moving and pruning banana bush

18 years ago

I need to transplant and prune two banana bushes that are roughly 10 ft. How much pruning will they tolerate and will moving them now disturb blooming this entire season? It is now budding. If I wait to spare the blooms, will I sacrifice the right time to transplant?

Featured Answer

jimshy

18 years ago

Michelias and magnolias are rather sensitive to root disturbances; their roots tend to spread out near the surface rather than dig deep down. When you transplant, make sure that you dig widely around the trees to make sure you're getting as much of the root mass as possible.

Also, I've read that in Z8 in the southeast, fall is actually a better time to transplant, if you wait til temps are cool and the tree is semi-dormant; that way, when you move it, it will stay dormant in winter and then get going in spring. If you transplant in spring, it has to start putting out new leaves and flowers immediately, and then deal with summer heat.

Hope this helps!

Jim

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Comments (8)

jview
18 years ago
Are you asking about a real banana, or a pawpaw? In eithor case I cann't answer your questions but I'll bet someone could on the fruit forum. If you are asking about a bush that is neithor a banana nor a pawpaw, does it have another name that we might recognise? I'm sure that people would be glad to help if they knew the plant. Hope you find what you need.

Jerry
sgeorgia
Original Author
18 years ago
the botanical name for it is michelia figo. I hope that helps.
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daai_tou_laam
18 years ago
You should be able to prune it fairly heavily and have it come back.

As for transplanting it and having it flower afterwards, I'm not sure. My gut reaction is that transplanting tends to stress plants and inhibit flowering and fruiting.

There are more knowledgeable folks around, but my gut reaction would be to transplant now to give the plants plenty of time to start re-rooting before the summer heat sets in. And not waiting until fall, which might not leave enough time before winter to reestablish their foundations.
sgeorgia
Original Author
18 years ago
thanks. I'm going to prune it to start working on its shape. It has gotten leggy. But, I will wait until next year to move it. thanks guys
bob32714
17 years ago
We have one (maybe two) giants in the Orlando Leu Botanical Gardens but I am not finding one locally. Any one have a source in the US Southeast?

Thanks!

Bob
billtwo
13 years ago
I NEED TO MOVE A RATHER LARGE MICHELIA FIGO. I WOULD LIKE TO ROOT A PIECE IF POSSIBLE. ANY HELP I CAN GET WILL BE APPRECIATED...
mehitabel
13 years ago
Bob, try Nurseries Carioliniana. I bought one in gallon size from them this spring. Almost Eden also has them in gallon size or smaller.

Sgeorgia. I don't have experience of moving a 10-ft M figo, but for moving such a big shrub, I would expect considerable stress to it. They might even die. Do whatever you can to reduce the stress, including following JimShy's suggestion to wait til they are semi-dormant.

A practice that's recommended when a biggish tree or shrub has to be moved is to root-prune around *half* (one side) of the shrub by sticking a spade into the ground around one side of the shrub. This is done ahead of time. So if you were planning to move them in Dec or Jan, you would do the root pruning now.

This cuts half the roots and allows the plant to recover from that, growing new roots before the other half is cut and the plant is actually moved.