Question
I have recently uncovered my banana tree. some of the outside stems were looking a bit sorry for themselves, but there was a new shoot coming up the middle of the plant. i thought it would be a good idea to cut the scraggy looking outer stems of the old leaves away, to allow for the new shoot to expand. unfortunately i cut these all away carefully until i got to the new stem whereby the knife slipped and went right through the new shoot, hence to say i have lost it and my banana tree is down to about a 6 inch flat base, i am really gutted to say the least.
please advise is this likely to grow back, or should i just dig it up and start again with a new one?

regards
tracy

Answer
Tracy, no worries! just leave it be and a new psuedostem will redevelop from that same center section; bananas are survivalists, they are a very resilient plant, but to get fruit, you do have to follow a few guidelines; copious watering, lots of fertilizer, and hopefully mother nature will help with getting you through a frostfree winter (otherwise the 14 month period needed to break a bunch, is rewound to start). The plant will send up pups also, and you should only allow 3 or 4 to develop from the corm (underground root system), the rest should be cut out before they develop; this allows the corm to put all of its energy into developing the existing plants, therefore giving you a much better chance at fruit production....so worry not my gardening friend! be happy and let mother nature take charge...Nick