Hi, I'm so glad I found this forum! My mother-in-law gave me a banana plant last year which I've managed to keep alive in Ohio w/o knowing much about it. Right now I have the mother plant and three pups which I feel I should separate (they are between 2-3 feet tall each) but am worried b/c it's getting colder here and soon I'll bring them inside and am not sure if I should do it now or wait til after winter. Also, leaves get brown and wilt, do I cut them all the way down the stalk or just where it is brown? I realize after reading that I am not fertilizing how I should so I will change that. I bring it inside over the winter but it gets plenty of sunlight so it doesn't go dormant. I wish that I'd see some fruit on it but b/c I'm in Ohio I can't plant it in the ground (and where I live has clay soil), but will it ever fruit in just a container? If not it's ok b/c I just love the way it looks but seeing it fruit would be great! I don't know what variety I have, either-I'll need to look into that more. Any suggestions for my questions, or any general suggestions on having these where I live would be great, thanks!

It's difficult to say if it will bloom. They have a time line basically based on their growth, not length of time, which means it can take considerably longer for them to bloom if they grow slow or hardly at all.

One thing you can do is, if you have a high enough ceiling (up to say 30 feet high) you could plant it in a relatively big container with Miracle Gro soil - the really expensive big bags. Try to avoid potting soil with all the funky white crap in it. That will help it grow but what it really needs is warmth. They grow 24 hours a day when the soil temperature is 70 degrees or higher. They grow less actively when it's 60 and then below...56? I think they basically stop growing, at least, that you can tell.

There are various fertilizers you can use, 14-14-14, 13-13-13, etc, various shrub fert. You can also get actual banana fert online from various websites (stokestropicals.com is a good one). But for container plants I tend to stay away from granule fert and use liquid fert like Miracle Gro because it soaks in and gets absorbed by the plant - and you can even spray it on the fronds and the 'trunk'.

So the warmer the better. And sunlight through a window is better than no sunlight at all. And if you don't have a high ceiling, do you know someone that does? Take it over there. You can leave it outside until it gets down to 32 degrees for over 4 hours (I wouldn't leave it out at all actually below 35 but that's how long it takes water to freeze).

The bigger the container the better. I have a orinoco in a small container, maybe not even a half gallon. I potted it up (along with a elephant ear) and the banana is maybe a foot tall. I potted it up the same time I planted all my other bananas in the ground, back in April, and they are all from 6 to 10 feet tall right now (a tall one broke in Gustav). So they're like fish in that regard.

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