Indoor banana (banana palm) - home care

The ability to have an exotic plant at home attracts people. Palm trees, lemons, nuts adorn apartments and delight the eyes of exotic lovers. The article describes how to grow indoor banana at home, on the street. Photos will allow you to navigate in the process of choosing, leaving, propagating a plant.

What does an indoor banana look like, which family does it belong to?

The homeland of the banana is Southeast Asia. In nature, the height of the trunk reaches 12 meters. Of course, such a giant is not suitable for a home. Therefore, dwarf varieties up to 2 meters high are placed in the apartment. This raises the question: is the banana tree a tree or a grass?

Dwarf varieties

Features of the plant:

• height 1.5-2 meters;
• leaves in full length up to 2 meters, with a width of up to 50 centimeters;
• the trunk of a plant is formed by a dense overlap of the base of the leaves on top of each other and is a pseudostem;
• the trunk simultaneously serves as a root system and is underground;
• indoor banana releases a flower from a pseudostem, immediately dying off after fruiting.

The tree lives for about 5-6 years.

The berry is widely used in medicine. It is used for cholelithiasis, liver and gastrointestinal tract diseases. It has an enveloping effect, which is useful for stomach and duodenal ulcers, in case of exacerbation. Fiber helps improve digestion. Potassium contained in fruits has a beneficial effect on the work of the heart.

Initially, bananas only grew in the tropics. At the beginning of the 15th century, Portuguese sailors brought them to Europe from Africa. Having started to multiply them in the Canary Islands, they gradually developed cold-resistant varieties that spread all over the world. Since the 16th century, bananas have become popular in the Caribbean and Central America.

Features of caring for a banana indoor home

At home, fruits grow only if the plant is carefully looked after.

Temperature

The tropical native loves the heat. High temperature is vital for him - it should be above room temperature - 25-30 ° C, without dropping below 15 ° C. Low temperatures slow down growth and promote disease.

Considering that this is a southern plant, a lot of sun is needed. For indoor banana, when leaving at home, windows from the south or east side are suitable. On cloudy days and in winter, backlighting is required. The quality of lighting is directly related to the green mass gain. In poor light, the growth of the grass slows down, the fruits cease to set, that is, it will not bear fruit.

Additional illumination

Watering and humidity

Watering is recommended infrequently, but abundantly, in order to wet the entire ground. Indicator - drying of the upper crust of the earth by 1-2 centimeters. If the water is taken from the tap, then it is imperative to stand for the evaporation of chlorine. Sometimes, instead of watering, you can arrange a warm shower, as in the tropics.

The leaves are sprayed daily in the summer. In winter, once a week is enough.

The plant is recommended to have a moisture content of over 65%. It is difficult to organize it at home, so daily wet wiping of the leaves is necessary. High humidity and sunshine are the main ingredients for successful cultivation.

Priming

The soil requires periodic loosening for air access to the roots and the destruction of the soil crust. Topsoil, taken from near linden, hazel, birch or acacia, is suitable. By adding sand, wood ash and humus, the composition is mixed and ignited. Drainage, sand and only then soil are laid out on the bottom of the dishes. The soil should be loose, with a neutral PH.

Top dressing

You need to feed it regularly. For this, organic substances are suitable - vermicompost or herb infusion. Organics are supplemented with universal mineral fertilizers. A fed plant needs darkening for a day.

How to grow outdoors, where and under what conditions it is possible

Low temperatures in open ground are not tolerated by all types of home bananas. For example, thermophilic Ecuadorian species will definitely not grow here. But adapted cold-resistant species can be grown in the subtropics. In our country, this is the region of Sochi and Crimea.

Banana palm Basio - its planting and care in the open field is typical throughout Japan and the Black Sea region. Its cold resistance is also used by European gardeners, growing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. In case of frosts and negative temperatures, the plant is additionally insulated. The ground around the root should not freeze.

Palm Basio blossomed in Crimea

When and how it blooms

With good care, the indoor banana tree blooms in the third year of life. Already in the middle of summer, it can throw an arrow among the leaves in the form of an umbrella. By this time, the plant should have 16-17 leaves. A large panicle of inflorescence with green or brownish flowers emerges from the upper leaf in the shape of a heart. As it blooms, the panicle grows and hangs down. Panicle growth can take up to 2-3 months.

Indoor banana flowers are heterosexual. Pollination of females gives "bunchu" - a cluster of fruits similar to beans. Over time, the leaves fall off.

How to propagate indoor banana

Dwarf bananas are usually propagated by seeds, babies, or vegetatively. Each of them has its own characteristics.

Seeds

If you wish, you can get the seeds yourself:

1. wrap the yellow banana in plastic wrap until the peel is completely darkened and the fruit softens;
2. peel the fruit and cut it lengthwise without touching the core;
3. remove the seeds and lay out on paper, napkin;
4. select full seeds, and discard flat ones;
5. rinse seeds from pulp;
6. pour water for 2-3 days;
7. rinse again and dry well.

Seeds germinate in sphagnum moss or coconut fiber. This material is purchased in special stores, after which it is steamed with steam, mixed with perlite, spilled with a weak solution of potassium permanganate. An alternative is a 3/1 mixture of peat and sand.

For germination, a drainage material is placed in the container, with a substrate on top, 5-6 cm thick. The seed shell is broken by scratching or notching. The container must be covered with polyethylene to create a greenhouse effect. Daytime temperatures can reach 33 ° C, nighttime temperatures - 20-25 ° C. Germination is a long procedure, up to 2-3 months.

Children

Varietal indoor plants bananas are grown only from root shoots, dividing the rhizome into parts. With this reproduction, all the qualities of the mother plant are preserved.

Reproduction from root shoots

Vegetatively

Cultivars also propagate vegetatively from an adult plant. This can speed up the ripening process, and as a result, the fruits will grow in 2 years.

Transplant: when it is necessary, how to carry it out correctly

When purchasing a seedling in a store, or growing it yourself, you need to pay attention to the need to transplant the grass as it grows and the root system grows. In the store, the plants are sold in tiny pots, so they need to be transplanted within a week. In this case, you should inspect the roots and stem for the presence of pests, insect larvae.

Under favorable conditions, it may take up to several transplants per year. Roots protruding above the ground will be an indicator for transplanting. When planting in a new pot, it is necessary to make good drainage - stagnant water can destroy the roots.

The next container for transplantation should be 3-4 centimeters larger than the previous one. When replanting a banana, it is necessary to deepen it for the formation of adventitious roots. Mature plants require renewal of the topsoil. It is better to transplant the plant by the transshipment method in order to avoid damage to the root system.

Possible problems in growing indoor banana

Given the exotic nature of the plant and its inability to adapt to our conditions, characteristic problems arise.

Leaves wither

Here is some of them:

• The grass sheds its leaves. This is usually due to a lack of nutrients. It is necessary to carry out planned and unscheduled feeding, and then change the pot to a larger one.
• The tips of the leaves begin to dry out. This is due to low humidity. It is necessary to increase the frequency of spraying and wet wiping of leaves. If necessary, the total humidity of the room increases. For this, a humidifier is installed or an open container with water is placed next to it.
• The lower leaves fall off. This is usually due to hypothermia or being in a draft. It is recommended to move away from a cold window or increase the temperature.
• The appearance of pests. Often affected by spider mites and thrips. When they appear, the leaves are treated with an insecticide.

Palm tree in the garden of a private house

• Mucous rot of the stem indicates waterlogging in the cold period. To combat this phenomenon, it is necessary to reduce watering, remove rotten parts of the grass, treat the plant with a fungicide.
• Small and pale foliage indicates a lack of lighting. This usually happens during the winter. Corrected by placing the plant in a more sunny area or increasing artificial lighting.
• There is no growth in spring. The grass lacks nutrition, so additional feeding is necessary.
• The bottom of the stem darkens and becomes soft. This is a formidable sign of plant disease. Waterlogging of the soil and stagnant water leads to rotting of the base of the stem.

Growing an indoor banana is a very troublesome business. However, the banana tree is a house plant. Efforts will be rewarded with the surprise of friends and acquaintances with such an exotic object. In the Black Sea regions, cold-resistant varieties can be placed right on the street so that they please not only their owner, but also those around them.

It is enough to grow this crop on your own to understand that the banana is a house plant.