India is the world’s largest producer of bananas and Alexander the Great found them growing there in 327 BC, when he conquered India. Soldiers of Alexander the Great returned to Greece and Persia with bulbs from banana plants, ‘Musa accuminata,’ where they were distributed and planted.

Antonius Musa, the personal physician of Augustus Caesar, imported the first banana trees, ‘Musa accuminata,’ to Rome from Africa in 63 BC. Later, slaves from Portugal brought bananas to Europe from Africa in the early 1400’s. Even though the banana is believed to have originated in India, (Eastern Asia), it was established in Africa and Europe as a staple food product many centuries ago and came into North America through Spanish missionaries.

Those first bananas that people knew in antiquity were not sweet like the bananas we know today, but were cooking bananas or plantain bananas with a starchy taste and composition. The bright yellow bananas that we know today were discovered as a mutation from the plantain banana by a Jamaican, Jean Francois Poujot, in the year 1836. He found this hybrid mutation growing in his banana tree plantation with a sweet flavor and a yellow color—instead of green or red, and not requiring cooking like the plantain banana. The rapid establishment of this new exotic fruit was welcomed worldwide, and it was massively grown for world markets.

Bananas are the world’s best selling fruit, outselling both apples and citrus; each American is estimated to eat 25 pounds of fruit every day. The ‘Cavendish’ banana is the most popular banana in the United States and over 400 cultivars of bananas are available on world markets. The leaves of banana trees are used as wrappers for steaming other foods inside, and the banana flower is also edible.

Each banana comes from a flower maturing into groups of 10-20 bananas called “hands” that circle the stalk, which collectively is called a ‘bunch.’ The bananas can require one year to mature after flowering in the field, and then the mother banana plant dies. The plant is restored the following season by offshoots from the mother plant. An original cluster of banana trees can grow continuously for 100 years, but are generally replaced in banana tree plantations after 25 years. Bananas ripen best and develop more sweetness, if the bunch is removed from the tree, allowing the fruit to ripen off the tree in a shady place to slowly ripen.

The banana tree can grow up to 30 feet tall, and the trunk of the tree grows to a width at the base of over 1 foot. The trunk of the banana plant is made of overlapping sheaths and stems with new growth emerging from the center of the trunk. The size of bananas can range from a fruit the size of a football to one as small as a child’s finger. Some bananas taste sweet, some starchy and some ornamental bananas are loaded with large seed and are considered inedible. The color of ripe bananas can range from green, orange, brown, yellow, or variegated with white stripes.

Most banana trees available today are grown from “mother” bulbs by taking offsets that form shoots. Those can be replanted to multiply and increase a banana tree plantation. These banana sprouts that form at the base of the ‘mother’ bulb can be shipped around the world to many countries, being almost genetically identical to the original banana plant parent of 10,000 years ago that mutated and stopped making seed and became the first naturally evolved hybrid.

Bananas are the largest exported fruit in the world, registering sales of 12 billion dollars a year for Chiquita and Dole. These bananas are imported into the United States from companies and plantations growing banana trees in India, South America and Africa. Many third world countries depend on the production of bananas to feed them as a major food staple, where they eat bananas 3 meals a day. Bananas are rich in sugars such as sucrose, glucose, and fructose, as well as fiber and special minerals containing potassium, phosphorous, magnesium and iron. Bananas contain tryptophan, a body protein that is converted to serotonin, a mood enhancer. They also are high in Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, Vitamin B12, and Vitamin C. Doctors claim that eating bananas can cut the risk of sudden stroke by 40%, as published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Pat Malcolm

The word ‘banana’ is virtually the same in German, French and Italian (In the West, only the Germans eat more bananas than we do) and comes from the Arabic word for “finger”.

The fruit of the banana plant grows in hanging clusters, with up to 20 fruit to a tier (called a hand), and 3-20 tiers to a bunch. The total of the hanging clusters is known as a bunch, or commercially known as a “banana stem”, and can weigh anyhting between 30 to 50 kg. The entire stalk takes up to a year for the fruit to ripen enough to be harvested. The original stem dies after producing fruit, but sideshoots rise from the same underground corm to produce a new plant to be harvested the following year.

Some banana trees keep on producing for up to one hundred years, although most banana plantations renew their stock every ten to twenty-five years.

Bananas that are planted out of doors in Great Britain are almost problem free with regards diseases and pests. However, unfortunately, when grown in a greenhouse or conservatory, red spider mite is a common problem which can easily take hold. Regularly spraying the undersides of the leaves with tepid water is a good preventative measure. If infestations by mealy bug take place in the roots and compost, cleanse all the compost away from the plants root system under a tap (use tepid water), and then repot the plant again in new compost and having reduced the plant’s leaf area.

A well turned over, thoroughly loosened soil is absolutely indispensable for tropical plants. In order for a tropical plant to produce good growth above the ground, it must have a strong and well-developed root system below the ground. Essentially, plant growth is directly relative to root growth. It is much more difficult for roots to penetrate through and subsequently grow in hard ground, and this is especially true of Tropical plants.

A thick layer of organic mulch is absolutely essential for a number of reasons. Firstly, it reduces evaporation of water from the soil thus reducing the amount of watering needed and it conditions and enriches the soil as it decomposes.

Growing tropical plants in containers/pots is practical, as, when the weather dips below 50 degrees at night, the container/pot can be put into your Garage, Conservatory or Living room wherever. Always make sure that they are at no time overwatered (although this can sometimes be difficult with Musa?s in the middle of summer). …leaving the pot dry is better than overwatering which leads to the roots rotting and eventually the plant dies… Remove all dead leaves, flowers and ensure that there are no pests or fungus on the plant..

Fertilizing is usually beneficial in the spring, but you may need to lightly fertilize all year around once a month or more if needed… Some tropical plants that can be easily grown in any climatic conditions include most variety of Palms, Musa’s, Bamboos, Gardenia, Jasmine with its fragrant blooms,Citrus Plants, most varieties of Hibiscus flower plants, Lantanas with their colourful blooms in various shades ranging from orange, yellow, purple and white…and Bird of paradise with its sculptural and Majestic orange and blue blooms…. Tubers like Ginger can be grown very successfully indoors in tubs in cold climates or can be planted directly into soil in warm humid climates.

With some simple amount of care and patience tropical plants grow welL, and they’ll give you years of pleasure…

You may find that some of the leaves, which, over winter, had been supporting one other or were supported by the frame of the greenhouse, begin to droop. Any wind will not help matters either. The solution is to cut back these leaves close to the stem and hope that your prized banana will do its best to send up new stronger leaves once Spring truly arrives.

Eventually, when any danger of frost is past, planting Bananas in the soil can take place. You will now need to enlarge and enrich your temporary planting hole. Move the plant out of the way. Make the hole about twice as large as it was before. You will now have a hole and a pile of soil surrounding the hole. Mix about 25 litres of blended farmyard manure (if available) and an equal amount of home made compost into the bottom of the hole and the surrounding soil. Test the depth of the hole by placing your plant in the hole. You want the plant to be slightly below the surrounding soil level. When you have finished planting Ensete Ventricosum, you want it to be sitting in a slight crater so that when you water the plant the water stays by the base of the plant. Otherwise the majority of water simply drains away to the surrounding plants.

If the plant is required for the following year, and this is the way to get large plants, dig out before the first frosts, and pot up in a pot/tub just big enough to accommodate the root ball. Use free draining compost that is just moist. If brought into a heated conservatory, carry on growing on the dry side, or if in an unheated greenhouse cut the leaves off at the stem and leave dry, but in a light airy position.  After over wintering in an unheated greenhouse, watch for signs of growth, and give a little water. Once growing strongly water and feed as for normal summer conditions. Always use tepid water up to 30C to keep the banana growing, and keep cool to avoid leggy weak growth. Once Spring arrives, simply start the whole process off again and as your plant is in its second year it will reach about 2 metres in height.

Because it takes nine months or even more to reach maturity and fruit, almost without exception gardeners grow the banana plant only for its spectacular decorative foliage. However, as seen in the press more recently more and more gardners have been able to achieve a fruit harvest and reap the added benefit of discovering the astounding way in which fruit is developed.

Because of its stature, the banana plant is often falsely called a banana tree, athough, the banana is the biggest herbaceous perennial and belongs to the monocotyledons of the Musaceae family, which also includes palms, grasses, and orchids.

Bananas grow from rhizomes, which are stems that take root and send shoots (suckers) up through the soil. Banana plants may also be propagated through suckers that grow from the main stem of the plant.

 The banana plant grows best in full sun in soil that provides first-class drainage. Good drainage is crucial as saturated roots may die in less than an hour. It is also important to protect the banana plant from heavy winds that can shred the banana plant foliage.
The banana plant is a very heavy feeder. Soil should be nutrient rich, slightly acidic, and loamy enough to retain moisture and keep nutrients from leaching below the shallow roots of the plant.

Dig a hole about a foot wide and ten to twelve inches deep. Set the rhizome in the hole so that the union between it and the sucker stem are about six inches deep. If your site isn’t level, the eye of your banana rhizome should be on the uphill side of your hole. When planting, mix in as much organic matter as possible, ideally a mixture of farmyard manure together with an equal amount of home made compost into the bottom of the hole and the surrounding soil. Fill the hole and tamp down firmly to remove any air pockets. If planting more than one rhizome, plants need to be spaced at least three feet apart so that each gets the benefit of full sun. Water your banana plant sparingly to keep the rhizome healthy until the plant is established. Once the plant has been in the ground for a matter of weeks,rapid growth should start and you should be rewarded with a new leaf (up to a metre long) every week. All Bananas are gross feeders and like a ceaseless supply of nutrients so when watering (as with all plants, a good soaking every few days is more beneficial than a daily sprinkle) feed with half strength soluble fertilizer at every watering. Following these simple rules will see your Banana Plant comfortably through the season. .

If planted out and the plant is required for the following year, and this is the way to get large specimens, carefully dig the plant out before the first frosts, and pot up in a pot or tub just big enough to accommodate the root ball. Use free draining compost that is just moist. If brought into a heated conservatory, carry on growing on the dry side, or if in an unheated greenhouse cut the leaves off and leave dry, but in a light airy position.

If it is not possible to bring the plant indoors, then the prime consideration should be to protect the main stem if a large plant is required the following year. Small plants are easily protected by placing a chimney pot over them and covering up the top with a tile – in the more colder regions, it may be useful to add a stuffing of straw. A stage on from this is to use terracotta chimney flue liners. These are neat round or rectangular sections that stack together; they are easy to handle, easy to lift over a tall trunk, easy to pack with straw and can be added to as the plant grows each year. Unfortunately they are also expensive.

Larger, multi-stemmed plants present something of a quandary – do you protect the stems individually or collectively ? There are many inventive and creative solutions to collectively protect – from the highly effective wooden pallet house filled with straw to elaborate imitation huts of bamboo screens disguising a chickenwire cage similarly stuffed – your imagination and available time are the only limits.

Individual stems can simply be bandaged with horticultural fleece or hessian – effective though not necessarily the beauty-prize winner. An alternative is a large diameter plastic drainage pipe which is twin-walled giving good insulation, perforated allowing air movement, is easy cut to the required lengths and light enough for long sections to be lifted over stems. These are then lashed together for stability and the tops covered with plastic sheet to prevent rain entering. The result looks a little like the Manhattan skyline but in a surreal way almost sculptural. As a warning – avoid bubble wrap at all costs, this will stop all air circulation and at the end of winter you will be presented with a pile of mush.