How To Grow Hardy Bananas Outdoors in the UK

5 comments

BANANA PLANTS (HARDY OUTDOOR)

Musa Basjoo is the hardy Japanese banana. These bananas are easy to grow (they grow fast!) and they really do produce bananas, but the bananas are tiny (approx 6cm long) and not edible. I have done it myself and they are a sight to behold, as the flower clusters open one after the other over a week or ten days.

Once they are a metre high they can be planted in the garden and kept over winter. When mature, around 12 feet tall after about 5 years, they should flower and fruit as mine did. Mature plants can produce a 7 foot leaf a week in the summer! They like moisture and regular feeding.

Winter care is simply wrapping them up before the frosts (I use straw inside a wire frame) then a sheet of plastic tied and over the top keeping it protected from rain and frost. Unwrap the plant around April/May. The roots are hardy to around -15C, so even if the tops die off they will regrow from the roots.

Once your banana is several years old it will produce babies (they’re called pups) around the base of the parent banana. Once they are around 30 cm (a foot) tall, dig around them and sever the pup from the parent with an old breadknife, ensuring you have some root attached. Plant the baby banana in a good sized pot and keep warm and well watered for around three to four weeks. By this time it should be growing new leaves and looking healthy.

See photo of flower buds with baby bananas behind.

• 8 Sep, 2017
• 4 likes

More blog posts by grapevinesuk