Plantain (cooking banana)
Musa × paradisiaca
Starchy bananas for frying and boiling, cut green or ripe.
Hardiness: zones 9 to 12
Light: full sun
Size: about 12 ft tall, 8 ft wide
Harvest: year-round
From: SE Asia, now a staple on three continents
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: South & Southeast Asian tropics. Hardy in zones 9 to 12.
The story
Plantains were carried from Southeast Asia to Africa by Austronesian sailors more than a thousand years ago and became a staple from Uganda to Nigeria, then crossed the Atlantic with the slave trade to feed the Caribbean and Latin America; fried tostones and boiled matoke are the same fruit at two ages.
Planting
Full sun, rich moist soil, shelter from wind, and heat; plant a sucker in spring. It needs 12 to 18 months without frost to fruit.
Growing
Water and feed heavily; it is a greedy giant. Thin suckers to two. Cut the mother stem after harvest.
Harvest and use
Cut the bunch when the fruit is plump and still green for cooking green, or let it yellow and blacken for sweet plantain. Never eat raw.
What to watch for
Wind, frost, nematodes, and leaf diseases in wet tropics.
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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