Her work has appeared in “Illinois Issues” and dozens more newspapers, magazines and online outlets. Show off your trees in the comments below for a chance to be featured on our blog and Instagram. Copyright © 2020 Perfect Plants. Cut the trunk of the banana plant as close to the ground as possible. Paying attention to the time of year will help you to know when to cut the leaves. Gift Card valid on future orders until April 2021. Cut off any dead leaves to encourage new growth at the top of the tree. These tropical plants are easy to care for and once you get the hang of the low maintenance care. Being traditionally found in more tropical environments, banana plants often experience difficulties when cultivated in areas that are prone to colder temperatures or that suffer from intermittent freezes. leaves in one season. Banana trees love mulch at all times of the year to protect them and insulate them from the winter’s cold and retain moisture during summer’s heat. The farther north or the colder the winter, the greater the distance and height need to be for the mulched area. After you harvest your banana crop, cut back that stalk to the ground, slice it up, and use it as mulch around next year’s stalk. The sap from a banana plant will stain anything it contacts and is very resistant to being removed, so it is best to gear up with coveralls and gloves before beginning to cut back the banana plant. It didn’t get cold enough this winter to kill the trunks. Trim only damaged leaves, not the trunk, if you want the trees to flower and produce fruit. Banana tree leaves can become damaged for a variety of reasons. Gift Card automatically included in cart for orders over $200. Remove the fallen stalk and debris. The pseudostem requires cutting back to 2 feet tall once the tree is damaged by freezing weather. Banana tees that have fallen over and turned soft and mushy because of decay are dead to ground level, but the roots system may be alive and send … Answer: If you want your trees to flower and produce fruit, only trim off the damaged leaves and do not cut back the trunk. Hardy banana trees grow rapidly, as much as 12 feet (3.5 m.) with 6-inch (15 cm.) The giant leaves are piled over the stump and root ball for protection during the rest of the winter. If left in the landscape the first frost will kill the foliage and it will need to be removed before you can prepare the roots for the winter months. Ornamental? 8: Netting in place. Watch the banana plant over the winter. Do they have unique colored leaves like the Musa Bordelon banana? Details. In the right growing conditions, banana plants can reach a height of 15 feet or more. After you harvest your banana crop, cut back that stalk to the ground, slice it up, and use it as mulch around next year’s stalk. Chop the trunk down to ground level and shred the stem. Copyright Leaf Group Ltd. // Leaf Group Lifestyle. The pseudostem requires cutting back to 2 feet tall once the tree is damaged by freezing weather. Developing bananas need full sun to ripen, so cut off any leaves that are rubbing against the young bananas or completely shading them. Prune banana trees before winter sets in. The freezing-thawing cycle often will lead to rot and the subsequent decay and death of your banana plants. above ground. It takes more than a year for a banana stalk to set and ripen fruit. Right before or after the first frost you should cut the tree back to about one foot tall. Left to itself, a banana plant consists of a thicket of several stalks (called pseudostems). Some varieties get over twenty feet tall. This is designed to prevent the plant from blowing over. The giant leaves are piled over the stump and root ball for protection during the rest of the winter. Learn which plants thrive in your Hardiness Zone with our new interactive map! The banana tree’s Perfect Plants offers are all ornamental and may produce inedible fruit to humans (although birds and wildlife love them!). It is best to remove them before this occurs. All other offshoots should be cut down as they appear: They are just taking up space, water, and nutrients. Banana plants grow from underground stems, which tend to spread and produce suckers. Some are more cold tolerant than others. Overwintering a Banana Tree Outside Overwintering banana plants is a different story if they’re too big to fit inside. As banana growers, we want just one stalk on each plant (the mother stalk) growing to maturity and producing bananas, and just one offshoot standing in the wings to produce next year’s crop. Use a sharp knife or machete and cut them to the ground, chop ‘em up, and scatter ‘em around the mother stalk as mulch. Cover the mulch and the banana plant stump with a loose-fitting plastic mesh. If your main stalk gets cold damaged, but not killed, do not cut it down! Learn how to prune a banana tree and why it is important to do so in this blog post. Regardless of where they overwinter, the foliage will need to be cut back.