[toddy]

Hi all,

I am a newbie in gardening as on this forum, and I would very much appreciate your help.
A couple of month ago my friend got me a banana plant on special buy (no label though). The plant had three stems, and I divided them into three pots. They grew fantastic and produced each another stem.
Now, as I have taken them inside for the winter, they start shooting again.

Should I divide further or let it grow as nature intended? One pot has now 4 stems, which seems a bit much.

At the moment, taking the shoots out or dividing the plant further seems easy enough; but what once it is growing to big to lift every time a shoot appears?

Thank you very much for your advice
t.

[Greengage]

that is a yucca an indoor house plant. They usually arrive into holland as a cane, they are then planted up maybe one per pot or usually three.
It can be divided if you have three individuals or you can cut the top off and you will get lots of side growth like what you have in the picture, If you need more info please post.

[Greengage]

opps the picture did not load properly on my machine I only saw the green yucca.
The other could be Musa acuminata or Musa sumatarana and way it dose not matter much, it is a herbacious plant believe it or not yes it can be divided or even cut back hard in spring and it will regrow. As for the bananas I would not hold my breath, but someone is going to post here they get huge crops and are exporting them

[toddy]

thank you for the quick reply.
The leaves of both varieties you suggest are green, the leaves on this plant are rather reddish-brown, only young leaves show a bit of green, but darkening as they get older. So, it might be a different variety?

And please forgive me for asking again: Should (not can) I divide further? E.g. to promote one stem for better grow/space. Or should I leave all stems, current and upcoming, which might get a bit crowded then. But if herbaceous that might not matter much as they will not build wood-type stems, and loose their leaves anyway?

I was hoping to plant them outside in 2 or 3 years time, once they are stronger to cope with the winter? Properly covered then of course. Because I thought this is a kind of banana tree and might get too big and too heavy to bring inside for overwintering then.

Regarding the bananas: taking orders now - though only pre-paid, of course

[Greengage]

From the growth in the pot you could seperate this and grow it on, I should have mentioned that it is also a monocot I.E
Monocots (Monocotyledonous) comprise one of the large divisions of Angiosperm plants (flowering plants with seeds protected within a vessel). They are herbaceous plants with parallel veined leaves and have an embryo with a single cotyledon, as opposed to dicot plants (dicotyledonous), which have an embryo with two cotyledons.

Most of the important staple crops of the world, the so-called cereals, such as wheat, barley, rice, maize, sorghum, oats, rye and millet, are monocots. Other food crops such as onion, garlic, ginger, banana, plantain, yam and asparagus are also classified as monocots.
Look lets not get to technical seperate the new young shoot in the pot and plant it into another pot with a mixture of Peat moss .leafmold and grit for drainage as regards how much of each go for 1/3 of each.
And just because its herbaceous does not mena it wil die dow completly during the winter, Just like all All conifers are not evergreen and all evergreen trees are not conifers.