Life wants to happen.

This is what a once gorgeous banana plant looks like today.

What do you think...remove the dead leaves or leave them?
Will it survive or is it toast?

oh, your nanners are fine dan. i usually leave the ratty leaves attached until spring. however, i don't know if you will be able to stand seeing that for the next couple of months or so. plus, i don't know if they will necessarily offer the plant any protection. hmmm...it might be better to cut them off and then you can wrap the tops with freeze cloth if we have another cold one.

mine has started pushing out another leaf. i did cut the burned ones off but that was only because i brought it in the house for a couple of nights.

anyone have any other suggestions?

Dan, last year and this year mine looked exactly the same way after the cold snaps. The main plant is green I can see in your pic. They will start putting out new leaves - mine already are. I don't cut my frosted leaves off but I think you'd be fine if you did. Keep watering and fertilizing like usual.

I have never fertilized this bed other than the compost that I put in it when I filled it the first time. What do you reccommend?

My 2 cents... leave the leaves (pun intended). They protect against any other cold snaps. Peel away in early spring, as Dete says. My Cannas are crispy and pushing new growth. I think they're confused with the whether. edited, dumb me, whether weather

Compost is good Dan. Ray told me poo, lotsa poo - lol... I use the llama yama I got from McP and the nanners love it!

My Cannas are doing the same thing Susie. Fishie told me she cuts hers back after they freeze so I did too and they're pushing new growth...

i use 10-16-38 on everything.

Hey guys.
The bananas are fine Dan.
Mine get fried every year by frost and come bigger and stronger the next year.
I remove the leaves and also cut back the top slightly.
Hasnt slowed them down one bit by giving them a good trimming.
Took one of your photos and market on it where I usually cut mine back to.

ray - so you really don't cut into the tip though, right?

Sometimes I do.
I've got one that I recently trimmed and I cut it back by about 50% of its height.
Since doing this last weekend the plant has pushed about 2" of new growth.
Been doing this for 6/7 years now and hasnt affected them at all.

aren't you afraid that you might cut into the inflorescence (banana heart) that is making its way up through the center of the p-stem?

Not at all.
I've cut them all the way down to about 12" from the base and the banana came back like nothing ever happened.

Here's how tough these bananas are.
I wanted to do some renovation to one of the beds where I had a clump at and I took a saw to the bananas and leveled them to the ground, took a shovel to the clump and then tossed a couple of them into the compost bin and buried a couple of the other ones just to get rid of it.
About 2 months later I had sprouts coming out of every one of the plants I butchered.

Wow! That sounds more like an obnoxious weed more than a desireable tropical plant!

OK....I will proceed fearlessly knowing that my plants come from sturdy stock and can endeavor whatever harm I may inflict upon them!

hey ray. i know that they are tough. ppl dig them up and store them bare root over the winter in colder locations.

i never really understood how the plant went about fruiting. 99.999% of the time a banana plant will only fruit once and then it dies. however, it will still produce offset (pups). the inflorescence is the true stem and the leaves and their petioles make up the pseudo stem. the p-stem is what we know the banana plant as. at some point the inflorescence starts to make its way up through the center of the p-stem. it will actually reveal its presence with a flag leaf. beyond that, you never know when it is working its way up. that's why i was asking if you were worried about cutting them back if they have not died back. once you cut into the true stem it's all over. i guess you have just been lucky because you only get one chance. : ) they can die back and come back but because they have to produce so many leaves before the true stem is revealed. i do not know why. however, if they die back (or are cut back) and the true stem is bisected, then it is toast.

here's a pic of the banana from today. the bad leaves were cut off right after thanksgiving. i did not cut into the tip. you can see that it is pushing out another leaf with all the warm weather. it has four pups. i will cut them off and plant them next spring. i want the mother plant to focus on fruiting.

Hey Guys. Love how the desert smells when it rains. How long has been since it rained last?

D - Doesn't look like your picture was attached.

I've done a little experimenting with these nanners over the years now to see how far I can cut them back in the winter/spring before encountering a inflo or the p-stem.
Not once have encountered either one.
Given that and that the bananas do not show a visible flag leaf or inflo until around august/september I'm guessing that the plants don't push the stock until after spring.
That's just a guess on my part.
The reason I think that is after I've cut the mother plant down in the winter after it has flowered there is a very visible difference in the center of the stalk.
It's very woody and more solid looking than one of the bananas that has not pushed a flower.

How long ago did I give you yours Detrick? 3 or 4 years ago?
I think yours will produce this year.
Now given all my hullabaloo about hacking these things back like a man possessed on too much caffeine and a chain saw I would not cut one of my main bananas back that drastically if I thought I might get a flower that year.
I'd still remove all the side leaves and dead parts being pushed out the top.

oops! here's the pic i meant to post that i took yesterday.


ray that is what i was beginning to think after hearing you say that you constantly hack them back. that perhaps, the inflo doesn't start coming up until later in the year. so hack on my caffeine loaded, machete wielding, nanner plantation owning, tutu wearing friend. :rofl:

i just wanted to mention that the trunk of the banana is the p-stem. it is all the herbaceous flesh that you cut through when you hack down the banana. so, you are encountering it.

do you get stalks that will push out more than one inflo. btw, i think the reason that you would see any difference in the cross section between the p-stem and the inflo is because the differentiation might only occur at the terminal end or tip.

how long have i had mine? well, let me see. i am thinking that i kept it in the greenhouse the first winter because i got it when the weather was cooling down. do you recall cooler weather when you gave it to me? the following year i put it in the ground. it was struggling in the clay soil and i relocated it to better soil. i dug it up for winter and stored it in the house. then i put it in the ground and it took off. i left it outside during the mild winter with no die back. and i pulled it out of the ground this year and put it in a pot (attached pic). okay, this coming winter will be its fourth with me. it hasn't grown it's best until this year. perhaps, that is why it has taken so long to flower. how long does it usually take yours to flower?

thanks for schooling us on the ways of the nanner. i look forward to growing other kinds, too. we should meet up at the nanner guy's house by DM next year and get a couple of his pups.

sorry! i do not know why my pics are being rotated.

The center of the stalks when I cut one down during the winter is visably different.
I'm guessing the inflo shoot (dont know what else to call it) is around 1" to 2" in diameter and reminds me of a sugarcane stalk in the center surrounded by the old leaves.
When I get home tonight I'll take a picture of the nanner I trimmed way back.
I moved everything around earlier this year so non of the mature nanners pushed an inflo this year so I cant show you what I'm talking about and how it looks compared to a stalk that hasnt pushed an inflo.
This would be so much easier with pictures. ;-)

There's another guy that lives on the south side of I-10 near Country Club that has them lining the front of his house.

I've got a ice cream banana thats getting to be a descent size and I'm hoping it might push a flower this year.
Did some serious growing this year with the backflushed water from my pond filter.
Fish poo on plants is a wonderful thing.