There are hundreds of varieties of Bananas, Musa spp, available worldwide. The one we are most familiar with from childhood is the typical grocery store variety, ‘Cavendish‘. However, this was not the first commercial banana variety available in the United States. The Gros Michel (pronounced “Grow Mishel”) was the first variety to be commercially distributed around the world. Unfortunately, it was also the first banana to be taken out by the deadly pathogen “Panama Disease”.

Florida is technically part of the sub-tropics. Though bananas are a tropical plant we can still grow them successfully in Florida. Additionally, the University of Florida’s Tropical Research and Education Center (TREC) is developing banana varieties which are cold tolerant and which are resistant to Panama disease. This could possibly extend the banana’s growth range farther north.

Banana plant terms

Not really a tree, Banana plants have a trunk called the pseudostem. This pseudostem rises from a corm from underground. This corm “branches out” with underground rhizomes and fibrous roots. When these rhizomes pop up above ground and begin making leaves, they are called suckers or pups. Leaves are on a petiole which is wrapped around the pseudostem in layers forming a leaf sheath with older leaves on the outside. New growth comes from the center and top of the pseudostem. The ‘tree’ will send out a “Flag Leaf“, a very short leaf, from the top center of the pseudostem as the bloom stalk emerges.

On the bloom stalk, the bananas will form from the female flowers, which are usually the first to emerge. Each female flower will have the ovary- small banana- attached. These immature fruits seem to grow up-side-down. There will be a hand, or cluster, of bananas under each flower bract, or petal, of the tear-drop shaped purple-red blossom. Individual bananas are called fingers.

Once the bloom stalk is done making female flowers, it will keep shedding bracts of the blossom revealing imperfect male flowers under each. No more bananas will be produced at that time.  You may leave the pendulous blossom on or cut it off an compost it. There are a couple of exceptions to these last two banana rules in the “Thousand Fingers” variety and possibly others.

Growing tips

Once this pseudostem with the bloom stalk finishes making bananas, that pseudostem will not produce any more fruit. That trunk will die off. It is best to cut down that whole trunk once you’ve harvested the fruit from it. Using a machete, chop up the old pseudostem and leave it in the center of pups in the banana circle so it can decompose in place.  This will provide slow-release nutrients for the remaining pups. If all conditions go well, the next largest pseudostem will mature and produce fruit the next year.

From time of original planting, it takes a banana plant roughly eighteen months to produce its first stalk of bananas. After which, the mat (entire plant including pseudostem, leaf sheaths, rhizomes, and roots) should fruit every year from a new sucker.

It is important to keep only 4 pups at a time in the banana mat (banana circle). If you allow more than 4, they rob nutrients and will NEVER fruit. Watch the banana circle. If you get a fifth, sixth, or more suckers emerging, you may dig them up. It will require the use of a sharp spade and machete. You can start a new banana circle with this pup or pot it up to share with someone else.

Banana Relatives

Banana plants are related to “Bird of Paradise”, gingers, Heliconia, and Canna lilies. These all grow from a spreading, underground rhizome. If you’ve ever dug up ginger or Canna lilies, you will be familiar with the corm and rhizomatous root growth.

Origins – Where do Bananas Come From?

Bananas are originally from Southeast Asia. It is thought to be the first cultivated fruits to be intentionally spread throughout the tropical world. Banana is a tropical plant. It does NOT like frost.

Bananas in the Florida Garden

Bananas are tolerant of a wide soil pH range. Likewise, there is a Bananas variety for EVERY size garden. Some ornamental varieties can be grown in pots as a house plant. There are banana varieties which grow no bigger than 2 feet and some which are over 30 feet tall. However, not all bananas are edible.

The 3 most important problems for bananas:

1.  Freezing weather
2.  Panama Disease
3.  Lack of water and nutrients

During our Florida winters we can occasionally get some cold weather. Chill damage may occur in temperatures below 40 degrees. Damage may be irreversible below 32 degrees. Fortunately, new growth usually emerges from the underground rhizome when warmer temperatures return.

Cold Protection for Banans

• keep old leaves on the plant for protection
• make a mulch cage with chicken wire and fill with oak leaves, mulch, or other organic material
• place barrel under banana circle and fill with water. Enclose the whole trunk and full barrel with a sheet

I like to leave the dried banana leaves on the pseudostem from October till the end of March for some protection from the cold. If a severe freeze is imminent, I will construct a simple wire mesh cylinder around the planting and pile mulch (oak leaves) up as high as I can around the pseudostem to protect the trunks from frost. After the cold event, remove the cage and spread the leaves around the banana trunks. This keeps the mulch nearby in case of another cold event.

Once the weather warms back up in April or May, the damaged banana pseudostem will sprout new leaves from the top. Be patient! They will look like they are dead. However, as long as the pseudostem remains upright, it will come back. If the freeze damage is too severe, the whole trunk will topple.

Banana Uses

Bananas are a very useful plant. The old leaves can be used for fiber to make floor mats, baskets, hut roofing, cordage, woven “jewelry”, paper and even cloth. Fresh leaves can be used as an emergency rain hat, as ‘paper plates’, or for grilling food in a leaf-parcel. I like to cook Salmon in a Banana leaf over the gas grill for special holidays. It imparts an interesting flavor you don’t get when cooking fish in foil and the wrapped leaf keeps the fish moist.

Edible parts are more than just the fruits. The blossom is made into a salad in Asia and can be cooked as a vegetable, as can the corms (if you have an abundance). Plantains and unripe bananas can be cooked just like potatoes – boiled, poached, stewed. When smashed and fried they are made into the common Central American food called “tostones”. Tostones taste very much like French fries. In the Caribbean, they make a breakfast ‘porridge’ out of unripe bananas by grinding them, skins and all, in a blender. You then add water and boil the pulp. Add spices if desired and some jam for sweetener. This porridge is said to be high in iron.

Easy Banana Varieties for South Florida

• “Apple” or “Manzana”, is a small, sweet, slightly apple-flavored banana. It must be soft ripe or it is astringent. It is regularly available at one of our local Florida grocery stores.
• “Orinoco” is the banana settlers most likely encountered, also referred to as the “Horse Banana”, it is a slightly more cold-tolerant variety. Not too sweet, can be used as a plantain when under-ripe.
• “Rajapuri” is a premium, tasty variety. Not wind tolerant. It is slow to sucker.
• “Ice Cream“, or “Blue Java”, is another small, very tasty variety. It ripens while still green. This banana plant is a larger variety to 12-feet tall. It suckers well.
• “Goldfinger“, or “FHIA-01”, is a newly developed hybrid with finger-small fruit. The flesh is sweet and golden yellow with a slight lemon zest flavor.
• “Plantains” are a hybrid banana that have thick skins. They have a higher starch content and are not very sweet. Plantains are always cooked before eating.

Collecting Bananas

Some interesting varieties if you’d like to become a banana collector are:

• ‘African Rhino Horn‘- very long, curving plantain type
• ‘Thousand Fingers‘- very large rack with hundreds of fruits.
• ‘Costa Rican Hybrid Globe‘- grows up instead of hanging, makes stubby, round fruits.
• ‘Double Banana‘- makes two or more stalks at a time
• ‘Dwarf Red‘- fruit skins are a deep burgundy color
• ‘Gros Michel‘- the original commercial banana, now only tissue culture plants remain.
• ‘Praying Hands‘, dense clusters, fingers seem pushed together like hands praying
• ‘Rose‘- has a bright red pseudostem and edible fruit
• ‘Pink‘- makes bright pink ‘bananas’ which are mostly ornamental and are loaded with seeds- hardly edible.

Learn More

The University of Florida has a wonderful EDIS publication #HS10: “Banana Growing in the Florida Home Landscape” which is FULL of research-based information and charts of varieties and their growth range, care, propagation, harvesting, when to fertilize and planting how-to.

The book, Bananas You Can Grow, by James W. Waddick & Glenn M. Stokes (Stokes Tropical Publishing Co., ISBN 0-9678540-1-6) has banana history, fun trivia, recipes, and a gallery section of varieties with height, uses, and photos.

The Complete Book of Bananas, by W. O. Lessard has thorough care instructions. Additionally, this book contains much information on scouting for diseases from a Banana farmer with many decades of experience. Over 50 varieties listed.

Banana: The Fate of the Fruit That Changed the World, by Dan Koeppel is a fascinating history of banana fruit imports and how the import process changed the politics of the Americas starting as early as the 1870’s.

5