If you told a friend that you know a guy growing bananas in his back yard near Montreal, they would probably say you're nuts. That's why I created this page on my website. I am the guy and yes, it's true, I grow bananas in my backyard on the South Shore of Montreal, Canada!
It's true that bananas are tropical plants and usually only grow in the tropics, but I have managed to pull it off right here in Canada. The same place that gets as low as -40 in the winter with more than 100 inches of snow!
I have been growing banana plants for 15 years, but was never lucky enough to get any fruit. The reason my plants never produced bananas is I could never get the plants to mature. After 3 summers in my backyard, the plant just got too large to bring inside for the winter, so I would let it die and start over with a baby plant.
The problem was resolved late last year, when instead of letting the latest plant die after its third summer, I brought it indoors again for a 3rd winter. Then this spring, I planted the thing in the ground in a sunny area of my backyard. It was slow to start growing and pushed just one leaf in a month. Then, to my surprise, in late July it popped a flower! The flower of the banana looks much like an ear of corn still in the husk, but instead of green, it's deep purple. As the flower emerged, it started to lean toward the ground because of the weight. After a week or so, the first "husk" of the flower started to peel back to reveal the first "hand" of 7 bananas. After that a new "hand" of bananas has emerged about every 4 or 5 days. As of August 17, there are 5 hands of bananas exposed with probably more than 5 more to come out in the next few weeks.
I have read on several websites, that bananas need 3 months on the plant to mature after the flower emerges. That means I would need until the end of October to get some edible fruit. That's pushing it around here! We usually have our first frost in late September or early October. Frost would kill the thing in an instant. Friends have suggested that I erect some sort of greenhouse to keep the thing alive until the fruit is edible. Right now I am happy just taking photos of the bananas and no greenhouse is planned. I might have a change of heart as autumn approaches.
 Day 1
Instead of pushing out the normal rolled up leaf, our banana plant starts pushing a bud. The bud looks like an ear of corn still in the husk, only the thing is purple.
Day 4
As each "husk" of the banana flower peels back, a new hand of bananas is revealed. Already on day 4, two hands of bananas are out and growing.
Day 19
The summer is still warm and it's now August 19th. The banana flower has now put out six hands of bananas.
Day 26
More than a dozen bananas have emerged in the past week! We now have more than 60 little bananas on the plant and they are still coming! The first ones to emerge on August 1 have reached about half the size of an average banana, while the latest ones are smaller than your baby finger. The banana bunch is getting heavy and the plant is starting to lean. In the next week or so, I will be adding a support the the bunch so the plant will not topple.
Day 33
Due to the unseasonably cold August evenings, the bananas have almost stopped growing. I would have expected a few more weeks of warm weather before they stopped growing. I have said from the beginning that I would not make a greenhouse for the plant, but now I am thinking maybe I should have.
Day 42
I still have not made a greenhouse for the plant. Two weeks ago, a sucker (or baby plant) started growing beside the mother plant and is now already 3 feet tall with a stem more than 1 inch thick. Seeing how fast this sucker is growing gave me an idea: In early October I will cut down the banana plant(s) and dig up the corm. The corm is the root of the plant which is much like a giant potato or a giant tulip bulb. I will overwinter the corm in a box in my basement. I used to do the same with dahlia bulbs and had much success. Keep checking back for more...
Day 62
The nights are getting close to 0c / 32F. This evening I was forced to cover the banana plant with a plastic cover so the plant would not freeze. I put a candle under the plastic cover to keep the plant warm.
Day 70
There is no point in continuing, we are will into October and the bananas will not grow any more. Today, along with my daughters, we harvested the bananas. I cut the stock of bananas from the plant and hung them to ripen in my basement. This is normal with any bananas that are harvested, as they never mature on the plant. We also cut down the mother plant, because after it produces bananas it dies. We also dug the corm (the bulb) out of the ground along with the baby plant that had sprung up. We placed it in a pot for overwintering. Judging by the size of the corm, it should do well next summer.
Day 73
The bunch of bananas is now ripening in my basement storeroom. If we get lucky, we will be eating Canadian grown bananas in a few short weeks. In all there were almost 200 bananas on the stock, but because of the cool August nights, most did not get a chance to mature. In all, we should have about 20 small edible bananas. Check back in a few weeks and we will let you know how they tasted.
How I Grow Bananas
I started growing banana plants about 15 years ago. It all started when my friend, Brian showed me his tiny banana plant that he had purchased at Zellers. Seeing this plant reminded me of past tropical vacations and I decided that I had to have a plant like this. I purchased the baby banana and planted in a pot and put it in my backyard. It just kept growing and growing and growing.  Baby banana plants are slow to grow in the first summer and grow to about 18 inches high with about 8 to 10 small leaves. The second summer it grows to 40 or 50 inches with much larger leaves. The third summer it gets huge with a height of up to 8 or 9 feet with leaves more than 4 feet long. Each autumn I bring my plants indoors for the winter and then put them outside again in the spring. Usually by the third summer, they get huge, 8 or 9 feet high and need a huge pot. Because of the size, I can not bring them inside beacuse they are just too tall, so I have no choice but to let it die in the cold. Luckily, mature banana plants produce babies or suckers from the root, so I always have new plants ready to go for the next season. Over the past few years I have had banana plants of various sizes growing in my house and yard. I have also given many baby plants to friends and neighbors.
Links to learn more about bananas
Banana.com
Bananas move north of the tropics
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