Where to plant a banana in your yard? Bananas can grow in full sun to shade. If they are grown in full sun, they should receive more water than if grown in 50-80% shade as the sun will suck the moisture out and the leaves and they will fold down during the hottest part of the day.Keep in mind that the sun's hot rays can sometimes burn the leaves of full-sun grown bananas. If you wish to keep your banana plants looking excellent at all times, I recommend growing them in about 35-50% shade. They will not grow as fast in shade and will take longer to bear fruit but they will always look perky, pretty and very healthy.
Water: They do like water but do not like standing water make sure that the soil the plants are living is well draining. I recommend using a water meter the first year. Bananas love to be mulched: The mulch holds in moisture and while it decays, creates added nutrients for your plants. Since bananas are heavy feeders and drinkers, it is important to keep a continual supply of food for them. If you have Oak trees (or if your neighbor does), place as many dead leaves as you can around the base of your planted banana plant. The acidic levels in oak leaves produce an excellent food source and also act as mulch. The more biodegradable composting components around the base of your banana, the better.
Fertilizing: Bananas are heavy feeders but always make sure that you place the right amount (see label of fertilizer for measuring) and sprinkle it about 1-3 feet away from base of banana. About where the end of the leaves are is best for an established plant.
Winter protection:For the Cold hardy varieties.Bananas are a bit more cold tolerant than some people admit and even though they do not do well in a frost/freeze, it will not kill the plant unless the weather stays too cold for too long and the ground freezes. Some bananas are not as tolerant as others but there are a few sweet fruit producers that will easily take quite cold temperatures during the winter and come right back when the weather warms up again. If you live in an area that will freeze you will need to keep the ground from freezing, you should mulch heavily around the base of the plants. After the first hard frost cut them (the banana) down to about one foot in height and for larger more mature plants cut the dead material off usually about 3 feet high, spray the stumps (stem) with a fungicide and cover the corm (main root base) with a thick layer of soil. Then cover the mound of soil and any of the stem still out in the open with a thick layer decorative bark or some other type of dry mulch like straw or leaves. Then cover the dry mulch with a large plastic bucket, tarp or water resistant covering to keep the mulch dry. In more moderate climates where the ground does not freeze in the winter you may only have to cut back the dead material and the mulch may not be necessary. Keep in mind this is for the Cold Hardy varieties of bananas.
Soil and planting: They do prefer a more acidic soil. Banana roots like to grow outward more than deep, so keep this in mind. Plant in an area based on the size of your banana’s species and give it enough space for the leaves to spread out. Most bananas will grow to about 12 feet wide in leaf spans counting full diameter. Some species are smaller and some are larger. are not salt tolerant in general and should not be grown in salty beach sand You will need to mix top soil (potting soil) 50 / 50 with a sand & small gravel mix and have the root ball raised about 1/4 out of the hole but mounded up with the soil mixture.
Containers: If you are planning on keeping your banana in a container, I recommend a container as large as possible.
