Worth knowing:
The fast-growing Snow Banana is the strongest specimen of the Ensente family, but by far not as famous as other species. It grows a strong and wax-like, green-blue coloured pseudo-stem that can reach a height of 3 m to 3,50 m, whereas the long leaves of the plant can become 2 m to 2,50 m tall. It grows as rapidly as it can become one meter tall in just about four months. In English-speaking areas the Ensente glaucum is called Snow Banana, and initially it was believed to be as strong as the Musa Basjoo. The seeds come most likely from Yunnan, where it grows in heights of up to 2700 meters above sea level. The Snow Banana resembles the Ensente Ventricosum, with a thick bluey stem, slightly white on the surface - but it grows a bit smaller and develops impressive large leaves. Its dispersal area stretches from Yunnan, Tibet and North East India to Thailand and until New Guinea, while its winter hardiness is quite variable. Therefore, it is imperative to know for cultivation from where the seeds came from. seeds from the high mountain area of Yunnan are definitely the best choice! The Snow Banana doesn’t produce any eatable fruits and you will likely not see any fructification at all. The Ensente species also usually doesn’t develop any layers - only in rare cases it happens spontaneously. If the pseudo-stem freezes off all the way to the ground, the plant will most certainly die. However, a Musa plant is always be preferable to an Ensente species since it is more likely to regenerate after frost and produce new layers.
Natural Location:
The natural habitat of the Snow Banana is in Nepal, China and Indonesia. There, it grows in heights of 800 to 2000 meters above sea level.
Cultivation:
Seed propagation indoors is possible throughout the year. To increase the germinability, you should slightly roughen the hard seed with a piece of sandpaper and place it for about 24 hours in warm water for priming. After that, plant the seeds about 1 cm deep into moist potting compost. At a temperature between 22° and 25° Celsius the germination will take three to six weeks.
Place:
Banana plants prefer bright and sunny places, ideally in a wind-protected spot.
Care:
Tub plants have to be kept in a rather big pot right away since it will need already with three years of age a large tub of 60 to 70 litres. For outdoor plants you have to fill up a huge hole with humus-rich earth before planting the Snow Banana. From May until the end of September you may give fertilizer for tub plants every 10 days. Depending on the way of cultivation, the Snow Banana may even produce fruits, but they are not good to eat.
During the winter:
The Snow Banana can hibernate outdoors. For that you may cut all the leaves in late autumn. The pseudo-stem is to be cut straight at a height of 20 cm above ground and has to be covered with jute-fleece or coconut-matting. After that, you put a plastic pot over it and earth up the soil. Inside a greenhouse the Snow Banana can hibernate at a temperature of 10° to 12°Celsius - only the leaves have to be cut off. In late spring the plant will sprout again next to the left-over stem. To let the Snow Banana hibernate outdoors is only advisable in special climate areas, for example in the Tessin region. The best and safest way to bring your plant through the winter is by digging it up, cutting off the leaves and just keep the naked pseudo-stem with its rooting in a dry and frost-free place with a temperature around 5°Celsius. Don’t cut the stem since the plant will not regenerate otherwise. In spring the Snow Banana can be planted out and will sprout again.
Picture credits:
- © © Ranulf Bennet - About © : Contact SAFLAX - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Frank Laue - © Saflax - http://www.saflax.de/copyright
- © Les Serres Fortier - CC-BY-2.0 - http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
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