PlantFiles: Japanese Fiber Banana, Japanese Hardy Banana
Musa basjoo

The best banana to grow in colder climates. It can grow to 20 feet in one season in an established clump. Provide mulch during the winter if temps fall below 15 degrees. It's simply an awesome plant to grow for a tropical effect.

Raleigh, NC

I wrapped the trunk with the large C-9 christmas lights and they kept it warm enough during the winter that there was not die back. The leaves were burnt when the temps were below 25 but now, in June the plant is taller than the first floor of the house. I hope to see a bud and blooms soon!

At JC Raulston Arboretum at NCSU they have some large clumps that bloom every year and they only cut them back to about 4 feet in the Spring to remove burnt folliage.

Arthur!
http://www.arthurinthegarden.com

I gave this plant the best microclimate on my property, against the south foundation in a window well protected from the north and west winds. With a foot of leaves mounded over it, it has rewarded me by surviving this typical zone 5b-6a winter.

This is truly a musa for the masses!

My Basjoo has been growing for two years near the North Shore of Lake Erie near Kingsville, On. I originally started with a 1 gallon pot and a 7" plant. I fertilize it with the filtered sediment from my fish pond. I winter it (cut to 3') using chicken wire, mulched dry leaves and a tarp. This year multiple plants reached 15+ feet with 6' leaves. I split some of the pups (with some root) late in the summer and put them in small pots. They are currently thriving indoors in an East Facing Patio Door Window. My goal is to plant them outdoors in the Sping. They are definitely the show piece of the yard. What a great plant!

This is my first year with this plant and I want to make sure I over-winter it correctly. Currently it is about 7 foot tall, I've put straw around the base and trunk, but have not cut it back.

Also, I have brought one of the off shoots inside. I got through the mild winter just fine, I took chicken wire and a bail of straw, I wrapped the trunk up about 3 feet with the straw, using two sections deep, then putting the rest around the bottom. This past Saturday I uncovered it and cut the dead mushy part back leaving most of the plant standing, (three foot) I noticed a couple of new shoots at the bottom and today there is a new leaf coming from the main trunk. It is winter burnt on the tip but it is still growing from the main trunk...

The plant inside has done very well, it had a off shoot and is being harden off to spend the summer in a pot in the yard...
again an excellent plant and looks to do good in the Fort Washington area of Maryland

These have got to be the easiest banana species to grow anywhere. They easily stand neglect and drought better than most plants. Mine in a good year will have pseudostems exceeding 10' tall with leaves over 6' in length. We've been in a severe drought all summer and fall and I've not watered them at all this year and yet they stand proud and tall and look nicer than most of the more tropical species that you will see in Florida. A more vigorous plant you'll be hard pressed to find. If you do decide to water and fertilize them regularly, be prepared to be impressed.

I'm in northeast TN right on the VA state line where I've been growing them for almost fifteen years and people still can't get over the fact that I'm not only growing real bananas but that they are growing in my yard and live through the winter. If you can keep the main pseudostems from becoming completely frozen through, they will come back from them the following spring and get gigantic the next year. If they get frozen through, they will come back from the numerous suckers around them and even they will get quite large the first year.

I'd recommend that first year plants get a large mulch of straw or pinestraw the first winter or two until the underground rhizome get's established. Do not use leaves for the mulch as they retain too much water and you risk rotting the plants. I almost lost mine one year early on by constructing cages of chicken wire and filling them with leaves. I'd recommend cutting the stems off to about 1'-2' high after the first really killing frost. If you wait to remove the old foliage and freeze damaged stems until the spring, it's a royal mess and a huge job. After cutting them down, just mound up the straw or pinestraw a couple of feet tall and at least two feet out from the plants and you'll be fine. Once you notice growth in the spring, remove the mulch so that they'll respond to the heat and then stand back! They will literally produce a new leaf every week or so once it warms up.

The only pest I've encountered is Japanese beetles, which do minimal damage considering the size of the leaves. The biggest problem you'll have is removing suckers so that the growths aren't so close together which might be an invitation to a fungal or bacterial disease. They grow so well that you can easily have a sizeable grove in just a few years if you're not aggressive with all the suckers that sprout up. They will root easily when removed even if they don't have any apparent roots if the cut is treated with flowers of sulphur along with a little Rootone.

I've seen them in bloom at the person's who gave me my start and even though the inedible fruit will not mature due to cold, they are still impressive. I've sold a bunch of them at yard sales and have people stopping by to ask for starts of them all the time. My plants came originally from a lady who brought one sucker home in a napkin in her purse from her husband's family's estate in Italy back in the 1970's. They are very popular as a landscape plant all over Europe and the UK. Grow them for the tropical foliage effect and you won't be disappointed!

This was my first hardy banana plant. I live in Indianapolis and my yard faces south and east. I get a lot of sun. It was in a gallon pot when I planted this beauty... it grew to the top of my gutters!! Beautiful plant.Here it is a few days away from November and it still looks great. I tried to dig up a smaller "baby" yesterday but I do not know if I should just cut the large plant down and mulch it.This morning my transplant looks a little wilty.The rootball is huge on the large plant.What should I do?

Macungie, PA zone 6(b)

I grow it on the south side corner of my home, the first year it grew 8' from a tiny 7 inch plant. I just cut the plant back before first freeze, covered with 4-5 inches of mulch and the following spring i pulled some mulch back and it grew to 12'! That year I did not get to mulch it and it still came back, 6 plants, however as of this date they are only 4-5 feet tall. I live on a main street and people often stop me while i do yard work and go on about it. I planted purple Castor on the oppisite corner for a tropical look up north here. Keith

This is positively my favorite tree in the yard completly stunning ! it is sold at a local nursery and they said " just try it " and it is doing great has grown about 2 feet in a week i hose down the leaves on hot afternoons and have it in full sun is doing great considering the high winds i have but a great plant im sure its hardiness range is lower than mine and we get a few night below 0' and i just put a bucket of mulch over it *AND WATER IT TWICE A MONTH DURING WINTER* it preserves the roots

i am interested in seeing the growth rate for its first year in the ground. i would love to see it grow a cupple of feet in the next month. lets hope its a quickie :-)

spring 08' update:
i think it survived, though parts of the corms were mushy. i hope the deeper parts of the corm can bring the plant back, and if not.........

march 09
simple protection of christmas lights and mulch worked! after -14F i expected it to die compleetly to the ground, but there is still 3 inches of pseudostem left above the ground.... but we are not aout of the woods just yet.... expecting +4 in the next couple of days. and still about another month of winter weather.

Musa basjoo is a relaible perennial in zone 6a/5b (lawrence, ks). I am a landscape architect and have used this plant in our plant designs at least 50 times in the last 4 years. Small 1gal sizes should be awoided in cold climates; they usually do not have a chance to get established. We use 5-7 gal for all plans. we have never had to replace an established specimen. The plant dies to the ground by december and regrows in early april. Its growth potential in our area is 18 feet but more typical heights of 7-10 feet are achieved. We are experimenting with several other root hardy tropical plants to use as perennials.

According to my information this plant is hardy to 5 if well mulched and maybe even zone 4.

in lexington, sc the fiber banana is very common and needs little if any protection during the winter. it is the same here in hilton head , and usually keeps leaves and keeps growing a little in the winter unless a severe cold snap hits. Then it gets damaged, and then continues growing. the reason it is planted in the lowcountry is because of the color of the flower sheaths and that it keeps its leaves usually. otherwise if the gardener is like all y'all yankees up north, they will just grow the edible friuting kinds so they can be more "tropical".

for the first 2 years I didn't protect the stalks in winter and they would die back to the ground when we had that one cold blast that we get here in the Seattle area. so last year I dug them up in late fall and put them in long boxes and put wood chips around them and stored them in my unheated garage. in the spring I planted them out. there was no damage at all. but this year they are 7 feet tall. so I'll have to find a larger box or find a different way to store them. hostajim1

Our tree is growing fast, and overall we're extrememly happy with it, but its looking more and more yellow with the leaves turning brown around the edges. Has anybody experienced this or have any suggestions on what we can do to compensate for this problem? The soil drains well and other plants within the planter are thriving.

This plan grows well in most soil conditions provided it is mulched well. In fact, I have had great success growing these trees where the soil was so hard that I had to use a pick to break the soil enough to plant it.

Do not expect the plants to really take off until year two. Then look out, they will multiply and grow around 14 feet in one year. If you count the top of the leaves in the measurement, they can achieve 20 ft in one year!

The most significant pest that attacks these trees seems to be the Japanese Beetle. Of course is there anything in this area that escapes these pests?

This is a fabulous plant in McLean, Virginia. Mine is on its 4th year and thriving. I have given baby banana plants to at least 4 people who have also had great success with them. Mine is the focus of my "tropical bed." It makes all the workers from Latin and South America homesick. It has grown to about 13 - 14 feet tall each summer. In the fall I cut it down to about 1 foot and mulch heavily with leaves. I have sometimes covered it with landscape fabric as well. I do get tired of being asked "When will it produce bananas?"

I've had my Musa basjoo for over a decade and it's a large clump. Protect stems from frost produces taller plants the following year. I use a cage filled with leaves covered with a black bag. Good fast grower when properly fertilized. I use fish fertilizer and very organic/compost soil. Once flowers/fruits stem dies. Propagate from division or tissue-culture.

With the cold winters and hot dry summers, it's hard to find anything nice to grow in Wichita Kansas. However, the musa's have done just WONDERFULL! They have come back year after year without fail. The only problem so far... all of the neighbors want a start! My hearts too big and I give the "pups" away. Guess I need to be more stingy. Love the plant and dont mind the extra watering in summer. This plant is just wonderfull! Am submitting a picture.

I have had my musa basjoo in the ground less than a year. I mulched it in with about a foot of straw this winter, and it had a new leaf coming out BEFORE the end of February! I am SO pleased with this plant.

I have a musa basjoo at my house here in iowa. all you have to do to prepare it for winter, is to cut the trunk down to 10" or 1'. THIS THING CAN GROW 12 FEET IN ONE SUMMER!!!!!

Here in the Netherlands it's a fabulous plant. Not many Dutch believe this is possible in Holland..but it grows fine in my garden as a shade giving patioplant after 4 yours in growth.

I bought my musa basjoo in the early spring and is is doing fine here in Enumclaw, Wa. It is now time to put the plant in a larger pot. My plant has many pup growing up from its base and I am not sure how to remove them with out harming my plant or the pups. If any one would give me some advise in this area, I sure could use it. Thanks

Musa basjoo is said to be cold hardy to temperatures as low as -20F. I recently purchased a Musa basjoo back in May and planted it in the ground. It seems to grow rather quickly, currently 1.5 inches per day during this heat wave. Seems to thrive here in Murphysboro, Illinois(USDA zone 7a). I have driven by many yards here in extreme southern Illinois and saw this specimen thriving at over 14 feet tall. It is a perennial to this area dying to the ground in late fall and returning in the spring. One must keep it out of the wind to prevent the leaves from ripping.

My Musa basjoo was purchased in a gallon pot several years ago. I kept repotting until it got so big that it was impossible to move the pot. It survived year round on the deck here in western Washington state, losing its leaves in the winter, but would quickly re-leaf in the spring.

I finally moved it into the ground in a protected corner next to a Koi pond. It is now over 14 foot tall and has 9 trunks. Adds to the tropical look in a wet and cool state, but it still has yet to bloom and bear fruit. I doubt it will, but is worth the effort for its shock value in the garden. It needs good rich soil, plenty of water and protection from the winds to keep from shredding the leaves. it benefits by a nice topping of steer manure in the early spring.

Propagate by offsets.