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. 'Williams Hybrid'- This banana, Musa hybrid Williams Hybrid, is obviously a different much-shorter form of Williams or Giant Cavendish group of closely related cultivars. Like most of them, it has cold and wind resistance. It is also grown commercially, but in the home garden, it is a good source of excellent sweet dessert bananas. Produces large bunches of fruit.
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 these fascinating tropical giants.