Scientific Name:
Musa sp.Product Details:
Plants are too large to ship with leaves, so we are sending a 1 ½ to 3 foot tall pseudostem (trunk) and corm. Plants will be unaffected by this and will continue to grow well after being replanted.
Musa sp. '1780'- The '1780' is almost certainly a Cavendish with very tasty, edible fruit. The importance of this plant is that its origin can be traced back to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola in 1780 from which it was shipped to Laura Plantation (40 miles up the Mississippi River above New Orleans, Louisiana) where it has grown continuously in a mat since 1780, hence the name. The Spanish almost certainly collected its progenitors in Southeast Asia and brought them to Spanish lands (possibly the Canary Islands) and from there to Hispaniola. There are probably not too many mats of bananas whose provenance can be traced back more than 230 years. Grows 9 to 12 feet tall. Full sun.
Banana leaves, pseudostem (trunk) and fruiting stem (raceme) grow from the underground rhizome (or pseudobulb's) top surface and the roots grow from the lower surface of the rhizome. The fleshy stems sheathed with huge broad leaves can grow from 2 to 35 feet in as little as 1 year, depending on variety and growing environment. Each pseudostem produces one flower cluster, which develops fruit, then dies. In addition each parent banana plant during its life cycle, will produce as many as 10 suckers which grow into new plants. New pseudostems then grow from the rhizome.
Bananas grow best in a uniformly warm environment and need 9 to 15 months of frost-free conditions to produce a flower stalk. In the subtropics, fruit ripens in 2-3 months. In cooler climates it may take several weeks longer to ripen. Plant growth stops when temperatures drop to 57°F. Stokes Tropicals' Banana Blend (6-2-12) is the best fertilizer source for thest fascinating tropical giants.