Cloning a Banana Tree?

Had two large sprouts come up from the base of my tree. Just started it this year it's maybe 30-36 inches tall. Had 2 sprouts they are about 6" tall and maybe 5-6 leaves each. They popped at the base of the trunk near the root ball. I cut them at an angle off the trunk, no roots with them. I couldn't find my hormone powder so I soaked them in a cup of water for a few and dropped them in a small planter with Amazon bloom amended with perlite. Think this will work?

I have 2 more very small sprouts left. I will see how this works and if it don't, when they get larger I might try a hempy cup next time. I dunno. Worth a shot I guess.

The next time you see sprouts from the base of the tree, dig down a little bit and get some of the root it is attached to, I have never been able to get a sprout from my super dwarf to take root with out getting some of the root it was attached to

"Large corms or rhizomes develop within the root mat, serving as the point from which banana pseudostems grow. You can divide one of these rhizomes into smaller pieces known as "bits" to separate the individual growth points, known as meristems, within it, as each meristem serves as a point of new growth for the banana plant. You can then plant the bits, and as long as each planted piece contains at least one meristem, it will develop into a new banana plant over the course of two years".

Usually right before the plant is getting ready to die they go crazy and throw tons of the shoots from the base of the plant , I have only ever gotten one harvest of tiny bananas from each of my plants , then they die but they throw shoots in which you can take them. I have mine potted in soil containers and once they are over there harvest and the shoots come up I just pull the whole plant up by the roots and divide up all the shoots for new plants, usually finishing off the old one in the process. In doing so I started with one super dwarf plant and now have 20 of them all in varying stages of development

Thanks man. I actually have 3 sprouts now still on the plant and I will try that next time. It's been almost 2 weeks since I planted the others without roots, so soon I will pull them out of the small planters and check to see if they rooted at all.

One more thing. I am thinking about bringing my large plant in over the winter. Do you think I can keep it growing over the window in light from a window and using my other lighting to keep it going? That was what I was hoping to do anyway.

Thanks again.

Yeah it'll come inside , I live in Northern Mi and I have to bring them in or they freeze, They go in the plant room under cfl's and do just fine. Do you know eaxctly what kind of banana plant it is? Got any pics?

Thanks man. It's a dwarf cavendish Banana Tree from here.

http://m.ebay.com/itm/2-plants-DWARF-CAVENDISH-BANANA-LIVE-PLANT-Musa-acuminata-FRUIT-TREE-/191651846739?nav=SEARCH

They also have a website and just use the nurseries name in the pics. I got mine like February and it's 3 ft tall. It's pretty healthy but the heat has taken a toll on some of the leaves. I am def gonna cut more sprouts this weekend the way u described and clone at least two more. thanks again.

Holy shit, an actual thread with substance having guod in it. I am surprised he is the number one fuck up.

do you know how long it takes until the dwarf bears fruit?
I got the same one on order from amazon.

GrowUrOwnDank said:

Had two large sprouts come up from the base of my tree. Just started it this year it's maybe 30-36 inches tall. Had 2 sprouts they are about 6" tall and maybe 5-6 leaves each. They popped at the base of the trunk near the root ball. I cut them at an angle off the trunk, no roots with them. I couldn't find my hormone powder so I soaked them in a cup of water for a few and dropped them in a small planter with Amazon bloom amended with perlite. Think this will work?

I have 2 more very small sprouts left. I will see how this works and if it don't, when they get larger I might try a hempy cup next time. I dunno. Worth a shot I guess.

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this is not this vid i watched but has same idea... i had a dwarf cavendish Banana palm were the stalk was cut at the bulb and sprouted 4 pr 5 sprouts(in a container btw)

and they was getting so big they was over taking each other and i figured to transplant and well when i did they died but i cut the stalks and covered the bulb n i got sprouts now

if the plant dies cut it at the top of the bulb cover and keep watering and new sprouts will come out ill get u some pics of mine soon bro hope this helps this what i did

miketaco said:

this is not this vid i watched but has same idea... i had a dwarf cavendish Banana palm were the stalk was cut at the bulb and sprouted 4 pr 5 sprouts(in a container btw)

and they was getting so big they was over taking each other and i figured to transplant and well when i did they died but i cut the stalks and covered the bulb n i got sprouts now

if the plant dies cut it at the top of the bulb cover and keep watering and new sprouts will come out ill get u some pics of mine soon bro hope this helps this what i did

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My experiment was a bust. They never took. Right now the dwarf cavendish is still in a 5 gallon bucket. I sawed off the dead main stalk and brought it in and I have a side shoot. I haven't figured out what I'm gonna do yet. It's doing so well I'm gonna let it go. No artificial lights it's just hibernating. But I gotta green shoot I'm gonna take off like maybe Next month and cut some roots with it. I will always put them outside when I can. Try to remember bringing them back in lol. It gets cold. Anyway. The clone was a failure. But, I learned. I think someone told me to take some roots. I'll try again. It's in soil by the way and I feed it with MG and a whole buncha left over stuff from my earlier days. To get rid of it.

Have a great day bro and I appreciate your contribution. I will try and catch that vid. Right now I'm in holiday madness mode. lol.

GrowUrOwnDank said:

My experiment was a bust. They never took. Right now the dwarf cavendish is still in a 5 gallon bucket. I sawed off the dead main stalk and brought it in and I have a side shoot. I haven't figured out what I'm gonna do yet. It's doing so well I'm gonna let it go. No artificial lights it's just hibernating. But I gotta green shoot I'm gonna take off like maybe Next month and cut some roots with it. I will always put them outside when I can. Try to remember bringing them back in lol. It gets cold. Anyway. The clone was a failure. But, I learned. I think someone told me to take some roots. I'll try again. It's in soil by the way and I feed it with MG and a whole buncha left over stuff from my earlier days. To get rid of it.

Have a great day bro and I appreciate your contribution. I will try and catch that vid. Right now I'm in holiday madness mode. lol.

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i hear yea man just set it next to a window and it will take mine were sprouts but now they are loving the sun and are getting big and have a merry one buddy

Next time, all you have to do is make sure you get a little bit of the roots with the new shoot when digging her up. Its pretty fail-proof if you can dig up as much roots as you can, no need for cloning powder or anything, just plop it straight into some decent soil and water it.

Banana trees only flower and fruit once, so its best to just cut the whole tree down to harvest and the roots will pop more shoots up in its place.

waterproof808 said:

Next time, all you have to do is make sure you get a little bit of the roots with the new shoot when digging her up. Its pretty fail-proof if you can dig up as much roots as you can, no need for cloning powder or anything, just plop it straight into some decent soil and water it.

Banana trees only flower and fruit once, so its best to just cut the whole tree down to harvest and the roots will pop more shoots up in its place.

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miketaco said:

i hear yea man just set it next to a window and it will take mine were sprouts but now they are loving the sun and are getting big and have a merry one buddy

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Thanks for the knowledge bro's! I took a good look at it this morning and discovered that along with the about 8" tall shoot there are two other tiny shoots just poking out of the soil. I will certainly use your advice. I think I'm going to need some more buckets. lol

GrowUrOwnDank said:

Thanks for the knowledge bro's! I took a good look at it this morning and discovered that along with the about 8" tall shoot there are two other tiny shoots just poking out of the soil. I will certainly use your advice. I think I'm going to need some more buckets. lol

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That's why I pull the whole root system of the original plant out of the soil, It makes things much easier to separate

so. The main trunk was like maybe 4" in diameter. About the same size as a soda or beer can. I left it outside and it got kinda cold and te main died off. I just sacked it off. Now I have one sprout that's like 8" or so and it looks healthy. I did pull off some dead leaf the other. And two tiny little baby sprouts. So. What should I do guys? Restart these sprouts individually? Leave the larger sprout alone and try to clone the two baby sprouts? From the breeder, this dwarf cavendish should start to bear fruit in its second year. I will make sure it starts getting light from a window through til it goes back outside in the spring. I will take it in and out on nicer days which is what I do to my line tree. Thanks again guys for all the advice.

bit of a side step but would a banana tree grow in the south of the U.K?
temps in summer are around mid 20 and winter can drop to around 5 below
May be a mad question i know lol but i would be the only person on my road with a banana tree!!

LOFT said:

bit of a side step but would a banana tree grow in the south of the U.K?
temps in summer are around mid 20 and winter can drop to around 5 below
May be a mad question i know lol but i would be the only person on my road with a banana tree!!

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Yes, there is a cold weather banana plant that would handle those temps, It's called the Musa Basjoo, the only down side is the fruit is not edible .

Budget Buds said:

Yes, there is a cold weather banana plant that would handle those temps, It's called the Musa Basjoo, the only down side is the fruit is not edible .

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WOW... i wasnt really too worried about edible but more worried about banana shaped things hanging from it lol
Just a bit of a boasting thing really as i cant boast about the size of my buds

LOFT said:

WOW... i wasnt really too worried about edible but more worried about banana shaped things hanging from it lol
Just a bit of a boasting thing really as i cant boast about the size of my buds

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It will only have bananas on it during the end stage of it's life, kinda like a mj plant. but it will have big banana leaves and you could still be that guy with a banana plant chillin next to the mail box .BB