The bananas in our greenhouse are receiving some tender loving care from Paul one of our Gardening Angels.
He has split a pup from one of the older plants and planted it into its own planter. Pups form alongside the mature banana plant. The pup was 45cms tall and 15cms wide, so taking the cutting was quite a job. As with all cuttings it is very important to keep everything very clean when taking and planting the cutting/pup. This banana won’t fruit for another year or two, but the other 2 plants in our greenhouse should produce bananas from about June.
We grow Dwarf Cavendish bananas. This variety grows to 6 - 8 ft (1.8 - 2.4 m) and it is very fast growing. The bananas produced grow to 15 to 25 cm in length, and have a thin skin. Each plant typically produces 80 - 90 bananas when it fruits.
The bananas in our greenhouse are grown hydroponically (without soil) in our Rain & Drain planters. In these planters water is pumped from the reservoir planter to the plant roots several times per hour. Whatever the plant does not use drains away back into the reservoir. As the water ebbs away fresh oxygen is drawn down into the root area. This means that plants have great access to water, nutrients and oxygen. We think that the fact that we harvest on average 80 - 90 bananas from each plant is pretty good evidence of the effectiveness of this method of growing.