bigdog

The presentation was phenomenal. Dr. Wallace has been busy on his "second job," lol! We are lucky to have him as a member here on bananas.org. I think the best part of the presentation was...his shirt. A very loud but tasteful, Hawaiian shirt with large bananas all over it. I want one.

Seriously, the work that they've been doing with 'Veinte Cohol' is awesome and inspiring! The problems that I run into here with my Orinocos is that even if they flower by the end of July, there are usually only about 3-5 leaves on the plant, and therefore the bunches are pretty small. With 'Veinte Cohol', it's such a fast grower that by the end of July there should be a sufficient amount of leaves on the plant to support good-sized bunches (I think they are getting 25 lb. bunches in Savannah). The cool thing was seeing EVERY 'Veinte Cohol' with a large bunch of fruit hanging from it! This could be exactly what some of us in cooler climates have been looking for, minus the cold-hardiness.

The ornamental hybrid pictures were marvelous also! I believe that they are due to be released next year sometime, and ever one of them looked great. One of them had almost a neon-purple bract color, and the fruit were also very brightly colored. Some really cool stuff coming out soon, and no doubt Richard is working on more stuff for future release.