Banana Tree With Flowers And Fruits: What To Do?

Last updated on October 23rd, 2023 at 08:29 pm

A banana tree with flowers is a special highlight for owners of tropical perennials. Certain points you need to pay attention during flowering and bearing banana fruit.

• Banana trees bloom after two to five years at the earliest, depending on the temperature and light conditions
• Care should not be changed during the flowering period
• Flowers can bloom for 80 to 180 days, depending on location, warmth and amount of available light
• Fruit formation can be aided by removing a portion of the flower
• A successful harvest is not guaranteed despite good care in Central Europe
• During flowering

If you have a banana tree with flowers and fruits, congratulations! Growing your own bananas can be a rewarding experience. Here’s what you can do to care for your banana tree with flowers and fruits:

1. Harvest Ripe Bananas:
   • As bananas mature, they will change color, typically from green to yellow or a combination of yellow and green, depending on the variety. Once they reach the desired ripeness, you can harvest them. Use a knife or pruning shears to cut the entire bunch from the tree.
2. Prune After Fruiting:
   • After harvesting the fruit, consider pruning the banana tree. Remove any spent or damaged leaves to encourage new growth. Leave the healthy leaves intact to continue providing energy for the plant.
3. Care for the New Growth:
   • Your banana plant may produce new pups or “suckers” at the base of the main plant. These pups can be left to grow and eventually replace the main plant when it begins to decline. You can also separate them and transplant them to grow new banana trees.
4. Fertilize and Water:
   • Continue to fertilize your banana tree to provide it with essential nutrients. A balanced, slow-release fertilizer or one specifically formulated for fruiting plants is suitable. Keep the soil consistently moist but not waterlogged.
5. Pest and Disease Control:
   • Monitor your banana tree for signs of pests or diseases. Common issues include banana weevils, aphids, and fungal diseases. Promptly address any problems to maintain the health of the plant.
6. Provide Support:
   • As the banana tree grows taller and produces more fruit, it may require support to prevent it from toppling over in strong winds or due to the weight of the fruit. Staking or propping up the plant can help.
7. Monitor for Cold Weather:
   • If you live in a region with cold winters, be prepared to protect your banana tree during the colder months. Consider wrapping the plant with insulation or providing a heat source to prevent frost damage.
8. Mulch:
   • Apply mulch around the base of the banana tree to help retain soil moisture, regulate temperature, and reduce weed competition.
9. Expect Some Decline:
   • It’s important to understand that banana plants typically have a productive lifespan of a few years. After fruiting, the main plant may begin to decline. This is normal. If you have banana pups (suckers), they will take over as the new main plant.

Growing bananas can be a fun and rewarding experience, but it’s essential to provide proper care and address any issues that may arise to ensure a healthy and productive banana tree. Enjoy your homegrown bananas!

Congratulations. You have managed to get a banana plant to bloom. As soon as on your specimen (Musa) one or more banana flowers in colors ranging from beige to purple are visible, you need to pay attention to one important point: Do not change the care measures. Bananas form flowers only when they feel comfortable in the current location. That is, up to this moment you have done everything right, which shows you the banana tree about its flowering. Nevertheless, there are some aspects that you now need to pay even more attention to, because the plant has to spend more energy:

• do not allow to dry out
• Do not forget to fertilize
• optionally: administer potassium

Otherwise, banana trees are quite frugal during the flowering period and should not be pulled out of their routine per se. Since a banana tree takes between two and five years to flower in our local latitudes, a sudden change in circumstances would disrupt the growth rhythm. So sit back and with a little more luck you can enjoy a fruit.

Problem: Fruits

While flowering is enchanting for a long period of time, things can be completely different with banana fruits. In fact, the biggest problem with perennials is the uncertainty of whether the banana tree will form a fruit after flowering. After flowering, the banana perennial must bloom for a period of up to 180 days before fruiting can occur. In well-maintained specimens, 80 to 100 days is sufficient. Fruiting can be recognized by small bananas, which have a dark color at the beginning. However, they do not guarantee that the harvest will be successful. To know if you can harvest the bananas in the end, you need to keep an eye on the following signs:

• Fruit size: 10 to 15 cm
• light greenish color
• plant is weakening a lot
• plant loses leaves

Far too often, the fruit rots right on the plant or it fails to ripen. For this reason, you should carefully check whether the fruit is getting worse. In most cases, the care measures were changed during ripening or the amount of light was reduced.

Note: If you are lucky and have enough light available, bananas in the winter garden may even ripen over the winter. If this is the case, do not change the current care measures so that the banana plant can have its rest.

Cut off the flowers?

There is a method how you can stimulate fruiting of a banana plant. With this one, it mainly comes down to cutting the remaining flower as soon as you see the first signs of a fruit. Since this part of the banana is very robust, you need the right tools. Suitable are:

• Hacksaw
• pruning saw
• electric branch saw

Don’t worry. If you proceed carefully, you won’t damage the perennial or the young fruit before you can harvest it. The following instructions go over how to cut the bloom:

• Put on protective gloves
• Tree sap from the banana sticks to your hands
• Place saw 1 to 2 cm above blossom
• Remove blossom

Do not cut too far into the stem to avoid damaging the young banana fruit. This method is completely optional and should be considered if a larger number of bananas are desired. You can use the same tools to harvest bananas, as they also grow on a sturdy stem.

Note: When cutting the blossoms, be sure to watch for the clear planting seed that emerges. If this gets on clothing or other textiles, the resulting stains can turn a deep reddish brown.

Mother plant dies

A typical phenomenon is the death of the mother plant after the banana tree has formed flowers or banana fruits. However, this does not represent the end of the actual plant. Before a banana tree can bloom at all, it usually forms children over the years. With these, the plant continues to reproduce on its own. If you do see any kindles, you should transplant them into their own pots just before the mother plant dies so that they can thrive. If it dies, you can simply discard the faded banana plant.

Frequently asked questions