This leaves the residents of tropical and sub-tropical areas well ahead of the game and much more likely to achieve success in their efforts. The pendulous male flowers are edible and can be used for cooking. Weatherwise, what is comfortable to humans is comfortable to bananas. They adore sunny climes but will easily tolerate fifty-degree shade, and while 80 degrees is an ideal temperature, they will cease growing completely at the outer perimeters of 53 and 100 degrees. At the 28 degree mark they will turn brown and die to the ground, but remarkably the rhizome will survive downwards of 22 degrees.
Propagation is a quick and simple process.
A banana plant puts up several offshoots from its underground rhizome. These are called suckers and take one of two general shapes. The water sucker is a short plant 1-foot high with very broad leaves. These are to be avoided if possible as they tend to produce very weak plants with small fruit. More desirable is the sword sucker, a 2-foot plant with narrow swordlike leaves.