Going Bananas?!?! We sure hope so!

Most people fear a simple and self-sufficient lifestyle because their mind immediately labels it as a tremendous sacrifice to their existing quality of life. I once had someone tell me they weren't interested in wearing pants made out of potato sacks and eating peat moss sandwiches for lunch. That is certainly an extreme example but the best way to get anyone to try something new is to show them that it can be fun and result in something they really love. We love bananas!! We eat them every day with peanut butter so at breakfast one morning I was hit with a crazy idea. We should try to grow our bananas! Why not, it fits perfectly into our self-sufficent journey and could possibly result in plentiful amounts of one of our favorite fruits. So I found a website online (www.banana-tree.com) and for $35 including shipping, ordered two banana rhizomes. The types of bananas we ordered were Goldfinger and Ice Cream.
NOTE: Read the website return policy very thoroughly prior to ordering. They may only warranty the purchase price but do make sure you know what your options are if you pay $15 for something that never sprouts a single leaf. The site above has no contact phone number but it can be found on the shipping form in the box. Also, the "Contact Us" form on the website appears to be broken or at a minimum, poorly designed.

Less than ten days later from ordering...

Wow it was exciting when this arrived at our door!

Best Case Scenario for this Project

Of course we planted them immediately not only per the instructions but out of sheer excitement. Here are the rhizomes prior to being planted.

Goldfinger

Ice Cream

For educational purposes, here are the instructions that were included with the rhizomes:

INSTRUCTIONS for growing the rooted banana rhizomes of: Thousand fingers, Monkey fingers, Cavendish dwarf, Goldfinger, Ice Cream etc..
As stated on the website, we ship rooted rhizomes and the leaves have been cut off prior to shipping.
Do not start with a large container. Start with a standard 6" or 8" size container that has a drainage hole. Your soil should be an all purpose soil MIXTURE that allows the water to flow through the soil fairly easy and we strongly urge you to add 20% Perlite (or coarse sand) to your soil mixture. This will assure that your soil will drain easily. Do not use heavy dirt such as is found in a yard and avoid standard type potting soil as it is too heavy. Heavy soils will hold water and cause your bulb to rot.

Plant with the stem upright and water thorougly. In future watering we suggest that you allow the top 3/4" of soil to become very dry before watering thoroughly. You can fertilize lightly with each watering using a balanced fertilizer as long as you are seeing active growth. Do not fertilize if you are not seeing active growth. An ideal temperature is 69 F or higher with humidity at 60% or higher and a night time temperature of 65 F or higher. Avoid hot dry air. Twelve hours of bright light daily is a norm in most tropics. Many indoor growers of tropical plants use additional lighting to compensate for the lack of sun (especially on those cloudy winter days).

Allow your plant to become quite crowded before transplanting to the next larger size container. It is normal to lose lower leaves. Newer leaves are constantly being born. Inspect the underside of your leaves frequently to be sure that your plant does not pick up spider mites. WE DO NOT REPLACE RHIZOMES THAT YOU ARE UNABLE TO GROW. Our online catalog is at www.banana-tree.com

I felt pretty positive about us meeting the requirements to grow these. Living in Florida (USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 9) certainly meets the temperature and humidity requirements. We also had magical "Mel's Mix" soil left over from the square foot gardens. This mix is 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. We planted both rhizomes in 8 inch pots that had drainage holes and marked them tracking purposes.

Our Finished Product - Now Bring on the Sun and Humidity (and cross fingers)

We will keep you posted on our progress....

UPDATE: Ok, so it has been a while since I posted but I have been busy! I am pleased to announce that the Goldfinger banana is doing great. Unfortunately, the Ice Cream Banana is D.O.A. and I was unable to get a replacement from www.banana-tree.com. I contacted there customer support on several occasions and received no response. I have since found Ice Cream banana plants on E-Bay for half the price so I will be placing another order soon. Here is a current picture:

And a close up of the Goldfinger taken on 09/01/11: