If they are ripe, eat them, if not, wiat till they are ripe. If you know when you first saw the bananas forming, you will need to wait probably 6 monyhs from that date till they will be ripe. In FL it might be a little faster. You can cut the flower off when you have about 8" between the flower and the last banana that formed.

Watch it carefully and provide support as the fruit develops - in many cases the fruit can get so heavy that it can crimp the stem or even break it and you lose the whole bunch. So, get a couple of long poles - bamboo works well - and tie them together to form a brace and lodge that against the growing stem so that it has more of a chance of fully developing the fruit. You can even, in addition to the support, splint the stem too. It depends on the nanner variety, of course - some are heavy producers and others are light producers, but better safe than sorry...

There are about 50 bananas- I don't know if that's a lot or a little. The plant is right next to the house- half of it is under the eaves- so I can tie it to the eaves to keep it from bending.

That sounds good- staked up and protected from winds. Now you just have to be patient! It takes an awfully long time until they are ready. Here we were told to wait until they get ancho- (fat) before we cut the bunch off and let them hang until ripe. It is not a technical term- "fat" - but wait until they at least look as fat as the ones you buy in the store before you cut the stalk. Then we hang them upside down until ripe. For now you just have to wait-Gwenn

The bananas ripened beautifully on the tree! I'll try to link a photo here. They are very sweet, with a hint of citrus tang. I tied the tree to the house to support the weight. I'm surprised it fruited, as it's on the north side of the house, half under an oak tree.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:417365}}