The banana palm is a very beautiful indoor perennial. The false trunk (stem) of this plant is formed from the so-called leaf petioles. During growth, the leaves curl together, forming such an unusual trunk. The banana palm is unique in that when proper care one flower of this plant can remain in bloom for up to three to four months. A blooming palm tree will add exotic notes to any interior, reminiscent of hot countries and summer holidays.
Growing this plant at home is not as difficult as it might seem to a novice gardener. The main thing is to know some of the subtleties of caring for a banana tree.
For those who decide to purchase young plant banana palm, first of all, you need to find a warm and well-lit place for it. If the gardener’s plans include obtaining fruits from a banana palm tree, then care must be taken about additional lighting, without which fruiting is unlikely to be possible. The plant must be illuminated at least twelve hours a day. The air temperature should not fall below twenty-five degrees Celsius. A slight drop in temperature at night is acceptable, but not more than five degrees.
If you plan to grow a banana tree solely for decoration, it will perfectly withstand average room temperature, and it will not require additional lighting, and the banana palm will bloom for quite a long time. With proper care, the plant pleases its owners with a new beautiful leaf every seven to eight days. This rapid development makes the banana tree truly unique.
Banana palms are heat-loving plants, and if the air temperature in the room where they are kept drops below sixteen degrees, this will have a very negative impact on the growth and development of green pets.
Watering a banana palm requires a special approach: in summer the plant needs frequent and abundant watering, and in winter period- as the soil in the pot dries out. Watering should be carried out only with settled water, and such water should settle for at least ten to twelve hours. You also need to ensure that the water for irrigation is not cold. The best option- water that is three to five degrees warmer than room temperature.
If the air in the room is too dry, then the banana palm sharply slows down its development, while the foliage on the plant may fade and begin to dry out at the edges. Therefore, you should carefully monitor the air humidity in the room where the plant is located.
The banana palm is very fond of various water treatments, such as spraying, wiping leaves with a damp cloth, and even a real shower. If you regularly give the palm tree a bath, it will delight its owners with lush green leaves and a beautiful appearance.
There is another method that can make caring for a palm tree much easier. The method is to place a pot with a plant on a large tray and cover it with expanded clay, pebbles or wet moss - that is, any material that retains moisture. This approach will allow you to create a palm tree almost ideal conditions for growth and development.
Do you know how bananas grow? Most of us, when eating another banana, probably thought about the journey this very fruit made from distant warm countries, how it grew on a huge banana palm tree with huge leaves, ripened for a long time under the scorching African rays, surrounded by its many fellows, and miraculously survived from raids by the ubiquitous monkeys and elephants... No matter how!
To begin with, a banana is herbaceous plant, a grass with a huge trunk and giant leaves, and not a palm tree at all. Such sizes of grass suggest unusual and rather interesting processes of development and reproduction of bananas. Let's find out in more detail how bananas grow?
Banana (Musa-lat.) is a genus of herbaceous fast-growing perennials, numbering about 40 species. We are more interested in the same bananas that we eat every day. 
In nature, oddly enough, such bananas do not exist in wild form. What we see on store shelves are the fruits of plants bred by breeders. Real bananas usually have inedible fruits oval shape filled with seeds.
The visible trunk of a banana tree is formed from massive stems of leaves that grow quickly and die as they grow. In warm weather, one leaf grows in a week, reaching a width of 60 cm and a length of up to 2.5 m. After approximately 45 leaves appear, after 8-10 months, the banana produces one single peduncle.
Typically blooming at night or in the morning, industrial bananas reveal a variety of flowers. white tubular in shape, and filled with a lot of sweet nectar. Banana flowers grow in tiers: at the bottom there are several rows of female flowers, they are larger; higher up are bisexual flowers, and even higher are the tiers of the smallest male flowers. After pollination, the upper flowers fall off, and fruits are obtained only from female banana flowers.
Banana fruits also develop in tiers called arms. During the ripening process, the banana fruit (technically a berry) undergoes a transformation from light green to yellow or red, depending on the variety. The flesh is white, cream or orange. Bananas are cut while still green, so they can be stored longer, protected from rodents and transported for export.
After fruiting ends, all visible above-ground parts of the banana tree die. On next year The banana repeats its growth cycle. 
In nature, some types of bananas live for about a hundred years. Artificial plantations need to be updated every 10-15 years. The fruits of selection bananas are sterile, so propagation is carried out vegetatively, by shoots or by dividing rhizomes. Don't look for seeds in bananas, they aren't there.
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This is exactly the question that came to me from one of our readers. True, she asked not to use her name, because this question seems “too childish” to her. I think this is a very interesting question!
First, let me remind you: bananas do not grow on palm trees. Bananas – this is grass. One of the highest in the world, by the way. Secondly, there are about 500 varieties!
So bananas are very, very different. And in size, and in color, and, of course, in taste. By the way, there are bananas that are generally inedible. For example, Japanese banana And textile banana. Yes, yes, they also make clothes from bananas!
But those bananas that you and I eat (and almost all varieties!) are generally fiction. They do not exist in nature. This various varieties sterile artificially bred banana of paradise, which is not found in the wild. It is precisely because this banana is sterile that many people think that the banana reproduces vegetatively: “either by shoots or something else.” So my friends were very surprised and did not believe me when I told them about bananas with seeds.
I’m revealing a secret (although what a secret it is, any botanist knows about it): wild bananas have seeds! Moreover, there are so many of them that there may be practically no pulp in a banana fruit.
Look, this is a fruit wild banana in section:
But bananas have been cultivated for so long (the first mentions of them are to the V-VI centuries BC. e., and the islands of the Malay Archipelago are considered their homeland), that cunning humanity has learned to grow seedless bananas.
By the way, as a food crop, banana ranks fourth place in the world by popularity. Only rice, wheat and corn are grown in larger quantities. And what types of bananas are eaten in? They are eaten raw, boiled, fried, desserts and pastries, soups and main courses are prepared from them... There is only one thing: those bananas that can be found on the shelves of European stores cannot be fried or boiled. That is, of course you can try. Some desserts can even be made with fried bananas, but this has nothing to do with the version of fried bananas of the peoples of Africa and Asia. Because special varieties are fried here; they are green, hard and, when raw, more like potatoes with a slight sweetish aftertaste.
However, bananas are used not only for food. Dyes are made from bananas (black, from banana peels), the leaves are also used to prepare various foods (similar to foil or baking paper), packaging is often made from the leaves, and rafts and light buildings are made from the stems. Bananas have also found their place in medicine: the fruits help fight anemia, high blood pressure, depression, heartburn and PMS, the flowers are used in the treatment of dysentery, stomach ulcers, bronchitis and brewed for diabetes... The rest of the plant is also used for medicinal purposes. For example, young banana leaves are excellent for healing burns.
I hope I was able to answer the question in some detail, and now some more photos that answer the question “how bananas grow.” Especially for you, I took these photos in Cambodia and the Singapore Botanic Garden.
So bananas grow like this...
We are talking about the same banana, the fruits of which both children and adults love to eat. It turns out that you can grow it at home. At the same time, it will delight its owners not only with the taste of the fruit, but also with its appearance.
Banana (Musa) - very tall (up to 10 m) powerful perennial family of the same name. Despite its impressive size, bananas are classified as herbs, and their fruits are nothing more than berries.
Bananas grow in the tropics and subtropics. Its homeland is southeast Asia and Hindustan. The taste of the fruits of this plant was liked by travelers and sailors, who contributed to its spread.
The underground part of the banana is represented by a powerful, spherical rhizome with well-branched adventitious roots and a central growing point. The shoot is shortened, underground. What we are used to seeing above the surface of the earth is not a shoot, it is leaves.
The leaves are long-petiolate, wrapping around each other's bases. They form something like a trunk. The leaf blades have impressive sizes: 2, sometimes even 3 m in length and up to half a meter in width. Ellipsoidal, juicy, green, sometimes with burgundy or dark green spots. After fruiting, the leaves of the plant gradually die off and are replaced by new ones.
Flower: The banana will bloom for the first time in about a year. By this time, it develops from 15 to 18 leaves. The peduncle emerges from the flower bud and does a great job, “breaking through” the base of the leaves, growing through the long vaginal tube and stretching out almost to the height of the leaves. There it “ends” with a huge, up to one and a half meters, inflorescence, consisting of large quantity small single flowers, painted in pale yellow and greenish tones. Among them there are both bisexual and heterosexual flowers. Banana blossoms are a magnificent spectacle, lasting two or even three months.
The fruits are set after pollination of the largest, female flowers and are located in their place, forming a kind of brush called bancha. The ripened single fruit has an elongated bean-shaped shape and reaches a length of 3 to 40 cm.
Location and lighting
Banana loves bright rooms, is not afraid of direct rays of the sun, and also needs long daylight hours. In winter it needs lighting.
Temperature
Banana is a heat-loving plant. The optimal air temperature for the full development of bananas is considered to be between 24-30 degrees. It is important that the temperature does not fall below 16 degrees.
Air humidity
Banana does not tolerate dry air, reacting to it by losing its shine and drying out the leaves. For additional moisture, the plant is sprayed daily, and the banana pot is placed in a tray filled with wet expanded clay. It is important that the bottom of the pot does not touch the water. For the purpose of hydration and hygiene, the leaves of the plant are wiped with a damp soft cloth or give the flower a warm shower.
Watering
Bananas need not only moist air, but also abundant watering, this is especially true in spring and summer. In the fall, watering is reduced, and by winter it is completely reduced to a minimum. Only settled water is suitable for irrigation room temperature or slightly higher.
The soil
The optimal soil composition for growing bananas is a mixture of turf, humus, leaf soil and sand in a ratio of 2:2:2:1.
Feeding and fertilizers
Like most plants, bananas are fed using liquid mineral fertilizers, intended for indoor plants. Feeding is carried out twice a month, starting in April and ending at the end of September.
Transfer
Bananas grow rapidly, so they need to be replanted periodically. It is better to do this in the spring, choosing a more spacious pot. A layer of drainage must be poured onto the bottom of the container.
When replanting a banana, it is always buried deeper than the previous time. This is done in order to stimulate the emergence of new roots.
Bananas are usually propagated by suckers, division of rhizomes, and some species by seeds.
Reproduction using seeds is quite labor-intensive. The hard shell, reminiscent of a nut shell, is a serious and sometimes insurmountable obstacle to a delicate sprout. Therefore, 2-3 days before sowing, the seeds are placed warm water, and then scarified (filed). Sowing is carried out in a moist substrate composed of equal quantities of leaf soil, peat, sand and charcoal. The depth of planting seeds should be equal to their size.
Greenhouse conditions are created for seedlings by covering the container with glass or transparent film and placing it in a warm place with a temperature of 24-26 degrees. The crops are ventilated and sprayed daily. You will have to wait at least a month for germination, sometimes even two. Picking is carried out after the seedlings get stronger and produce 2-3 leaves. Young plants grow rapidly.
Vegetative propagation is carried out by root suckers. It is very convenient to propagate a banana in this way during transplantation, separating cuttings from an adult plant, making a cut on the rhizome. The cut areas are sprinkled with coal. The root shoot is placed in a separate container filled with a mixture of equal quantities of leaf, peat soil and sand.
Diseases and pests
Overwatering can lead to root rot and leaf spots. At home, it is possible to damage a banana spider mite, thrips, scale insects, mealybugs.
Compared to wild plants, they are more modest in size, beautiful flowers and leaves, for which they are grown.
Velvet banana- rises one and a half meters above the ground and has spectacular bright flowers yellow color with scarlet wrappers or bracts. The bracts gradually bend outward, curling into a tube. This species has velvety fruits, which gives it its name.
Banana lavender valued for its beautiful lavender, pink or orange inflorescences.
Banana bright red does not exceed a meter in height, and has bright flower with a scarlet wrapper, effectively set off by green foliage.
Banana - care and mistakes when growing (video)
Bananas have long ceased to be available to domestic buyers. exotic fruit, they are so democratic and accessible. Let's take a closer look at how correct it is to call bananas a fruit, how they grow, and what types there are.
What kind of plant is this?
A banana is a herbaceous plant on which the fruits of the same name ripen. Even though the plant looks like a tree, it is a grass. Moreover, it is quite tall, the second tallest after bamboo.
Banana grass is called because of the absence of wood on the above-ground part of the plant. In fact, the trunk (it would be more correct to say “false trunk”) is formed by the leaves superimposed on each other. It is not surprising that in this case it does not have growth rings and branches. Over time, the banana leaves that form the trunk dry out and become brown tint and more and more, indeed, resemble a trunk.
The herb belongs to the banana family, genus banana. It has branched rhizomes that spread over a distance of up to 5 m and can go 1-1.5 m deep into the soil. The banana is often called a tree because of its high false trunk, which reaches 2-12 m and has a diameter of up to 40 cm.
The banana also boasts impressively sized leaves - they reach 3 m in length and 1 m in width. These are “ovals” with a pronounced longitudinal vein and many thinner veins extending from it.
By the way, during a strong wind, the leaves tear along the veins, which reduces the pressure on them and eliminates the threat of the plant being torn out of the ground by a strong gust of wind.
Leaf color can vary significantly depending on the plant variety. There is grass with dark and light green leaves, sometimes with purple spots on top of the green color. There are varieties that are characterized by two-color leaves - they are crimson below and bright green above.
These huge leaves outside have a waxy coating, which prevents excessive evaporation of moisture from the leaves. As they age, the leaves fall off, and in their place new ones appear from the axils of the trunk. On average, it takes a week for a new leaf to develop.
The plant is often called banana palm, which is due to some external similarity of plants. However, such a classification is erroneous - the banana has nothing in common with palm trees.
The banana grows in areas with a tropical and subtropical climate. The world's largest suppliers of bananas are Pakistan, India, China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Brazil. Under natural conditions, it is possible to grow the crop near Sochi, but winter temperatures here are still too low for it.
Today, about 70 varieties of bananas are known, all of them can be classified into one of three groups.
Decorative
These plants are cultivated not for their fruits (they are inedible), but for their attractive appearance, especially during the flowering period. In addition, leaves and elements of the false trunk are used in industry - they are used to make car seats, fishing gear.
Among the most famous ornamental varieties are the following:
- "Banana pointed" has beautiful dark green leaves with serrations, due to which the leaf resembles a bird’s feather, bears fruit in warm climates, the fruits can be eaten;
- "Blue Burmese Banana" It has an attractive purple-green trunk with a silver coating, rich green leaves and fruits with purple or blue skin.
Plantano
Bananas of this variety grow large and are suitable for eating, but usually require heat treatment. Such fruits are fried, baked, deep-fried, dipped in batter. By the way, it is from these varieties of bananas that banana chips are made.
Since platano fruits are quite dense, they are subjected to heat treatment, but the ripe peel can be eaten fresh. To do this, you should choose sycamore with black peel.
Unlike dessert bananas, platanos have denser, unsweetened flesh and a dense skin. In addition to being eaten, they are grown as livestock feed.
In turn, bananas of the platano variety are divided into 4 groups - French, French carob, false carob and carob.
Dessert
Bananas are well known in our country and can most often be found on store shelves in fruit departments. They are consumed fresh, but the pulp of such bananas can also be dried and dried.
Among the most famous dessert varieties are “Paradise”, “Gros Michel”, “Ice Cream”. Miniature bananas are the “Lady Fingers” variety (fruit length is 10-12 cm).
How does it bloom and bear fruit?
The plant is demanding temperature conditions. The optimal daytime temperature ranges from +27-35C, and the night temperature should not fall below +25-28C. Even a short-term cold snap can provoke not only the falling of inflorescences, but also the death of the entire plant.
Similar Negative consequences may also cause a decrease in humidity levels. This may cause the banana to stop growing.
Optimal soils are fertile and slightly acidic. Special attention focused on weed control, for which they use special compounds, resort to mulching the soil and the help of geese. These poultry actively eat weeds, but are indifferent to bananas.
The grass blooms after 8-10 months active growth. By this period, a peduncle emerges from the tuber, which is located underground, and passes through the entire trunk. By the flowering phase, it throws out a peduncle that is complex in structure, externally similar to a large bud. The color is purple, sometimes greenish.
Flowers form in the lower part of the “bud”. They are located in several tiers. At the top are the largest, female flowers, the second tier are smaller bisexual ones, and at the very bottom are male flowers having the smallest dimensions.
Despite the difference in size, all flowers have the same structure and include 3 tubular petals and sepals. In addition, there are erect and drooping inflorescences, which depends on the banana variety.
Pollination of female flowers occurs through insects, and this process does not stop even at night, since pollination is carried out in the dark the bats. There are no problems attracting insects, birds, and pollinating mice to banana inflorescences - their nectar is very sweet and aromatic. Over time, when the ovary is formed from the inflorescences, the “bud” begins to outwardly resemble a hand with many fingers.
As they ripen, the “fingers” turn into the well-known slightly elongated fruit with yellow skin. However, at first it is green, but turns yellow as it ripens. Size and appearance fruits vary and depend on the variety. During the ripening process, the pulp also changes - it acquires a creamy hue, softness, and juiciness.
From a botanical point of view, the fruits of the banana plant are berries. This is due to the fact that inside the pulp there are seeds arranged in a random or ordered manner. There are no seeds in cultivated fruits, while they are easy to detect in wild ones. However, if you cut the flesh of a cultivated banana lengthwise, you will find small dark spots - these are the seeds.
One inflorescence can produce up to 700 bananas, the total weight of which can reach 70-80 kg. After the fruiting period is completed and the plant is harvested, the false trunk dies off, in the place of which a new one will then appear.
On average, 16-19 months pass from planting to harvest. During the fruiting period, the trunk of the plant is strengthened with supports so that it does not break under the weight of the harvest. Harvesting begins when bananas are 75% ripe. They are cooled and transported. To preserve the freshness of fruits it is necessary special conditions– a gas-air chamber with a temperature not higher than +14C. Under such conditions, bananas can retain their freshness and properties for up to 50 days.
How does it reproduce?
In conditions wildlife Banana propagation is carried out using seeds. They are carried over long distances by animals that live nearby and eat bananas.
Because the cultivated plants do not have seeds (their presence in ancient times is indicated only by dark spots, which can be found on a cut of the pulp), their reproduction in this way is impossible. In this case, they resort to vegetative propagation.
If we talk about propagation at home, this is done by vegetation or using seeds. However, contrary to some sources, You cannot grow a banana “tree” from the seed of a purchased banana. For this you will need varietal seeds. They have a thick skin, so first they are lightly rubbed and crushed so that the sprout can break through the skin, and then soaked in water.
Dwarf species for growing at home
For cultivation at home, you should choose decorative mini-trees. It should be understood that even dwarf varieties reach a height of 1.5-2.5 m. Unlike wild and plantation-grown “relatives”, this, of course, is not much. But in small apartment such plants can hardly be considered “dwarf”.
Dwarf bananas are good to grow in a greenhouse, winter garden, while the shorter super-dwarf ones are suitable for a house or apartment.
At home, bananas are planted, which produce a harvest, while the height of the false trunk reaches 2-2.5 m.
- "Dwarf Cavendish." A compact plant that grows up to 1.5-2 m. When the right conditions are created, it will delight you with a harvest of dessert bananas, each 12-25 cm long. The fruits have a familiar appearance to everyone - a bright yellow skin with dark spots. There is another variety of the variety - “Superdwarf Cavendish”.
- "Kyiv dwarf" Another cold-hardy variety that produces edible fruit. The height of the plant reaches 1.7 m, and if this seems excessive to you, pay attention to the related variety “Superdwarf”. The height of the latter is no more than 1 m.
Decorative varieties do not produce edible fruits, but they also grow slightly smaller than the described varieties - on average their height is 1-1.5 m. These include several varieties.
- "Velvety". The plant forms a false trunk 1.5 m high and 7 cm in diameter. The leaves are deep green in color, have a red edge, and are elongated. The velvety banana blooms literally all year round; this period can last for several months. The inflorescences are replaced by small fruits, which acquire a pinkish skin as they ripen. During the period of technical maturity, the peel opens, revealing creamy pulp with seeds. This variety can survive short-term drops in temperature.
Among the varieties popular for home grown, can also be called “Dwarf bloody banana”, which received a similar name due to the color of the leaves - their upper part is traditionally green, the lower part is purple.
Among the miniature varieties, we can distinguish those plants that have interesting view leaves and those that are especially attractive during flowering and fruiting. The latter include the “Pink Velvet” variety. The plant is distinguished by its short growth (1.2-1.5 m) and beautiful pink inflorescences and fruits. The latter are very aromatic, but contain a lot of seeds and are unpleasant to the taste.
The “Scarlet Banana” variety also demonstrates special beauty during flowering. The combination of bright green narrowed leaves and fragrant scarlet inflorescences will leave few people indifferent.
The plant of the “Manna” variety also produces beautiful scarlet inflorescences, while the height of the “tree” does not exceed 1.2 m.
You can choose not dwarf varieties, but ordinary, but very slow-growing ones. For example, “Banana yellow.” It pleases with attractive yellow inflorescences that do not fall off for several months. But it is unlikely that you will be able to get a harvest; it is too difficult to recreate suitable conditions in a private house or apartment.
You can use seeds to grow at home. Unlike the vegetative method, the plant obtained in this way will be more resilient and strong, but its growth will take more time, and it will not be possible to grow edible fruits.
If you want to grow edible fruits, pay attention to the vegetative method of plant propagation. To do this, after the banana trunk dies, you should remove the “bud” from the ground, from which a new sprout will develop, and divide it into 2 parts. One part is sent to the old place of growth, the second is rooted in a new pot.
You can see how to grow bananas at home in the following video.