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Bananas baby bananas
Majorhound
Posts: 8
in Fruit & veg
Hi I have banana plants in my garden and last year I left a pod on with 20 baby bananas on and the stem died ...this year I have 3 pods each with about 20 bananas about and inch big or lightly bigger ... Do I chop off the pod and bananas to stop the stem dying..........
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Also have a mango about 8 inches tall and the leaves are going mouldy this happened last year and it died. Is there anything I can do
Herefordshire
Neither are hardy in the UK (they are tropical fruits) so both need bringing indoors over winter. I would also agree with cutting the fruiting stems off before they start to rot as they surely will. Mangoes make reasonable houseplants for a few years but will get big (up to 100 feet in their native environment) although they usually die when a just a few feet tall.
Thank you both cant bring them in as about 20 ft tall but usually over them
Wow, impressive bananas Majorhound! Do you know which variety they are?
No got them from b and q 18 yrs ago lol
I usually cover and cut before the 1st frost so will chop as well and might see if the bananas are big enough to try although I doubt it
They are musa basjoo. They put a lot of energy into flowering and the pseudostem will die back in time, but it also will through up a lot of pups in return. The flower can be cut off...I am not sure if the seed will be fertile or not and you already have a good clump.
You can cut off the flower to see if it stops the pseudostem from dieing back but as it has already put in so much energy into flowering I suggest it is too late. I would let them die back and allow the pups to grow.