1. How long does it take for to develop fruit after planting?
Depends on the size of your plant. If it's a small tissue culture 4"-16" if on a good regime of regular feeding maybe in a 1.5-2 years. If it's a pup that's pretty big 2'-3', then it should fruit next season after planting. But this also depends on the variety, a short cycle type of banana like veinte cohol(only 2 months for blooming then ripening) can fruit the first season if you get a big pup 2'-3'+. There might be some other short cycle ones too( I think raja puri is one as well) Oh almost forgot, flowering will be in late spring or summer and takes fruits 4-6 months to develop/ripen, but a lot of people just cut the whole bunch off before winter, when you good see color change on the bananas otherwise they will sometime have splitting issues if ripen on the plant and uneven ripening.

2. Can we expect to have several fruiting per year?
Not the first season, since only the main stalk/plant will produce, then the whole plant will died off. However if you keep more than one pup for next season maybe several will bloom and you will have multiple fruiting cycle from summer till fall. But from a lot of banana hobbyist's post on the banana forum that i've read, they like to only keep 1-3 pups for the next season and dig the other pups up or top them off.

Thanks very much for that great information, soaht! That's exactly the kind of info I've been looking for.

I doubt that we'll have any need to cut the whole bunch "before winter", as we don't really have an actual winter here in Southern California. But it does make sense to cut them off to prevent splitting and uneven ripening.

I think we might try to raise multiple pups. I like the idea of having staggered production, rather than having a huge crop all at once that we can't consume.

Thanks again!