Hi,
I am a newbie to this group.
I live in south florida and like to grow things. I have about 8 regular size and 4 dwarf size banana trees. Some have been in the ground for over 7 years. I don't get any bananas from any plant and I'm at the point of cutting them all down. Does anyone have any ideas why the bananas are not growing.
Thank You,
Mark

Did you plant them yourself?

Yes, I planted them myself .
They all grow up and have little trees growing near them

The reason I asked was that i've seen where someone...including myself,mix up a Bird of Paradise plant with a banana.They both have dwarf and giant forms and have the paddle leaves.

Heck,where you live you ought to be up to your eyeballs in banana fruit year round.

No clue here,sorry.

have they been fertilized? from what ive read over the last 2 nites, it can take up to 2 to 2 1/2 years for a nana to flower and fruit. it also depends on the type of banana plant, culture and your growing zone. how long has it been since you planted them? so dont wack them down just yet.if you have more questions, send me an e-mail and i can send you to a site.im new to the banana world too, just remember any question can be answered.just have to know where to look.

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oh and those little trees under the big ones are called pups. you dont want to move them if they are really small the bigger they are before you remove them from the mom, the better. however you dont want them to be 15 foot tall and then try to move them.

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I don't move the pups. I let them grow.
I don't fertilize the banana trees. The origional trees were planted over 5 years ago and the
pups are big now. Maybe they are to close to each other. Maybe I should put move space
between them.

you can go to www.bananas.org and post on line. there are people who have had the same issue w/ no fruit.

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an old but friendly local on Oahu,,, gave me a method when my one year old plant was not producing,,, Lay a circle of garden hose around the base and flood the root area overnite about half inch of water. In less than 2 weeks it produced around 25 poundsof delicious fruit.. it was a great plant. ( the plant was about 8 to 9 feet tall with 10 inch trunk)

Thanks for the reply. I have been watering the plants alot. Today I plan to fertilize. This should give me results. I didn't realize that these trees needed alot of water.

do you compost kitchen veggies and fruit? i mix shredded cabbage, lettus,spinach, banana peals,fruit peals(anything that is green, can even use shredded newspaper as long as it has no color and is not glossy) can use brown paper bags, just tear into strips. just make sre that it is in small pieces. mix it all together and let it sit for 2-3 days. till it starts to get a little smelly,and spread it around the trees just dont touch the stalk with the compost. it does work. when you compost like this water the ground before you put the compost down. that way it will absorbe into the ground and not just rot and mold. i use that for my nanas, and mine are in pots in the house. i use the organic rather then the synthetic fertilizers. i have had 3 leaves come up on one tree in less then a week, mine are small yet, so i wont get fruit for a while. hope this helps, it works on mine.

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Thanks for the reply.
My friend suggested the same thing but he said to bury the compost near the banana trees.
The winds here are generally at least 15 - 20 mph and some of the compost might blow away.
As far as the organic fertilizer, I assume you are talking about manure, coffee grounds, etc.
Thanks again

if the winds are that bad you can work the compost into the ground, just be careful because of the rootsystem. i have my nanas in pots, so the rootsystem is shallow. i dont know how the roots are if their outside. i havent used the coffee grounds on my bananas, i use it on my reg. plants.(roses, peonie, etc.) i dont know how it would effect the nana tree. you can use manure, and or the stuff i wrote on the previous post.( i use that on my nanas) i see you went to the banana.org. i have the same user name on there as i do here. so its nice to meet you k2au.

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How old they are has nothing to do with it. It's the maturity of the plant. Growing zones differ, so that means the bloom cycles differ as well because the growing cycle is different.

I'm guessing everything came out alright since nothing has been posted for quite some time.

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"Something about the wrinkle in your forehead tells me there’s a fit about to get thrown
If we get the van out of the ditch before morning ain’t nobody got to know what I done"
- Drive-By Truckers "Heathens"

I find that if I feed my Banana trees with fruit tree spikes every spring they have fruit. I have 15 ft. 3 year old that has a 1 1/2 ft flower and is looking good. I also have a Musa velutina that had little 1 1/2 in. pink fruit starting the first year from seed. The spikes seem to do the trick here in central Louisiana.