Wow, nice bunch of bananas. How long did it take for your tree to produce them?

nicely done, didn't even break a sweat with all that hard work :)

Tim

Nice, SW - looks authentically caribbean at your house....

mangopug

Very nice! Looks like you will be on banana diet for the next weeks.. lol. I still waiting for my Blue Java to fruit.

But, why didn't you cut the platain down, instead of a pulley system? The plant will die after fruiting...

Felipe

Thanks all.

REB, the fruiting trunk sprouted last fall and was about 8' tall during the hard winter freezes. Big enough that the trunk survived the winter without protection (my low was 23). It then flowered early in the year - in June. So about 4 months of hang time for the fruit to ripen.

pikorazi - I did cut the trunk down after removing the fruit. I figured if I cut it down with the fruit attached that the crash to the ground would damage many of the fruit. Is there some cool trick to doing it that way? Be happy to hear it if you have a good way. BTW, the PVC pipes were already in place to keep the trunk from falling over under the weight of the fruit. They happened to be helpful for harvest too, but that was not their primary purpose.

Congrats! That looks like a beautiful healthy tree.

sun_worshiper, what I do is to only cut a little from the bottom of the pseudostem, so the plant starts to slowly fall down and the fruit doesn't crush on the ground. I copied this technique from an african documentary film. So far, I've done this only with dwarf ones :-D

How would you rate/describe your harvested bananas?

Felipe

Very nice! Congratulations!

Congrats!

Hi Felipe. Very interesting technique for harvesting - I'll have to give it a try. I know the way I did it was unlikely to be the normal way, but well, I'm an engineer not blessed with much muscle=)

As for rating - of the two varieties I have harvested so far, Blue Java wins hands down. The fruit is miles better than a grocery store banana. The flavor is more complex, and fruitier without so much "banananess". It is more dense than a grocery store banana, a firmer textured fruit, which I do not find detracts. The skin is thick and easy to peel. The plant is very robust, can make it through my marginal winters and most of the time does not need propping (this time was the exception).

I have two other varieties - a dwarf brazilian, which has fruited, but not ripened yet. So no comments yet on its taste.

The 3rd variety is a Veinte Cohol. It has the advantage of fruiting very rapidly - it can freeze to the ground, send up a shoot, and have ripened fruit by October. An impressive feat. It is also very short, and was the only variety I could find short enough to fit inside my screen room. The fruit however was not my favorite. I would rate it as not at all desireable as an out of hand eating fruit. The skin is very thin, and hard to separate from the flesh of the fruit. The fruit itself was very soft - which I find unpleasant - seems mushy. The flavor was too tart. Even ripe to the point of mushyness, it was too tart for me. And I really enjoy subacid flavor and tend to like my bananas on the slightly underripe side. However, it is amazing in banana bread! Makes flavorful banana bread that is much lighter in color than normal. Here are a couple pics of the Veinte Cohol:

{{gwi:1329308}}

How would you rate the varieties you grow?

Those bananas are huge. You could almost climb those things. Cool.

I have successfully fruited my Dwarf Brazilian too! It is the best of the three types flavor wise. Excellent flavor, with a very good texture, firm, but not dense. Definitely my favorite of the three. Don't have a pic handy, but will try to remember to post one.

Good to hear. Where in FL are you? I just bought a couple Tissue cultured "Ice Cream" a few weeks ago. No I will start looking for the Dwarf Brazilian. I don't think any will survive the winter in Ocala where I live without freezing to the ground but I am hoping I can protect them enough.

Have you ever tasted the Misi luki? I have heard a lot of good things about that one as well. Glad to hear your review of the Veinte Cohol. I was about to buy one of those but I think I will pass on it now.

jsvand - I'm in Oviedo, which is near Orlando. Glad my info was helpful. Yeah, I'd pass on Veinte Cohol in favor of a more robust and flavorful plant. I have not tasted a misi luki before, but have also heard good things about it. It may be more cold sensative tho - not sure on that. For marginal climates, I've heard good things about nam weh - but no personal experience with that one either. My min temp last year was 23.5 if that helps. Multiple hard freezes. I've found that with the really robust stalked bananas like ice cream and dwarf brazilian, that if I time them right by adjusting fertilizer and aim for a trunk that is 3/4 fruiting height in November when growth essentially stops for winter, then even with a hard freeze, the trunk survives and can push out sufficient leaves to support fruit early in the next spring. The earliest I've been able to get a stalk that grows ground up starting in spring to bloom in late october, early november (got one of those going now). With xmas lights, the bunch will survive the winter, but not as tasty as those that ripen with summer hang time. An excellent resource for buying banana plants and general questions about specific species is going bananas down in south FL. Great Mom & Pop business. I'd highly recommend them.

Here's pics of the Dwarf Brazilian fruit:
Still on the plant:

Right after harvest:

Size of individual fruit:

Here is a link that might be useful: Going Bananas