I have had my Musa in a pot for the last 2 years. The pot is about15" in diameter. I use regular soil. When it is out I water every day and fertilize often. I use Peters fertilizer. I bring it in for the winter and keeb it near a window. It actually grows some in the house. I water it once a week with enough water to sit in the tray. I just brought it out a couple days ago and put it in shade for a while. Will move it to the sun this weekend. Hope this helps.

Beachbum

I learned the hard way but I've gotten better at this.

The pot size depends on the banana plant size. The diameter of the pot should be more than a few inches bigger than the diameter of the banana's pseudostem. If you put a smaller banana in a huge pot, it will likely rot. Banana's love water but rot can happen with these guys.

As the banana gets bigger and bigger, you can keep changing the pot to a bigger one until you're at a 20 to 25 gallon container/pot in which a banana can get pretty big and even fruit possibly.

Zach

On my previous reply, I meant to say "the diameter of the pot should be NO more than a few inches bigger..." Sorry!

I wish we had an edit feature...
Zach

Thanks Zach! Is it possible to overwinter instead of bringing it indoors.. I have a bad time with bring plants indoors with the buggies and all. I read a post with photos showing the musa out of the ground and dried then stored in the basement. Any advise would be great.

I understand your concerns about bringing them inside. I too had bananas that immediately got spider mites when inside.

There are many ways to overwinter bananas. In your climate, most cultivars are gonna need to come inside or at least to the basement. Do a search on yahoo! for "overwintering bananas" and you will find lots of info and ideas.

Zach

Stacey,

Last spring, in February or so I bought a pack of 'esete' banana seeds from the store. One seed germinated so I grew as a patio plant (18" pot) for the summer. The plant went from a small seedling in a milk carton to approximately 4 feet high by fall.

I brought inside for the winter, gave it the best light I could (which unfortunately was only a bright north window) and reduced watering drastically. Sprayed a few times in winter with neem oil as a precaution. Anyways, it grew slowly over winter and even added a bit of height.

Now it's outside and ready to be transplanted to a slightly bigger pot. The only thing is the leaves that it developed while indoors are more floppy and weak due to the poorer light(and more easily shredded by high wind). Actually, the plant looks a bit "scrappy" right now but I'm hoping the new leaves (in full sun outside) will be nicer once again.

In the meantime, I have a musa basjoo started, which you can apparently store the root for winter sort of like a canna. Also bought a dwarf cavendish from the store.

Regarding soil and such, they are pretty easy going. I used a good brand of potting soil, a lot of soils now have moisture beads or a mild slow-release fertilizer. I also mixed a bit of compost in the pot and then fertilized a few times with miracle grow.

Glen

I am also in Mass. and have had luck with ensete maurelli(with its beautiful rred streaked leaves) and musa raja puri (a fruiting banana). they spent the summer outside and the winter by a cellar window without much light and very little water. The ensete actually kept growing under those conditions. Basjoo is in the ground and survived well.They did not not do well for me overwintering in the cellar.