Well, we didn’t get to eat home-grown bananas like I thought we would. The fruit stayed small, and never even got close to ripe. Here’s a pic of the tiny hand of bananas when I cut them off because nights were starting to freeze. That was mid-November.

I’m still learning how to do this right, and apparently I didn’t give them enough fertilizer and maybe not enough water this year. A new friend (met through Instagram) who grows tropical stuff here in Fair Oaks told me I might need to fertilize them every week! Ugh. That’s a lot of maintenance!

Another Instagramer said she makes a new compost pile on top of the banana root clump in winter and lets it decompose as the new season progresses, and this gives regular nutrition to the banana clump. I have done some of that, dumping a bunch of shredded leaves collected this fall over the base of the clump. I should add more material soon.

Anyone out there successfully growing bananas in zone 9? I’d love to hear your secrets to success in the comments!