone have this banana? and if so how do it perform for you, do you over winter them in pots or do you cut all the leaves off and store like a bulb. If you have any info. on these please post.

I think even the Dwarf Cavendish is still tall, remember it is the pseudostem height that is 5 ft. Add to that the height of the pot, the height of the leaves, and you would need about 12 ft high ceiling, unless you have vaulted ceilings then you should be okay. I wouldn't recommend Super Dwarf Cavendish as it seldom bare fruit. I would recommend Musa "Dwarf Lady Finger", this one the average total height is around 6 ft, from the base of the 10" high pot to the leaves.

well could i just grow it outside and then cut off the leaves and store it in the basement? It is really the only good banana from a canadian nursery, because i don't want to have to get permits.

I have at present five different varieties of bananas growing my greenhouse, including the Super Dwarf Cavendish that Joe Real talked about in the above post. The Super Dwarf Cavendish is in a 15 gallon container and is perhaps three feet tall and two year old. I am not really sure of its age, but it seems like it has been around here for ever. Anyway, Joe must be correct in his assessment, because so far it has not fruited. It does look very tropical on the back patio during the summer. During the winter I just place it in an out of the way spot in the greenhouse, where I water and feed it on a more or LESS basis. My favorite is the Chiquita banana (Grand Nain), which is the banana shown in my Avatar. They are very easy to fruit, and only get to about 8 feet tall. - Millet

I have a DC pup I potted up in August, I'm guessing 18-24" tall available for trade if you are interested.

Stressbaby, the problem of valenciaguy is that he is in Canada, and I don't know for what kind of practical reason does the Canadian government would prevent direct importation of bananas from the US. Except Florida, we have practically no banana diseases, and bananas are never an agricultural crop of Canada.

But let me guess, they do have mammoth caves and caverns with constant temperature and so if they can fiber optic the sunlight into these underground caverens, they should be able to compete with worldwide banana production, LOL. But anyway, growing of plants in enormous caverns is true, and is used for growing and testing GM crops to prevent their contamination in the outside world.

I would have sent valenciaguy tons of free bananas if not for the restrictions. the only thing that I can send him for free are my grafting tape samples.

Joe

Joe you are absolutely right that is my biggest problem of getting citrus or tropicals for that matter. I have to search long and hard for any nurseries that do sell them.

Thinking way back, if I am remembering correctly, the worlds banana clonal protection depository (probably not the correct name) which is the official protection of all the 1000s of banana varieties, cultivated and wild, is located inside a building in Portugal; at I believe a Catholic University. I forget the name. It is located in Portugal because that country is totally free of any banana diseases. I might have read it in the CRFG Fruit Gardener magazine. If anyone can help me out with the proper wording that would enable me to look it up on the Internet. - Millet

Perhaps, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR) has a hand in establishing germplasms in Portugal.