It looks like a perfectly healthy Musa 'Dwarf Cavendish'. The black is normal coloring for them, the pot size looks good for that size of plant, but you'll need a bigger pot in the future if you want fruit. Bananas can take a whole lot of fertilizer, and seem to take more than most plants so it should be fine.
As far as the amount of sunlight it needs- it needs to adjust slowly to full sun if it's been in a shady spot or inside or in a greenhouse. I'd give it sun, and water it alot.
Nice plant, good luck with it.

Thanks for answering my questions about the tree. My next thoughts will be what to do with it in the winter. I'm thinking of brining it in although a guy down the street has a couple of banana trees and had wrapped his up for the winter.

Thanks for the info.

Nancy

Hi Nancy,

It might possibly be a Super Dwarf Cavendish. Dwarf Cavs get bigger. But I could be wrong. My Dwarf Cav is about 7 feet tall.

Yes, you'll be needing to pot that up to a larger pot pretty soon. I would recommend putting it in a light-weight plastic pot, then setting THAT inside a ceramic pot -- if you like that look. It's going to get mighty heavy carting around that ceramic pot. Dappled sun is OK to grow as a foliage plant. Also, you don't really need to feed it all that much if just growing for foliage either. I don't think you want a 5 to 6 foot plant do you? Where are you putting it over winter?

If you want fruit, this is a whole 'nother story. It needs to grow big and fast. You should plant it in the ground in the summer and dig each Fall. I would not have your heart set on getting fruit. It is hard to do in the North.

Hi Dave,

I'm planning on keeping my tree in a pot. I'll go to big lots to see if I can find another cheap plastic pot. Its already in plastic and much easier to lift. I suppose I should move it to full sun. I can put it in the corner of my driveway which is blacktop. I decided I should bring the plant in the house for winter. I have a breakfast nook that gets morning sun. I have other tropicals that I bought this year that will have to come in also.

I just bought some fruit, nut and citrus spike fertilizer and will put one of those in the banana tree pot.

Thanks for the advice.

Nancy

Nancy, you don't need to move it to full sun. It will take more monitoring if you do. Looks like it's doing just fine where it is!

Peaches, your banana looks just fine. The black stuff, I wouldn't worry about. I've gotten that on my bananas from time to time and it never hurt.

O-BTW...... Happy Birthday!

Thanks for looking at my tree. I went to Walmart and bought the biggest pot I could find and transplanted it today. Its a good thing I did because the tree was really root bound. Its not quite where I want it so I'll have to wait for my nephew to move it for me. Now I can't lift it and its even in one of those fake plastic pots.

Thanks for the birthday wishes!

Nancy

Nancy, how did you come to your decision to get a banana plant? I also live in the same area (sw pa) and have bananas as well. Most of mine are in the ground, and last year, I was able to get bananas from my Dwarf Orinoco banana.

If you wanted to, you could plant your banana in the ground next spring. This way you won't have to worry about the roots getting cramped and the plant will get much taller. You should get some pups from that plant that you could separate from the main plant and save that for next year if you don't want to dig up the banana again. Also, I have blue java ice cream bananas and dwarf orinocos that have pups that I'm looking to get rid of. They are around 2-4 feet tall and I don't want to ship them via the mail, ups or fed ex.

Hi Gardenguy,

I got interested in banana plants as I wanted to try some tropicals. I also got two dwarf orange trees (these are still really small), passion flower and a bird of paradise.
They're all in pots. I'm just going to go with the one banana plant for now and see how that goes. My breakfast will probably be completely filled with plants!

LOL, that's good. I understand. Good luck with that banana and the other stuff as well. Post back here with more info on you banana in the future.