Going bananas

I planted a single "hardy banana" tree in a corner of my vegetable garden 2 years ago. It grew nicely to 10' tall, but produced nothing, so I didn't bother to protect it over last winter. Predictably, it died to the ground. But this spring, about a dozen young banana trees popped up around that single "mother" plant. I ignored them, and just let them grow. Three of those plants produced bunches of bananas this year! The bananas were still green when the first frost threat here occurred 2 weeks ago, so I whacked the bunches off and moved them to my climate controlled shop. Now they're ripening at 4-6 per day, and we can't eat that many bananas! Moral: Be careful what you plant, and what you hope for!

There you go...wacking things again! Sounds like the beginnings of a banana business:-)
Bev

That's exciting Stono! What banana was it?

I wish I knew, tigerlilly! I got it by mail, but for the life of me, I can't remember where. The plant marker has long since deteriorated. I know it was billed as "...the most cold hardy banana known...", so I thought I'd try it. Suspect it's one of those Chinese varieties that are more cold hardy than the tropical ones from Chiquitaville. Whatever it is, it actually produced real edible bananas. If it (more accurately, "they") lives through this winter, I'm going to dig some pups and pot them up, winter them over in the greenhouse, and plant them out in the spring. The bananas were only 4''-6'' long. I think if they had a longer growing season they might get bigger because some were, but not many. Fun project. Just wish I knew the name of the plant!

Hi there, If it is the hardiest one there is, then it is Musa basjoo. And from what I have been told from other DGer's, the bananas are not edible.
I hope the two VERY poor ones I bought on clearance will do half as well as yours have!
Hope the name helps you out. :)
Misty

Stono does it look like this? http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/532/

I was at party and they had some sort of banana that to their surprise grew well and produced bananas. Near as I can figure out it's some sort of dwarf cavendish. Theirs are spreading out fast over the last few years and hardy even though they have died back in the winter. They're giving me a few this spring to try out but they don't know the exact name of the banana either. Someone gave it to them as a present.

The bananas on M. basjoo are tiny, just an inch or two and skinny; they really are not edible. The Cavendishs are pretty hardy, I had one in the ground in Columbia; that might be your nana.

The SELLER billed it as "the hardiest banana there is", MistyG...and you know how that goes! Caveat emptor! It's definately not Musa basjoo. Both plant and fruit are way too big. And the bananas are definately edible! I can't tell from the pictures on the link, Core...my plant is way bigger, and lacks the dusky, alocasia-like coloring on the leaves,. but I don't think that's it. Only way to do it is for me to go take a picture and post it. That should be a laugh and a half for an anolog man in a digital world!!! But I whacked all the bunches of bananas off it, fearing the hypothetical freeze, so I won't be able to show you them. But they were 3-4 ft long, with fruit ranging from 3"-12". And the ugliest flower you can imagine...Does that sound like Cavendish , Ardesia?

I'll go take a picture too because the ones in the plant files are small. The ones I'm talking about are about 6 ft or so tall right now and turned a much darker green. When they first start in the spring they have the red color but that seems to fade away over the earily summer. Hmmm. I didn't see the flowers so ...

For some reason I can't find one picture of a dwarf cavendish at full size, planted in the ground. Someone must grow these outside??

Yep, I know that from the witch we bought this house from!
And I want some that has edible bananas! :)

Sounds like Cavendish to me.

Funny thing,landscapers were planting some kind of banana at the entrance to Litchfield yesterday.I don't know what kind they were but I'm really glad that they are planting things other than pansies and snapdragons.I'll try too find out what variety they are.

When I grew bananas in Florida my favorites were Jamaica Red.Wonderful tasting fruit and not bad looking plant.

when i went to Litchfield in september, i saw some bananas there that looked to me like ensente. they were really short and fat

I wonder if it was a Raja puri, Stono. They are the fastest to flower, 9 months and are quite large-massive trunks. Mine did not come back for me last winter, but I think it has a good chance with you.

Good to know tigerlily; I just found a young Raja puri a few weeks ago. maybe I'll have edible 'nanas by this time next year.

ardesia-do you get hard freezes in the winter? I think that if you set one out in early spring (past the freezes) that it may fruit for you

No hard freezes here in many years. We haven't gone below the high 30's in several years. I am just in a very special micro-climate; neighbors just a few hundred yards away that are in a more open setting, get frosts. I have successfully wintered many tropicals but there is always that possibility that I could get caught with my plants down (in the ground) someday.

I am excited about getting fruit. My basjoo is huge and I am trying to figure out how to get rid of it and only have fruiting varieties. I'll keep my velutina though, it is too pretty to shovel prune. Have you ever seen the velutinas at Daniel Stowe BG? They are awesome in full flower.

This message was edited Nov 28, 2007 7:28 AM

No I have seen that BG, but surprisingly enough, this summer my velutinas were blooming like crazy-there must have been over 6 stalks with blooms at one time-and this was after it had only been in the ground one year! And hardly any water at all in that garden. I had no idea that they bloomed that profusely. I think I will water them more next summer if no rain, and see if they bloom even more!

That is good that you don't get any hard freezes-I think the Raja puri will overwinter for you nicely. The only problem may be that it may need warm weather in the fall ( nights over 55 degrees) to keep pushing the development of the bananas from the fruit-but maybe it will do it faster for you down there! Does anyone in your area have fruiting bananas? You will have to show us pictures of your banana smoothies, bread and what ever else you will do with them all!! lol I love fried bananas-we used to do that alot when I lived in Hawaii. Esp the platains

I was going to get bananas going this year but instead ran out of energy. I have seeds for velutinas but I'm really after a fruiting banana. I'm getting a couple unknow bananas that fruit but maybe I'll try to track down a Raja puri. I have to see if my little citrus orchard makes it through the winter which I think it will and a few other goodies. If things end up dead by next spring I might have to stick with more tried and true plants and trees. I don't want to end up a couple years from now and have a cold week that wipes out half my yard. We do get into the 20's every year but the ground never gets very cold.

Isn't it funny how Bluffton gets those cold days. I remember a horticulturist down there telling me Bluffton was a zone 8b and HHI was a 9. So close and yet so far.......

Tigerlily, lots of folks around here have fruiting bananas and all kinds of citrus. And, about those warm nights. It is still in the 50's most nights here and 60's/70's during the day.

Local lore has it that the original family that owned the "plantation" in this area brought oranges and/or orange trees home from Spain and planted the first citrus in America. Later, because this climate was not reliably warm, trees were sent to FL where the industry, as we know it today, began. How much of this is true we'll never know.