The Pink Fruiting Banana, otherwise known as the Musa Velutina or Pink Banana, Hairy Banana, Pink Fruiting Banana, Musa Dasycarpa, is a rather well known perennial plant by gardening enthusiasts around the world.
Best known for its average maintenance and moderate growth, this perennial will likely liven up your house (or garden) with its green colored leaves. But, only if you learn how to take proper care of it for it to thrive.
Fortunately, taking care of your Pink Fruiting Banana is not too difficult – as long as you follow our guidelines in this Pink Fruiting Banana Care Guide. Now let’s get started.
The fundamental caring guidelines for every Pink Fruiting Banana can be summed up into the following:
- Water: The Pink Fruiting Banana needs evenly spread moist soil – try to avoid letting the soil dry out.
- Light: Keep your Musa Velutina in an environment where it can receive partial to full sun on a daily basis.
- Soil: Make sure to keep the Pink Fruiting Banana in soil with moist but well-draining, so ideally, one that is made of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
That’s it – sunlight, water and soil! The basic 3 fundamentals for all plant care, and with the Pink Fruiting Banana this is no exception. With these three elements, your leafy friend will live healthy and happy.
Scientific / Botanical Aspects
In botanical terms, the Pink Fruiting Banana belongs to the Musaceae family, the genus Musa and the species Velutina, hence its scientific (or botanical) name Musa Velutina (MEW-sa vel-LU-ti-na).
As with other Musa’s, the Pink Fruiting Banana is an evergreen plant, which means it will be present year round in your garden.
Growing Region
The Pink Fruiting Banana is a plant native to the Assam and the eastern Himalayas.
You might be wondering why your Pink Fruiting Banana’s native region is important. Well, if you know where your plant originally came from, you’ll know which environmental conditions it prefers, and with it, knowledge on how to replicate it at home.
With this in mind, the Musa Velutina will be most used to regions where the plant hardiness level falls between 7b, 8a, 8b, 9b, 9a, 10b, 10a, 11b, 11a and the ideal climate zone is between 23, 24, H2.
Growth and Size
Growth
In terms of size and growth, the Pink Fruiting Banana is a relatively moderate grower, which makes things somewhat easy for any plant enthusiast.
Size
But what exactly does this mean for your Pink Fruiting Banana? How large a pot should you consider, how tall, how wide can it get? Let’s jump in…
The Musa Velutina can grow up to 5′ – 7′ (150cm – 210cm) in 5′ – 7′ (150cm – 210cm) and 5′ – 7′ (150cm – 210cm) in 5′ – 7′ (150cm – 210cm).
These dimensions make the Pink Fruiting Banana a relatively large perennial compared to others, so it’s best to keep this fact in mind since it will affect where you want to keep yours at home.
This is why experts recommend keeping an area of approximately 60″ – 84″ (150cm – 210cm) free so the Pink Fruiting Banana can spread to its best extent.
Watering
In terms of watering, the Pink Fruiting Banana is a fairly complicated plant to take care of. This is mostly because it has a not so straightforward watering schedule and somewhat irregular watering needs.
Specifically, most experts agree that the Musa Velutina needs evenly spread moist soil – try to avoid letting the soil dry out.
Which is why it is considered a plant with relatively average needs in terms of water.
As a rule of thumb, you should remember to keep your Pink Fruiting Banana in soil with moist but well-draining to well draining characteristics, as these will guarantee the right conditions for your plant to grow and thrive.
When you consider this, this is why you should aim to choose soil that has good drainage, and moist properties to keep the right moisture levels at all times.
In our experience, the famous ‘thumb’ or ‘finger’ test is what works best for the Pink Fruiting Banana since with it, you will be able to give it the right amount of water, every time – regardless of the environment or placement where you do decide to keep it.
Soil Mix
As mentioned earlier, the Pink Fruiting Banana prefers to have soil with good drainage, and moist properties at all times, reason why you need to make the soil mix out of clay, loam, chalk, and sand.
This is why most experts agree that the Pink Fruiting Banana requires soil with high organic matter, which will give you the right conditions it needs.
In addition to this, expert gardeners recommend having preferably alkaline, acid or neutral soil.
Light and Exposure
In terms of light & exposure, the Pink Fruiting Banana requires partial to full sun in order for it to thrive under the right conditions.
Most experts agree that this perennial will do well as long as you keep it in full sun, and it will be able to grow properly.
Specifically, we recommend that you place your Musa Velutina in little to partial shade (only 2-6 hours of direct sunlight a day), to full and direct sun (more 6 hours of direct sunlight per day).
Season
Being an evergreen plant, the Pink Fruiting Banana will be present year round in your garden. But, you can expect it to have its ‘prime-time’ during the spring (early, mid, late), the summer (early, mid, late), the fall, and during the winter.
Flowers
You can expect your Pink Fruiting Banana to flower around the summer months from July to September (summer). In particular, this perennial is well known for its showy flowers around the plant enthusiast community.
The Pink Fruiting Banana produces some wonderful gold/yellow, cream/tan and pink flowers around this time of year.
Foliage
The leaves from the Pink Fruiting Banana have a beautiful green color during most of the year.
In particular, they have a simple arrangement in its leaves.
You can expect the leaves from your Musa Velutina to be around (> 6 inches) in size.
Garden
How should you then organize your garden to include your new Pink Fruiting Banana? Here are some recommendations by expert gardeners.
Most owners consider that they complement well most gardens of mediterranean garden styles.
In particular, the Pink Fruiting Banana’s best location within your garden is in patio and containers,.
Companion Plants
Pink Fruiting Banana’s do well with some other plants beside it. One good companion plant is the Murraya exotica, which will pair up nicely with your leafy friend.
Others consider that a nice Cordyline indivisa will work well too, so choose whichever you find works best for you!
Conclusion
So that’s it! These are the main plant care requirements that you need to keep in mind in order to have a healthy Pink Fruiting Banana in your garden or home.
