1. Banana seeds have a natural dormancy that needs to be broken for germination to take place.
2. To break dormancy soak the seeds in warm water for a minimum of 2 days, changing the water at least daily.
3. Then sow in a good quality sterile compost and cover with vermiculite
4. Musa and Ensete seeds need different temperature cycles to germinate. Musa seed requires a daily cycle of around 9 hours at 30-35C, and 15 hours at 12-15C. Ensete seed requires a constant 25–30C.
5. Germination usually takes from around 6 weeks up to a year, and can be erratic with seeds from the same sowing sometimes emerging over many months.
6. Germination rates for some banana species can be low so the more banana seed to start with the better.
7. Once the seeds germinate, pot on individually into 7 cm pots initially, and then pot on again when they become root bound – bananas grow quickly!
8. Banana seeds can be sown at any time of the year as long as the temperatures cycles can be met – heated propagators or heat mats both work well in the cooler months.
9. Patience is one of the key requirements for success!
10. The above approach has worked well for us for over 20 years. Some banana enthusiasts have slightly different methods – check out the internet to find out more about these.

1. The young banana plants have spent most of their lives indoors so far, so acclimatise them slowly to life outdoors – not too much direct sun initially and bring in if the nights are below 10C.
2. Pot up your bananas when they start to get root bound using a good quality peat free multipurpose compost.
3. Bananas grow quickly during the summer, and when in active growth enjoy plenty of water and high nitrogen feed.
4. Stop feeding by the end of September so there is not too much lush new growth as winter approaches.
5. For their first winter keep your bananas under cover and frost free – the more tender varieties will need a minimum of 12C.
6. Keep on the dry side during the colder months, watering only sparingly when the compost has fully dried out.
7. In spring, when temperatures start to pick up, your bananas will start to make new growth. Only slightly step up watering at this stage until a good root system has formed again.
8. Do not move your bananas outside again too early as they can sulk and look miserable.
9. As a rule of thumb, wait until minimum night time temperatures are around 10C even for the more hardy species when they are small. This is usually in May for us, but has been as late as June in colder years.
10. For their second summer the more hardy varieties can be planted out – give them plenty of feed (e.g chicken manure pellets / horse manure) and water once they have settled in.

For the hardy varieties that will remain outdoors:

1. Unless you are in a mild microclimate where frosts are very rare and not severe, we recommend some protection for your bananas during the winter months.
2. If you are hoping to see your bananas flower and fruit, then their pseudostems will need protecting as bananas usually only fruit on older growth.
3. There are various ways to do this - wrapping the pseudostems in straw and keeping this in place with chicken wire works well.  Try and protect from excess wet whilst providing some air circulation.  Check out the internet for more ideas on the various structures that can be built!
4. If you are growing your bananas for foliage then protecting the pseudostems as above will give you extra height and a head start in spring.
5. For our hardy bananas, we just protect with a thick mulch of straw at the base. In milder winters, the pseudostems may survive, and we leave the leaves on as these provide some additional protection.
6. If the pseudostems are frosted back to the ground, new pups will still be produced in May from the corms. We find the foliage looks fresher on these new pups and the markings are more pronounced on varieties such as Red Tiger.  The new pups grow quickly and can still easily reach 3 metres  by the first frosts.

For the tender varieties, that must be kept frost free:

1. For bananas that are already in pots, overwinter ideally in a well lit spot such as a heated greenhouse or conservatory. Keep away from radiators if indoors and mist the leaves.
2. Growth will naturally slow down during the winter and ideally your banana just wants to tick over and not go totally dormant and not die back to the corm. Grow lights can help the overwintering process.
3. Make sure the pot is not too big and the compost is well aerated. Only water very sparingly when the compost has fully dried out.  We only water some of our bananas once or twice in total during the winter months, compared to once or twice a week during the summer months.
4. For the bananas that have spent the summer months planted outside such as the large Ensetes, these need to be dug up before the first proper frosts – this is end October/early November for us.
5. We cut off most of the foliage and cut back some of the roots for the larger plants so they are more manageable. We then pack them into the smallest pots possible with a small quantity of slightly moist multi-purpose compost around them.  We then leave unwatered in a well lit frost free spot such as a greenhouse or conservatory until spring when they start to make active growth again when we pot on before planting out again in May. 
6. The above method works well for us. Check out the internet for other options such as dry storing the larger plants.  This works well for some, though we found we lost more plants this way and that they were slower to get going in Spring. 

What’s the best way of contacting PlanetBanana?

Just drop us an email at planetbanana@jungleseeds.co.uk

Are you certified to sell seeds and plants in the UK?

Yes, we are certified to sell seeds and issue plant passports in the UK.

Do you ship outside of the UK? 

No, we don’t ship outside of the UK, mainly due to the negative impacts of Brexit.

Are you open for visits?

No, unfortunately we are not open for visits.

Are you peat free?

Yes, all our plants are grown peat free.

Why aren’t you stocking Musa Basjoo, Ensete ventricosum Maurelii, Musa Dwarf Cavendish or Musa Bengal Tiger plants?

These popular bananas are micropropagated in vast numbers overseas at low cost and are then widely available in the UK to buy, so should hopefully be easy to find.  As we only have limited space we are focusing  this year on bananas that are trickier to find.

Will you be stocking Ensete ventricosum ‘Montbeliardii' and Ensete ventricosum 'Hiniba' plants?

Yes, we only have large stock plants in 2024 which are not for sale.  We will be ‘sacrificing’ some of these later this year to produce small plants for next year.

When will you have any Musa AeAe available?

Very rarely!  We do have stock plants but these are very slow to produce pups – none were produced in 2023.  We have a waiting list for Musa AeAe which will take priority for any plants as and when they become available.

Will you have other Jungle style plants available in the future?

Yes, we will add to the selection we offer over the coming months, but it will remain small due to limited space (and time!).

How fresh are your banana seeds?

All our banana seeds are purchased fresh from our approved suppliers.  We only keep banana seeds for a maximum of 9 months – during this time they are stored in the appropriate environment for banana seeds.  We pick and pack all seeds to order – none are pre-packed.