This is the oldest bunch of bananas. They survived the 26*F weather we had on Christmas but the leaves on the plant didn't. Right in the middle of the bunch there is a yellow banana. Is it ripe?
That brownish thing in the left corner is my dog's nose, he is always underfoot and so nosey. Yes, those are Christmas lights on the bunch of bananas, that's how they survived the freeze.
Here is a flower that has bananas forming. The leaves are all brown. Is there any point in letting these develop? This flower was given no protection from the cold.
Mine were green before freeze. Afterwards, I cut stalk and brought into house, They tried turning yellow but quickly turned brown, then black and mildewed. My experience with yellow was, they ripend better on tree than they did off. Mine are cooking bananas and even when they were very yellow, they were quite firm.
I picked the two yellow ones on that bunch(the dog tried to steal them, he likes bananas too). They were sooooooooo yummie. They were soft and sweet, no seeds. The big bunch in the picture is dwarf cavendish.
It was a surprise that the first to ripen were in the middle of the bunch and they haven't been growing 6 months yet.
I still wonder if the ones in the second photo will develop, they just started forming after the freeze and the stalk has no green leaves.
It happened to my Mom's banana every winter time. Soon as winter hit. She would cut the whole and bring it in the house and put in warm room like wash/dryer room and leave it there.. It will ripe in few days. I saw your 2nd photos.. it look like too early.. They are not ready to ripe. Maybe you can cut it and bring it inside.. and wait and see how it going. Yes, I agree.. they are so yummy!
Mini, in the second photo the bananas are only a few days along, they just formed, just don't know if they will keep growing since the whole plant got frosted on when we had the freezing weather at Christmas. I'm going to leave it alone since we're back to normal warm temps again.
The big stalk will be okay outside too, at least I hope our temps stay normal long enough for them to ripen. If they say frost, I'll sure cut it and bring it into the house! It's not supposed to frost down here but this has been one odd winter so far.
I don't have any experience with bananas, but that sure is a cute nose there. Thanks for your nice post about my Dutchess. They bring green bananas into the grocery store and they slowly ripen on the shelf so I don't know why you couldn't cut them and bring them in to ripen.
Susie
How cool is that !
They made it thru the frost and are still alive and rippening!!!
Mine are still just sitting there.....
Even though they are small if they turn yellow I'm eating them
Just hope they're edible...LOL
Clare, I know how it hurts to lose a pet and we were all pulling for her to make it.
CC, wonder what happens if we eat an inedible banana? These were really sweet. Bill wrapped Christmas lights around the bunch to keep them from freezing. It worked!
Suzie, the nanas I get on my trees are hard and sorta sweet, and they smell just like bananas! Once I had a recipe to fry these nanas, then rolling them in powdered sugar and cinnamon. They were good - different, but I did not make them anymore. I was the only one to eat them. I am glad yours was sweet and ripe. I usually take a stalk off the tree and let them ripen inside. Mine never get as big as yours though.
Roz, my neighbor makes fried bananas. I like them every now and then, but not too often. I do love banana bread and have a feeling if these all get ripe at once I'll be making a lot of that! My neighbor has a pecan orchard(grove?) and gives me bags and bags of shelled pecan halves. I will use those in the banana bread.
Oh my gosh, that sounds so good, Susie. I'm totally into comfort food right now as you can probably tell.
We have a lot of pecan trees at the shop, but they seem to make every other year, and this year was not the year. One way to do your pecans is to coat them with seasoned salt and put them in the microwave until you smell them. They are jummy like that.
I'll have to try that Roz, Lauren loves seasoned salt. I'm going to make pecan penuche tonight.
You can toast them too in the oven, and you can also make pecan brittle with them the same way you would make peanut brittle.
Actually xmas lights work great for many trees. Even though I'm in South Florida you have those low dips in winter. Even if it doesn't freeze the banana, sugar apples, lychees, carambola and liek prefer being warm at night. It makes a big difference.
Many people grow bananas this way. I think it's pretty cool!
Tamara
I meant to do that this year; I think it would look pretty to see the lights on the elephant ears and palms and nanas, but it is too late now. I may do it this summer and just let them stay year round, turning on just sometimes.
Clare, the pecan brittle is just wonderful. I had some once that was like pecan brittle, but was more foamy, I guess is my word. Is there such a thing as pecan brickle? I think that is what it was called. Boy was it ever good.
You will not believe what that dog did today! I was picking my ripe bananas and they kept disappearing. I caught him with the evidence, an empty banana peel. He likes bananas. I had noticed a few weird black spots on the bananas, found out what they were today. He "nibbles" on the bananas, I guess to see if they are ripe. Could I interest anyone in a weimaraner, he's a sweet pup, loves to help in the garden. Will dig holes for you, prune your favorite fruit trees, pick your bananas and water your plants.......what more could a person ask for? Almost forgot, he loves to pull the thingies off the palm trees, where the fronds were attached and put them in the way of the lawnmower. He likes to test the drivers ability to dodge obstacles.
Ah, sounds like a puppy who is enjoying life. What a lucky boy.
Clare, he was sooooooo bad yesterday. I was trying to weed my beds around the pool. Those beds have marble chips for mulch(cause everything else ends up in the pool we have to use either marble chips or lava rocks). I needed to move some crinums and a couple of other plants to make the beds more organized. He stole the crinums and ran thru the yard with them, then he came back and stole my shoe, my clippers and my little knife that I was trimming with. He has a corner of the yard where he keeps his "stash" of stuff. I found the items he'd stolen(and a few more that I didn't know were missing). He kept stealing the marble chips and putting them out on the pool deck and when I would scold him he'd roll over and want his tummy rubbed.
LOL, Susie. What a delightful little troublemaker you have there. He will grow out of it. When Duke was little, he was such the merry mischievous bandit too. There just isn't anything you can do except to go ahead and rub his tummy. LOL! Give him a kiss for me. I hope those marble chips aren't big enough for him to swallow. Dutchess was constantly chewing on little rocks that she would steal from the three-quarter rock area of the patio, and I was always afraid that she would swallow them. She never seemed to. For awhile, I would take them out of her mouth, but she would always run and get another. My mom's step-daughter brought her puppy in to have surgery because he was swallowing rocks, and they had to remove a bunch from the poor pup's tummy. He's fine now, and hopefully, he doesn't eat them any more. As evidence that you have a very well-behaved pet, your garden is amazing! If he was really naughty, you would be redoing the beds all the time because of him! By the way, I'm sure you know this already, but I got some pretty wrought iron fence edging to protect some of my beds from the digging ones. This isn't a great picture, but if you look closely at the bottom, you will see it:
Your garden is beautiful. I see the wrought iron fencing. I might have to use that on the ones outside the fence to keep the neighbor's dogs out. Her's escape from time to time and they run up to my fence(that has a flowerbed all along the length of it) and they trample my plants. They are not well behaved garden dogs, lol. I haven't seen them out in a couple of weeks, after I told her they were swimming in the resaca where the gator lives!
Bleu doesn't eat the rocks, he just carries them around in his mouth then when he's through with them he leaves them wherever he's at.
Hi Susie, thanks for the compliment. The only problem with this type of border is that it is only about a foot high and dogs can step over it if they want too, but I think it does discourage them from doing so, especially if they are little dogs. I got it from Costco and it pieces together nicely in any shape that you want. Bleu is a good boy:-)
