Ill try to take some pics this weekend. The only thing I can say is that the middle of the leaves, the line directly in the center is reddish color.
Not sure if that helps. I thought the only banana that can survive zone 7 with mulch is the basjoo. Maybe it isn't a basjoo, don't know, but Ill take pics when time allows.

Thanks!

chippy - I could have written your post about basjoo. Never could understand why I seemed to have the only basjoo that didn't perform like everyone elses. It wilted faster and worse than all my other bananas and wasn't exactly a proliferant pupper. Mulched for the winter and left it in the ground. It threw two pups early in the spring but then began to suffer what seemed like sun burn. It threw another pup a couple months ago that just sits there like a little green weed even still. 2 weeks ago it pupped again and this one has already grown larger than the first two and looks much hardier. I have high hopes. :)

Moonie,
Maybe we have a very rare variety? lol
Mine seems to be the same thing, it actually looks like weeds. They don't have that nice green color that my other banana plants have.
I'm actually planning on getting rid of them this weekend as it looks like a clump of tall weeds, unless someone can help me jump start them.
Weird....
-Chip

chip - What I was thinking where mine are concerned is the possibility of poor air circulation. They are planted in a spot between fence and garage and get full sun all day. I moved a couple of the pups so I'll see how they do. Here's a pic of the "dead air" new pup basjoo which I have decided to water less, just in case of overwatering.

{{gwi:414043}}

Hi Moonie,
That picture almost looks like you came to my house and snapped it! lol
Mine have about 8 pups or so and look EXACTLY the same. Almost like they are a dwarf or some malnutrition.
I tried banana fertilizer, over watering, under watering and nothing, they just don't want to grow any faster at all. Maybe the soil? Though my other bananas appear to be on steroids. Mine are in full sun, but they aren't against anything so air is not an issue.
Very weird.

-Chip

This is the same problem that I have. Mine are not growing hardly at all. I had gotten 6-8in pups last year and at the end of the season dug them up and potted them for the winter, they grew during the winter.
Now they are planted outside again and they are about 2-2.5 ft tall and look like they are starting to grow pups but not putting on any height. Im afraid that if i leave them out during the winter with mulch they are too small to make it over the winter.
I thought also that I was the only person not able to GROW the fast growing tall ones.
Are we all doing something wrong that are are short?????

This seems to be turning into a support group for those that cannot grow basjoos the way they have heard others say they grow. I am in the same situation, and thus far, am dissapointed with the growth rate of mine. I am doing everything I read about and yet I am not getting the kind of growth others seem to be getting. I am hoping someone will be able to chime in and explain what might be the culprit. This is the second source I have used and obtained the same dissapointing results. Mine too look like the picture above.

Very strange. I thought maybe they didn't like me and refused to grow! :-)
I don't get it, I had planted 2ft banana plants (forgot the species) and they are now nearly 6 ft. I also planted a gold finger and a Orinoco which were about 8-12" and they are starting to take off.
I have annuals planted in the same area of the basjoo and they are all fine.
Very weird. The only thing I can think of that maybe its a dwarf but I'm not sure Dwarf Basjoo exists.
My Basjoos will have until Mon or Tues before I rip them out cause they actually look ugly! Unless someone can chime in here....
-Chip
P.S. I have a vegetable garden about 10ft away from my Basjoo and they are growing insanely fast.

Based on the picture, the only thing I can think of is that perhaps the site has too much sun/ wind exposure? Or maybe the winter killed back so much of the root system that it is slow as heck to re-establish? The new leaves look perfectly normal...I can't think of anything else.

I've had mine for 2 years, 3 different plants from 2 sources and they are all doing very nicely, in sun, watered regularly, fertilized heavily, and lots of organics were added to the soil.

I didn't keep mine in the ground though, I dug them up and overwintered the stems in the garage, to me that seems like a better way to get good growth and a head start in spring.

Support group? *lol* Maybe we need a 12 step program.

Hello, my name is Moonie and I am a basjoo killer. *hehe* NOT funny.

larry - you aren't alone, as you can see. :)

chip - I also have bananas in the same area and no problem with them. Weird indeed! Never heard of a dwarf B, so don't think they exist, unless we happen to be the lucky(?) ones. BTW, are you sure you aren't my husband? There are just too many similiarities. :)

xero - the sun could be the problem but definitely not wind. As I said, the area is between the garage and a 6 ft privacy fence. That's why I was thinking about poor air circulation. Last year it grew, but not to the height I expected and threw a bad leaf here and there. It got maybe 4 ft to tallest leaf tip. O's and Gran Nain out performed the basjoo by a long shot. Maybe I am mistaken in thinking basjoo does well in heat?

Any of you guys feel like your basjoos where possibly in a dead air area?

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS EVERYONE !!! Give them a year or two. I have had Basjoo's like that, and they just need time to adjust. Now mine are huge!!! If I had my camera working I would take a pic, and show you. Basjoo's can be funny at times, but don't give up on them. They are hardy, once they get established. Diana55

Basjoo's like lots of sun, water( With good drainage), and fertilizer(once a month). Please give them time!!! Diana55

The red lines on the leaves are common on Basjoo's. Mine all get them. Diana55 P.S...I have been growing them for years.

chippy,I would think in zone 7 you would have no problem with musa sikkimensis overwintering.I am in zone 6 and trying it. I have two on opposite sides of the house one with morning sun and one with afternoon sun. They are very aggressive growers compared to my basjoos.Took off from a 6" pot the minute they went into the ground.They have red on the bottom part of the leaves and one is starting to blotch red on top.I hope to overwinter these and I am pretty sure you would have no problem in zone 7.A much better looking banana than my basjoos.

Thanks for your replies.
Ok Ok, I'm Moonies Husband! :-) Jk

Nucci, Thanks for your input. I tried overwintering my Orinocos as well last year, but no luck. They grew to about 8ft from 1ft plants. I don't need to have Basjoo at all.

This year I got a hold of 2, about 2 foot tall each bananas. Not sure their type, but the leaves are outlined with a thin red line. They are at 6ft already and putting up a new leaf about every week to week and a half. Very fast. And they were stored in a basement over the winter with the roots in a bag with some soil.

My newly acquired Orinico, Saba and Goldfinger have been slow growing, but the weather here has not been that hot as of yet. Actually pretty cool weather for June-July.

I can always get rid of the Basjoos as said previously, they honestly look like sorry weeds in need of help!

-Chip
Ill be snapping some pictures of my plants this Monday and will post them.

chippy,sabas? don't they get to be the size of buildings,LOL!

Hi,
Not over here on this site much but I had a question to post and started looking to see if I could find the answer first before I posted the Q. Just had to chime in on this one.....As Diana55 stated...GIVE THEM TIME....let nature do it's thing....I have several different types of banana's and remember the old rule: 1st year it sleeps, 2nd year it creeps and 3rd year it leaps.....(of course there are exceptions to that) but keep that in mind.
I used to dig mine up every year and then I decided to do an experiment and left a few in the ground over the winter with not much mulch, (some were not basjoo's), in fact one got chopped down to nothing with the riding lawnmower by accident and they are all growing back just fine, in fact bigger than ever, a few are over the top off the house while my neighbor's died completely, he covered his with a large tomato cage and mulched severely over the winter. Even my Roho's are going strong. I don't fertilize them, soil test has a pretty good ph... just mulch around them and they are in good old clay soil that has been mulched every year for the past 3-4 years, (go figure). So in my humble opinion.... it's good drainage, lot's of sun, (really don't water that much) and TIME! Rememeber where these plants originated from!
Maybe I'm an exception but that's my 2 cents.

Now here's my Q's: I have a banana that's one of the one's that is over the top of the house and it has LITTLE banana's on it but they haven't grown any bigger than maybe 2-3 inches. What's that all about.... SHOULD I fertilize? And if so with what? Not too keen on those synthetic fertilizers on anything edible.
And why haven't they grown any bigger?
Thanks for any input you all may have,

Nucci,
Yes, they are supposed to get real big. BUt this weather has been strange. Weve been getting realy hight temps in the 90s for like 3-4 days, then boom, back to the higher 70s for like a week.
Last year, my bananas were uncontrollable as it was extreme heat we were having.
Takingroots, I know that giving them time it helps the roots establish. BUt I always held that factor for my palm trees. Every banana plant I planted took off in the same year. Plus, why so many pups instead of height. I dont know. I guess I could leave them and maybe clean off some of the pups.
Here are some pics of my yard as of today. You can see my sons toys are starting to take over, dont know what to do with them! lol

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Here are the troubled basjoos. Looks like a clump of weeds!

{{gwi:414046}}

Next two pics are the ones that were given to me and growing like crazy!

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chippy, is that an ae ae you have there? one of those bananas look variegated. yard looks great!

Nucci, THanks for your kind words.
What exactly is an AE? lol

Ae Ae is a "rare" strain of variegated banana, but the photo looks like the lights are playing tricks

Chippy:
looking around your yard, how long ago were the annuals planted? They don't seem like they're growing all that well either, typically annuals will grow very quickly in good soil, so I wonder if maybe your soil can benefit from lots of amendment such as compost/ manure. I had the same problem in my yard, most things did not grow as well as expected, there must have been a few pockets here and there of decent soil where some plants looked normal. Is your neighborhood built on original soil or is it backfill? Many residential areas have gardens that are filled in with sand and landfill for added bulk, especially the top 6-8 inches.

Next spring (or if you're very adventurous you can try it now) add an inexpensive 40-lb bag of compost or manure from Home Depot or similar store to the root zone of each banana, you should see great growth, and improve the soil for the future.

Just a thought.

I agree with the compost idea. My basjoo look exactly like the first photo above, very sad! I just spread some composted cow manure around the base of all my banana plants and am waiting on the results. I want to do good at this. I can grow just about anything, but the banana is driving me crazy. Red

Xero,
sorry for not knowing, but what is Variegated? lol And how do I tell if it is rare? These were given to me so i don't know what type it is.

Also, I guess it couldn't hurt to add soil amendment. My annuals always seem to be delayed. They take time, then once they start growing they explode. This year is taking a little longer cause of this weather. We were in the high 50s at night just over a week ago.
It very well could be the soil but it appears all the same throughout the yard (texture and color wise). Oh well, I'm going to leave the basjoo in to see what happens.

-Chip

variegated = the leaf is not a solid color, usually with white or yellow strips throughout

the Ae Ae is difficult to grow and hard to find, that's not what you have, more info here

here's a simple unscientific test of soil quality - if you can find an earthworm quickly after digging up 1 or 2 small trowel-fulls of soil, it is good, otherwise, it could use additional organic material.

try a bunch of manure or compost next spring and you shall be pleasantly surprised

I don't have an AE AE or variegated. My leaves are regular green color though I don't know the species.

About earth worms, yes, I can say they are there. Almost every time I dig a hole or plant annuals or anything of a such, there are worms! But next season I will try soil amendment anyway.
I took a good look yesterday and there are some annuals which are growing very fast compared to others!

-Chip

I have to disagree with holding water back with bans. Unless there is really wet soil or standing water, that is. I also think think they can take fertilizing more than once a month- if your looking for size. Bans and other 'foliage' plants are an exception to many held beliefs about fertilizing. They like their nitro! They also like their water. I've seen several plans for using bans as a natural grey water decomposer. See the below link for one. My 2 cents: if you want fast growth go out and get a nice fish emulsion or other liquid fert and water them a couple times a week with it. Try it with one and I'm sure you'll see a difference.

Here is a link that might be useful: Peace Corps grey water project

This is year 4 for my basjoos, some in a (huge) pot, some in the ground, and they are all starting out much slower than they ever have in the past. I think it is the weather, that is the only difference I can see. Mine all got hit with a late frost and now we have tropical weather for a few days then dive to the 40's at night for a night or two.

zone ratings are very misleading

minimum temperatures do not at all give any info on the growing season conditions. the pacific northwest has areas that hardly ever see a frost, yet you cannot grow "tropical" plants well because there is not enough cumulative heat

the basjoo is very hardy, but still needs lots of heat to grow into a nice sized specimen

I think I know what is going on with all your slow basjoos - I guess they like company and a little competition Mine are doing the same - I have 3 - The last one I bought was almost 5 feet high in 4 inch round pot when I bought it - I asked the nursery lady how can this basjoo be growing so strongly in a 4 inch pot - She said they like to have stuff beside there roots - They do not like to have alot of space to themselves - I think alot of us love our basjoos so much we give them a nice big space of their own with specially prepared soil making it lighter and I think that is the problem - the lady at the nursery said these plant like lots of stuff beside them they love it - I was wondering how these guys would do planted into a hard clay hole just a wee bit bigger than the pot it comes in - I have a feeling they would rocket out of the ground - this would explain why the basjoos planted take off after 3 years because there roots have found some resistance (a little competition)

cheers

Jeff

This has been a strange weather year for basjoos here in Indiana. First the overwintered ones are not growing as aggressively as before, I speculate that it's because the roots were severely damaged by the extremely cold winter here.
Second, we've lately been getting night time temps in the low 60 and upper 50's which is also no good. And we've had extremely dry weather which doesn't help at all. Rain just works better than hose water.
Don't give up on them.

to the original poster...MORE LIGHT!!!! you said 7 hours, thats why they only grew about a foot tall, banans need atleast 12 hours for a good growth

jake

I guess they like company and a little competition Mine are doing the same - I have 3 - The last one I bought was almost 5 feet high in 4 inch round pot when I bought it - I asked the nursery lady how can this basjoo be growing so strongly in a 4 inch pot - She said they like to have stuff beside there roots - They do not like to have alot of space to themselves - I think alot of us love our basjoos so much we give them a nice big space of their own with specially prepared soil making it lighter and I think that is the problem

This is bad information! The lady at the nursery doesn't really know what she's talking about here. Bananas do not like competition around their root zone. The less competition for water, food, and light, the better!

I have another theory about the people with small basjoo plants. It occured to me while I was looking at my mat of Musa basjoo earlier today. One of the pups, a sword sucker, has over 4 feet of pseudostem already, and still has sword leaves. A nearby water sprout has only about 2 feet of pseudostem with wide leaves. Could it be possible that somebody tissue cultured a water sprout, and that a good percentage of these plants made it out to the open market? Can a water sprout ever produce a sword sucker? Hmmm...I'm not sure on that one. Just a thought.

Jake,
I was mistaken on the sunlight. They do get sun from about 8am to about 6:30pm. Thats not the 12 hours that your stating, but the other big banana plants in my pictures actually get a little less than that and they are explosive!

Just for an update, they barely grew since this original post. Its shot up about 10 pups. Seems to be giving its energy to making pups instead of going upwards!

On another note, I remember a diagram on how to remove pups. My big banana plants now how about 4 pups each with the biggest being a good 4ft.
I want to separate them, but will it stunt the growth of the mother plant?

THanks all

hey chippy - remember my pup that I had high hopes for? It has gone into decline, and although it's not DEAD like the other two, it is also beginning to brown and growth is at a snail's pace.

Interesting what Frank says about sword pups vs water pups, so detailed info on how to tell them apart would be nice. I have seen that someplace before, but actual pics of the diff would be nice.

Ask and ye shall receive! The pup on the left is a sword sucker. The one on the right is a water sprout. It is about a month older than the sword sucker, half the size, and twice the amount of leaves. Note the "sword"-shaped leaves on the pup on the left, compared to the wider leaves of the water sprout. Water sprouts should not be separated and allowed to propagate! They should be separated, if you must, and thrown away. Since it's really not hurting anything where it is, I decided to leave it. I would never give or sell it to someone though. This is what I was looking at the other day, wondering if someone tissue cultured a water sprout. Makes you wonder! I have heard of many people who end up with a "dwarf" form of Musa basjoo. I've planted M. basjoo in straight, clay soil before, and it grew like mad. I did work the soil very well before planting though, so it wasn't compacted at all. That might have made the difference. As a matter of fact, this soil is pretty much plain old clay, but my basjoos are 15 feet tall.

Chippy are you watering everyday ?
I water my bananas every day They are growing like weeds !
If you have good drainage i believe in this weather you
can not over water a banana . I use a 5 gallon bucket i have drilled a hole in fill it to the top and let it go the bananas love it !

Moonie, I kind of gave up on mine. Made the area look real sad and depressing. I went hand shovel happy on it. I chopped away 8 of the 10 pups that shot up. I left the 2 largest pups which are about 2ft tall. I will see what they do now that their friends are sadly gone! :-/

Topher, I water mostly everyday. Ive been watering them the same as my larger banana plants seen in the picture. The big ones have grown like mad. Will post a better picture when time allows.
The only thing that strange about my big bananas is that the leaves seam to close when its real sunny out. I thought they like the sun, but they open up at night again.
I tried watering more when the leaves closed but it didn't change anything.

-CHip

Hey Frank - take a look at my photo above and see if the one doesn't look like a sword pup to you? I couldn't really decide.

Ah, Chip... sorry about that. Maybe the remaining ones will surprise you. Did you give Frank's post any thought and determine if possibly yours were water sprouts?

I'm still sticking with 1 of 2 theories... either basjoo do not do well in full sun and high humidity, or it's the DEAD ZONE that's killing them. Or, both! :)

Moonie, had to travel a ways up the post to find yours again, lol. Neither one of those sprouts looks very vigorous at all to me. That could be a couple of different things though. If there is a large, healthy corm under the soil there, I would call those water sprouts. If it is a damaged corm, either from cold, voles (or other pests), or something else, then I would blame it on that. Another option is that they are young, newly planted bananas (which you said they are not).

Really, the differences between water sprouts and sword suckers are best illustrated in a large mat of healthy bananas. It becomes very obvious in that setting. Not so much with yours.

Well, there's my answer, obviously. Although I have never had problems with pups from a mother corm that did not come back out after winter, that must be it. I'm going to consider the problem solved, and let the remaining pup be for now. If it doesn't do something amazing before winter, I'm gonna toss that old corm.

Thanks!

fglavin, or anyone knowledgeable on the subject, can you talk a little more about the sword and water pups? Why do they produce the different types? Environmental? Do they serve a purpose?

I have a 'miracle' basjoo that has apparently returned from a 5/6 winter unprotected. Thats cool, but here's why I think its special: the mother plant was removed in totality. Corm and all. So I'm thinking this baby basjoo just came back from a piece of leftover root. Is that supposed to happen? Or is that where water sprouts come from- the actual roots I mean? Or can new corms form down the root line?

Anyway, it has remained small and has wide leaves. I hope it is not the less desirable water sprout. On the other hand it has been such a dry year, and due to its location (waaayyyy out there, lol) I only watered it on occasion. So I wouldn't expect it to be large.

Answered at the link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: the answer

Musa BAsjoo loves to be well watered and fertilized even more. I use Milorganite, lots of it 3x per season and use Miracle Gro liquid from the hose sprayer every week. My Basjoos' top out at around 18 feet every season and only get a light mulch for the winter. I have some mid season photos that might be enlightening on my link.

Here is a link that might be useful: Panama John's Tropical Zone

If all I needed was lots of water and fert, my basjoo wouldn't have a problem. :)

This thread was started 2 years ago and I still have pups popping and performing in the spot and in the same way. LOL It's ridiculous that I haven't dug them up and been done with it. I'm still convinced that it has to do with the area they are growing in. As mentioned towards the start of this thread, the area is like dead air space. It's a small space between the garage and privacy fence. My husband plans on moving the fence line so I'm hoping this might give more air flow. We'll see!

Wonder what Chip ever did about his?

I found this thread because I am having the same issue. I think my issue is poor soil, lots of sand and gravel with not much good soil or organic matter. I did mix in potting soil when I planted them to try to help, but I'm guessing it isn't. They started out by giving me a new leaf every 10 days. It now has been two weeks and the new leaf shoot is barely visible. Here is a pic of one of my poor nanners....

{{gwi:414050}}

The canna doesn't seem to be having a problem with the soil as they are growing great and flowering, but I don't know if that means anything or not.

"From what I read, its supposed to be fast growing and cold hardy."

The "fast growing" part is a lie. I know of no other banana plant that grows as slowly as basjoo. If you take a regular banana plant from a 6" pot and plant it in the ground in zone 5 and give it lots of fertilizer, it can easily grow 12 ft. tall before frost kills it in October.

BTW, basjoo does not respond well to heavy fertilization.

However, there may be more than one variety/strain of basjoo with some varieties/strains more vigorous than others. For example, for years I had trouble growing musa coccinea until I obtained it from a different source and then it grew like a weed.

rspauldi2 - Are you going to dig her up and replant after ammending the soil? Think that would be the best course of action. May also pay attention to the pups and determine if they're sword or water sprouts.

struwwelpeter - Since these are the only basjoo I have, I can't really comment other than to say that some people down the road have had a basjoo mat for years. They grow fast.

As far as my own go, I'm going with Frank and guessing from appearance that these are water suckers and just not as productive. Makes me wonder if indeed a water sucker will produce only water suckers. Now top that with the dry dead air space..................

BTW, I have dug up and potted two. We'll see how they go.

Has anyone considered planting depth being the cause of this slow growth problem... I feel this could be a possibility due to the fact that some poeple overmulch to protect for the winter and so on. I had an issue with a whole lot of cannas(related to bananas) that I purchased and planted for my mom. It looked to me that I planted them to the proper depth(I purchased these in 1 gallon pots with about 1 ft tall plants in them). I planted them to the soil line then then put a thick layer of mulch around the base. About 6 weeks later these cannas did nothing at all, like they were frozen in time. Then my mom dug one up and determined that they were too deep. She raised all of them by 1/2 inches then they shot up. I am not exagerating when I say in 1 week after raising them up they were 2 ft tall. And 1 month after raising them they were anywhere from 4-6 feet tall.

This is the best guess I have. And of course you will want to consider fertilizing frequent since bananas are heavy feeders and do not let the soild dry out completely until November/December. If you do no want to use synthetic fertilizers then mix 50/50 dried leaves and grass cuttings then water and flip daily til it composts(should be 2 weeks to a month in the summer). The grass clippings add some great nitrogen content to the compost.

Anyone who has more than one of these slow growing bananas consider my advice about raising them slightly with at least one of these plants then post when this works(I am pretty confident after seeing the cannas perform prior and post raising).

-David
peanut01

David - mine are pups from the original plant. Glad your mom figured out your canna problem, though.