(Last week I gave you an introduction to growing a banana plant. You can CLICK HERE to read it first (if you haven't already)--then come back to this post and you'll be all caught up.)
It's important to know how the banana plant is constructed. It is not a tree, no matter how big some of them are. Instead, it is a miraculous plant, with leaves that arise from a large corm under the ground. Those leaves fold snugly around each other as they grow, giving the appearance of a trunk, but the technical term is the pseudo stem. The leaves are absolutely vital to strong growth of the plant, and it’s awful to hear of people “cutting them back.” Every leaf is precious to the growth of the plant. You want to aim towards producing the healthiest, huskiest plant possible for fruiting. The more leaves, the better. You want at least 14 by the time of flowering.
Happy bananas!
- Food - compost, manure as much as you can give. This little guy is hungry!
- Water - the plant really soaks it up as it gets bigger. Those huge leaves show their appreciation by droplets falling from the leaves onto other leaves.
- Heat - the more the merrier. Little Cavendish loves to sunbathe all day. Nighttime temps must not be too low either.
If you're able to provide these three things you can grow a beautiful banana plant.
One of the big bonuses about having it inside is bugs don't seem attracted to it at all, which is ideal for me. During the past year I haven't seen a single bug of any kind on those magnificent leaves.
Exciting observations
You'll notice at this point the last three leaves are different. They are comparatively larger. They take much longer to unfurl, as if they're guarding something. The very last one though is called the flag leaf. That's the one that heralds the final arrival of the flower. I've been watching and waiting for this to happen for the last month. The suspense is killing!
In the meantime, hope you'll enjoy this oldie!
Wishing you a safe and beautiful weekend and hope to see you back again for a new Monday edition of Pig Digging!
Vicki