We cut the Banana!

Well - I have made a few references and a post about the Banana tree (see that here).  Once a banana produces fruit the tree dies and must be cut.  Before it produces fruit, it grows a baby banana next to it!  Its a great circle of life and a beautiful houseplant, but I HATE the cutting of the tree - even though it is dying - it just seems wrong somehow!

Here are the little bananas on the top of the tree - there are about 8 of them on there.  Turns out we seem to have a Musa Basjoo Banana - which is really a decorative banana or a fiber banana - not an edible banana!  Dammit!

This is what they looked like at first - then they turned black all over and fell off the tree - that was a few weeks ago.

Here are both the old tree and the new "baby" tree - not such a baby anymore!  The only way to tell the two apart is the old tree (left) has a very brown trunk and the new tree trunk (right) is very green!

Here is a closer photo and you can see the color differences more easily!  This photo also shows that lemon tree behind the banana tree and it currently has a lemon on it!  We will be a One Lemon Farm thisyear but that is better than none!

We cut it off - it was very easy - used a hacksaw with a fine tooth blade.  The trunk cut through almost like cutting a banana - really soft and moist.

The old banana tree on the porch ready to go to the compost pile - it looks very small in this photo - but it didn't seem like it before we cut it.  It will make a good addition to the compost I think - add that fiber into the garden!

Here is the new banana tree in a new (bigger) pot and it has shot up to the ceiling!  If you look at the top leaf of the photo, you can see that I had to roll up a piece of paper and put it into the new leaf that was trying to push through the ceiling!  The idea is that when the leaf unfurls the paper will just drop out harmlessly and keep the plant and the ceiling safe!  We were worried that this would happen if we repotted it but the old soil was done for and we had to change it out.

 I hope that you have room for a banana tree and can get one for your own!  This one came from Farmers Seed catalog about 6 years ago.  Maybe see if you can get one that actually produces edible bananas, but it sure is a fun plant and a great learning experience for all of us!