Musa 'Dwarf cavendish'

I purchased 2 today just wondering if anybody has one and what exactly are the difference from other Musa's........................I,m guessing its just a size thing 'Dwarf':confused:

 

It needs warmth to grow edible bananas.
As far as I know its the best one for this.
But its not very hardy.

 

Its a winter indoors job this, i dont think it would be possible to overwinter outside.

 

As the others have said, it is a tender banana that needs winter warmth. To keep it growing, temperatures should be no lower than about 12C. but it can cope with between 5 - 10C if it is kept dry although most of the leaves will die off. Dormant plants need sustained warmth to get them started again in spring. 'Dwarf Cavendish' is really a group term for a series of relatively dwarf growing forms of the dessert banana Musa cavendishii, which itself appears to be a seedless form of Musa acuminata. Despite its name it is still a large growing plant capable of reaching 6 - 8ft with a similar spread, needing a fair amount of heated greenhouse space if it is to fruit.

There seems to be innumerable forms of 'Dwarf Cavendish', which have hit the market in recent years. Many are grown for ornamental purposes on account of their greater dwarfism and tendency to sucker freely. Most have 'purple' (really a reddish-brown) splashes or markings on their leaves and 'Bananarama', 'Tropicana' and 'Super Dwarf Cavendish' are possibly the best known forms. The latter is a valid fruiting variety, extremely short growing and producing at around 3ft high. I don't think there are fruiting records for the others.

The 'ornamental' variants are grown as 'patio plants' during the summer in this country and are usually discarded at the end of the season. Once growing strongly, they relish copious moisture and regular feeding otherwise they will become rather stunted with just a few, yellowish leaves. Well grown and in a decent sized container (ideally no less than 15L) , they can form attractive, lush clumps of foliage.

 

I got a half dead specimen of this from a supermarket for 3,99 euros some weeks ago. Very small and very miserable, but its recovering at the speed of light now that it has been repotted, and it is watered, fed, and talked to regularly. Today I was at the DIY store to get some planks for making furniture for the porch and they had a lot of these (very beautiful plants, not wrecks like mine) in sizes ranging from tiny (30 cm) to huge (2 meters). Dwarf banana my bum. Very nice plant anyway. Mine will stay in my dining room in winter.

 

In the world of bananas, 2m. is not just dwarf, it is verging on the puny. Dwarf is a relative term - many bananas exceed 6m. My Musa sikkimensis clump regularly grew to 7m. by late summer.

 

I know. But it is funny to stand in front of a plant half again as tall as I am and read "dwarf" on the label. Not that being taller than me is such an achievment there are probably many dwarves in the world who could claim that, bananas and not :D