Banana trees

It's a fruit and they call it a tree.
I grew a dwarf Cavendish from seed....
In Beaumont Ca.
Question.... what tricks to get it to flower?

That’s interesting! For some reason I thought they were a sterile hybrid. I’m in MO, so I haven’t had much reason to research them.

I wish I could find an edible banana that would grow here..

According to grow zones I kind of squeak by.... thing grows like a weed..  Just need to keep the rhizome from freezing in bad winters ....  All I have read so far... lots of water ..and mulch...time will tell.

Aloha David!

First, a small correction. Although people call it a banana tree, it's not truly a tree. Just so you're aware of that. So expect the "tree" to die once it produces a bunch of bananas. But don't worry, it should have already sent up a replacement sucker before it dies back.

Here in Hawaii, the bananas grown for eating don't produce seeds. Thus we propagate them from suckers. There are plenty of banana varieties that do produce seeds, but because the seed dominates the fruit, they are only grown as ornamentals. Occasionally I've heard of someone finding a seed in their edible banana, but I haven't found one in my own bananas on my farm. I've got hundreds of banana trees growing here.

How long will it take before your banana flowers? I really don't know because I've never grown one from seed. When I transplant a partially grown sucker, it takes around 12 months. A lot depends upon the amount of water and nutrients the tree gets, what the air and ground temperature is, and the humidity. When conditions aren't ideal, I've seen trees sit there for a few years before flowering. Once it flowers, it takes my trees 3-4 months before I can harvest the bunch.

Ditto what Su Ba said, at least 12 months, I've heard that most bananas need an 18 month growing 'cycle' to produce fruit and that would make sense that they would flower around the 12 month point.

Are you 100% sure about the Dwarf Cav id? I've never seen seeds in them either, although it is possible if there is a pollen source somewhere around. Doesn't usually happen in clonal banana monocultures.

Time is the answer to the fruit. In the tropics they fruit in 12-14 months, often 18 months in the subtropics, and here in temperate New Zealand sometimes it can take as long as 3 years (unless they are treated very well). Dwarf Cav needs a more constant temperature range than many bananas, they don't like it too hot or too cold. I saw the fruit cooked before harvest in a heatwave in Australia, and I've also seen this cv. burned to the ground by frost while other banana cultivars only had superficial damage, so it may not be the best cv. in a marginal area.

Ken W Wilson wrote:

I wish I could find an edible banana that would grow here..

I've read about a guy who grows bananas in cooler climates without a greenhouse. He makes a kind of insulation in each banana banana tree.
He chooses a plant variety that will fruit early, twelve months or less. Then plant it in early spring. Before winter comes he  puts a cylinder of chicken wire wider than the trunk around it. Then fills the space between the trunk and the wire with dry leaves.
Next spring he takes the whole things out.

We had luck a couple years ago .
We made several loafs of banana nut bread.

Nepal can be cold in the mountains, but I was amazed to find bananas relatively high on the hills...

Su Ba: Are you getting much fallout? I lived in Oceanview Estates once and heard the weather changed after I moved to the mainland in '82. Are they getting enough rain? Is the air polluted by ash?