Quote:
Originally Posted by Aranon
3 to 5 years huh? ouch, so do you mean these plants will live that long before fruiting? I wasn't aware one of these could live that long. Or will it take 3 to 5 years of new generation pups to fruit?
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When the corm of Musa flowers, the corm does not produce more leaves. Once the leaves die, the corm will wither soon afterwards. You will of course have "pups" that live on - hopefully in their own containers.
It takes a certain number of degree-days and solar Watt-days for the corm to mature, produce a flower bud, and (in the case of dessert type bananas) the fruit bunch to mature to a stage that it can be picked and hung to ripen. I do not know of an empirical formula, instead the industry appears to be based on trial-and-error. For the members here from the Midwest US (excepting those with a tropical greenhouse) the experience has been 5 years to produce fruit.