Bennz

I'm playing around with dwarf bananas under plastic to see if I can get some commercial quality fruit from my dwarf plants in temperate New Zealand. I've been growing bananas for almost 20 years, and there are several cv.s that produce good fruit outside for me here, Pacha Nadaan, Misi Luki (NZ/Cal. form ex-Samoa) in particular. My main problem is that to produce in my cool temperatures the plants need huge amounts of inputs of time, fertiliser, and water. Under plastic they grow a lot faster and with less inputs, and I'm hoping to get some better fruit with less hassle.

Under plastic I have the following cv.s: rajapuri, Dwarf orinoco, Mahoi, various Dwarf cav types including Grande Naine (ex-Israel), a TC offtype of Aussie Mons Maree, and various subtypes such as Dwarf cav ex-Norfolk Island.

My climate is coolish oceanic temperate, USDA zone 10 as far as extreme cold goes, but with a mean annual air temperature of only 15C. Under a very simple plastic cover the daytime max temperature is consistently in the 30'sC in summer, and usually at least 20C in winter, but the nights cool off to ambient air temperature (mean minimum of 15C in summer, 6C in winter) within a few hours of sunset.

Are there any dwarf banana cv.s that don't mind a consistent 15C+ diurnal temperature range? Am I likely to get my ideal commercial-quality fruit in a very simple greenhouse structure without any night heating?

So far results are promising, after about 10 months under plastic some of my plants look big enough to start flowering. I have seen a banana grower in another part of NZ who put tall bananas under plastic and ended up with 200-300% height growth, but I'm hoping that will not happen with the dwarfs.

Any comments would be appreciated.



Cheers,


Ben