The bananas in our greenhouse are receiving some tender loving care from Paul one of our Gardening Angels.

He has split a pup from one of the older plants and planted it into its own planter. Pups form alongside the mature banana plant. The pup was 45cms tall and 15cms wide, so taking the cutting was quite a job. As with all cuttings it is very important to keep everything very clean when taking and planting the cutting/pup. This banana won’t fruit for another year or two, but the other 2 plants in our greenhouse should produce bananas from about June.

We grow Dwarf Cavendish bananas. This variety grows to 6 - 8 ft (1.8 - 2.4 m) and it is very fast growing. The bananas produced grow to 15 to 25 cm in length, and have a thin skin. Each plant typically produces 80 - 90 bananas when it fruits.

The bananas in our greenhouse are grown hydroponically (without soil) in our Rain & Drain planters. In these planters water is pumped from the reservoir planter to the plant roots several times per hour. Whatever the plant does not use drains away back into the reservoir. As the water ebbs away fresh oxygen is drawn down into the root area. This means that plants have great access to water, nutrients and oxygen. We think that the fact that we harvest on average 80 - 90 bananas from each plant is pretty good evidence of the effectiveness of this method of growing.

Our Ginger plant has been planted in a heated propagator in March and grown in a heated greenhouse and harvested in October. In early May, 4 or 5 ginger plants are transfered in to our Rain & Drain Solar Planter. Exotic plants like ginger need regular watering and our planter feeds and waters our ginger plant 2 times every hour. Any water not needed is drained back into the reservoir. Watch the video below to see the results of our ginger harvest.

We produce new plants by taking cuttings from the sidse shoots. Within 14 months from planting cuttings, a bumper harvest of ripe Papaya can be seen on our plants.

Our Papaya plant produces 20 kilos of ripe fruit in our Rain & Drain planter. This tropical fruit makes a great addition to savoury salads, with fish & meat, cakes, smoothies and more.