Phil Long wrote:
I have a banana plant grown from seed that is now about 7ft tall.
Over the summer it grew well producing several large leaves. It now
appears to have stopped growing and looks rather unsightly with a
bare stem and three yellowing leaves at the top. It is presently in
a heated conservatory but I am considering hiding it away in the
greenhouse and hoping it will survive the winter.

I have been told that I could cut the stem at the base and new growth
will appear next spring. This seems rather too good to be true!
Does anyone have any experience of this? Also would it survive if it
was planted outside? I live in the Midlands.

Phil


You can take a bread knife to it and cut it down as hard as you like it will
regrow quite happily. The "stem" is not a true stem but is the bases of old
leaves growing from the centre the proto(?) stem is in the basal area and
only grows when the plant wishes to flower.


Outside? Depends on variety. Do you know?

pk