harveyc

My intent with this thread is to help assess the hardiness of varieties which isn't something that can be done very well with plants that were provided protection.

Double (Mahoi) is a variety that is rated as hardy to zone 9 but I've concluded that is bad information. I've had it die on me the past two years so I won't bother with it again.

Cardaba is also dead, so I won't bother with it again.

Hua Moa might sprout pups from the corm, but probably won't grow well enough to fruit here unprotected.

Ice Cream did fine and has new leaves from the top.

Praying Hands did fine and has new leaves from the top.

My supposed Dwarf Brazilian (fruit hung verticially in 2008, though, so I'm not sure) from Joe Real did fine but the fruit took too long to ripen last year so I don't know that I'll grow it for much longer. I'll give it another try for at least this year, though. The fruit I harvested in late December took over two months to ripen and tasted "okay". Pups which formed last year are growing well.

My supposed Raja Puri (bought as TC several years ago which died back to the corm in January 20F freeze) did okay. In fact, I left the fruit on it from the August 2008 bloom and had the fruit covered with a green garbage bag and the fruit looks fine. One of the original leaves from last year has a little green on it and I will trim back all of the dead material to expose green psuedostem in hopes that this will ripen the fruit. It isn't quite filled out yet so I will give it time. Also, the mat has several pups and I wonder if the pups can provide any nutrition to the old bunch. I've read some comments that they might. Pups which formed last year are growing well.

I have an unknown variety that Mitchel and Gabe guess might be Namwah (tall) sold to me as a TC Dwarf Orinoco by Wellspring 4-5 years ago. It flowered for the first time for me last year after sprouting pups back from our January 2007 20F freeze and several tall plants are giving new leaves this year so I expect at least one of them to fruit again this year. One thing I really was impressed with this banana was that it flowered around 9/28 (guessing from memory) last year and I harvested the bunch in late December. The fruit weren't large but tasted good after taking about a month to ripen.

I have one other unknown variety. A larger 4' plant that was growing strong at the end of last year is growing well while a smaller separate plant has green tissue in the center but has not sent up a new leaf yet. I'll write more on this one later.

There are some plants which I will certainly provide protection as I think they are special plants (Ae Ae, and some 40-day bananas I hope to get soon), but that is for another thread some day. I also have 'San Jose' in the greenhouse and will plant it in the ground very soon but probably won't be bringing it back inside since it's now large enough for a true test of its performance.

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