Enset (false banana)
Ensete ventricosum
It looks like a banana but is grown for its starchy stem and corm, fermented into kocho; the 'tree against hunger'.
Hardiness: zones 9 to 11
Light: full sun
Size: about 20 ft tall, 12 ft wide
Harvest: year-round
From: Ethiopian highlands
Drought-hardy once established
Here: Too tender to overwinter outdoors on the Lake Erie shore (zone 6b to 7a): grow it in a pot and bring it in, or treat it as an annual.
Good for: food.
Native to: African savannas & tropics. Hardy in zones 9 to 11.
The story
Enset feeds some twenty million people in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, where it is called the tree against hunger because a stand can be harvested at any time through drought. The pulp of its stem and corm is buried in pits to ferment into kocho.
Planting
Sun, shelter from wind and deep, rich soil. It takes cooler nights than a banana but no real frost.
Growing
Feed and water generously. Plants are raised from shoots forced out of a cut corm.
Harvest and use
It is harvested whole after four or more years, before it flowers. The scraped pulp is fermented for weeks or months, then baked as flat bread.
What to watch for
Its fruit is not for eating. A bacterial wilt is the main disease in its homeland.
See if Enset (false banana) fits your yard
Free planner: enter your ZIP for frost dates, climate fit and a sowing calendar. No account, no ads, no tracking cookies.
More tropical and subtropical food plants
General guidance, not professional advice. Conditions vary by yard and year; for local specifics ask your county extension office. Never eat a wild plant you cannot identify with certainty. Traditional uses are shared as history, not medical advice. © 2026 Sean Priest · Irie Orchard. Terms & credits · Privacy · Home