Question for our tropical gardners

R

richard-in-cincy

Well-known member
My bananas, which I thought were going to ripen in October, never did. I brought the banana planter "tub" into the solarium and was hoping they would finish ripening...they still have not.

Now it's so cold, I'm keeping the temp in there at 40 (although on sunny days it gets quite warm in the 60's) and the bananas are still green banana shaped rocks.

Is there any hope for them ever ripening?

 
Richard,

A lot of plants will grow and ripen things if their roots are warm even though the air may be quite cold.

You might want to try putting some sort of heat under the Banana's planter-pot. You could try a heated plant starting mat or perhaps a heating cable that can be placed under the pot. You can web-search either and they should be found on seed/plant selling sites.

If you don't want to heat the roots, then your bananas should start to ripen when the weather is warmer. My bananas don't do jack during the winter here in southern California.

 
I doubt it Richard

Bananas need the heat and stop growing in chillier temps. Typically a banana tree will put out a flower stalk and it takes anywhere from six months to a year to fully ripen hands of bananas. Then the tree is cut down, a "keiki" or new shoot comes up from the underground rhizome and the process starts again. It takes almost a year to develop a full-grown banana tree before it puts out the flower stalk.

Sometimes when temps get colder the tree will just sort of go dormant so why not see if in the spring your bananas ripen....can't hurt to try!

 
I agree with Cathy (I think?). The search here hates me so I can't find

that original post where you posted the photo of your tree with bananas but I remember thinking it would take longer than you thought. Did you cut off the flower stalk? I say give it more time. It just might take longer.

 
But.....don't bananas ripen off the tree? If they're full size, they may ripen if you pick them

All the bananas in the store were picked green.

 
Yes, they are picked green BUT they need to reach a certain size/growth point. . .

to be able to actually ripen when picked green.

 
Janet...

Where were you in RI? Mom lives in Charlestown in South County. How funny you used to be in RI and are now in NC, and I spend every summer in RI and now live in NC.

 
I kept packin' my Edelweiss with snow, and they finally bloomed.

Burned out my snow cone maker in the process, but it was worth it!

Just kidding.

Bananas in Ohio! How fun.

Michael

 
Oh, for crying out loud HOW did you do that???? I can't tell you how many

combination's of things I put in! And yes, I used comma's. I don't like it but I've finally come to the realization that the search function here just hates me. I'll get over it.

 
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