No comparison in climates LOL! but mine were slow to get established this Spring (too cool and wet), but once the warm weather got here and the soil warmed up, they took off. They had been stored in my garage over winter and got somewhat spindly. Some of the leaves broke in the wind as it was getting established and more beefy. Maybe they would appreciate just a bit of shade in your climate? Or maybe they'd like a richer soil? Maybe more protection from the wind?

I have three of these (all young) and I believe mine to be more fragile than most of my others. They are growing well, but I have them in partial shade and somewhat wind protected. My first one taught me that the wind really breaks the leaves very easily. They have coffee grounds in their soil and once a week get manure "tea". All three are red, with the biggest one having one or two freckles of neon green. I thought that was probably from being in mostly shade so that may not be the case if yours are in full sun. Full sun never means full "Texas" sun anyway. How about some pictures? We always love seeing pictures of your stuff. If you haven't been yet you might go over to bananas.org - they have some banana experts over there and have a wealth of information on anything banana and more. ~Jeanann

Thanks for the replies.
I believe it needs some wind protection (since the remnants of TS Ana was what really did it- bent all the leaves over). It is tall and thin (much thinner than other bananas it's age).

I was considering less sun, but it never looked like it got sun burned or was drying out etc...

My real worry is the pups never maturing past nubs.

The good news - now in a pot in my porch, it is making a new leaf- so no real damage was done by the wind.
I will try to get pictures posted soon.

Here is my unhappy banana- tall and thin and just a few leaves (sorry for the ugly picture!):


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But on a bright note, one pup is making the start of leaves....


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That's NOT an ugly picture! It looks like it is happy now, maybe this is the start of your pupping. Mine are prolific puppers, and will start as early as 4 or five months old. I must say they are water pups though, no sword pups and mine are much shorter in the trunk, my oldest is maybe 8 months old. You can see how small this one is:

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Do you ever have any kind of dormant period? You could always cut off the top and the leaves would start coming out from your cut off point. I always hate doing that, but I know the banana growers in the northeast have to overwinter and they just whack them to store them. Anyway, I hope everything will be good with it now! ~J