Musa laterita, Bronze Banana

Musa laterita is one fine ornamental banana. Native to Indochina, it's only grown in the U.S. by a few collectors, and not very well known to the trade, garden centers, or the average gardener. It is an inedible,  joyous celebration of a plant and it's not da kine to get rid a bra, as the Hawaiians might say.

It behaves just like a typical banana, it wakes up late March here in the South, and begins growing like a banana should 1st of May.

Bananas hate wind, it can make them ragedy, they're just not made sturdy enough, but can rebound from a storm quickly.  They love heat to 90F but get droopy at 95F and any hotter they will look plum sickly.  Banana trees love rain, three times a day, every day is what they like, with good drainage of cource. They are imune to fungus, spot, and pest free here. They love grass clippings or anything organic from last year around the base. Old bales of hay work wonderfully, the older the better, and especially during droughts.

8' high 10 ' wide grove started 2 years ago with 3 small plants.

If your banana freezes in winter, let it keep the years growth. It's what it will feed on next spring and summer, so cut it slightly above the ground, pile the old growth on top of the corm and cover the unsightliness with the mulch of your choice. I use old hay spread 2'' thick everywhere except around the house. I believe it is more nutritious than pine bark, and more so readily available to the plant.

The best thing you can do for your plant is improve the ground around it. So learn of its sand, clay content, porosity, and PH. This will eventually lead you to understand that the plant benefits greatly from the grass clippings around it, so improve the health of your grass, and throw it towards your plant with the lawn mower. I am a long time plant collector, and every plant I have in the ground, loves the flavor of grass clippings.

All green things speak the same language, unlike the man who spends most of his life learning the most basic terminology. The problem is, he thinks too often he is the teacher, but in fact the student to a source all knowing. So pay attention to this fact early in your life, and you will learn all important and beautifully far ranging truths.

If you fertilize bananas with cheap triple 13 fertilizer, they will make you smile brother, but they are not picky, they do just fine with little attention in the Southeast, where it should be against the law not to have a banana tree by your porch, so when it rains, it can summon the beauty of its home in the moan-tane rainforest.  If you walk through the rain forest, in the rain cousin, you will understand.

Musa laterita will flower it's heart out for you. As soon as it achieves its full height in May, it will bloom till the temps dip below 55F in the fall, then it will get sleepy until the frost kills it to the ground, at which point, the corm rests the winter to do it all over again next spring, here in South Louisiana, zone 8b... Imagine a good and faithful soldier.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musa_laterita