The real question is...

[ChristineInSocal]

can we eat it?

I'm sure this is a very common banana plant. I've tried figuring it out on my own, but I'm confused. It was planted about 2 years ago in a sunny spot of our yard in San Diego. It's on the South side of the house and other than irrigation it's had no special care. It might have gotten some fertilizer that I use for the roses and flowers. We just pulled out tons of pups.

Here it is two weeks ago.


Here it is today.


Last year, this pup took off and I just let it go. Now I think maybe it's going to do it's banana flower thing.


I think it's a really common plant, but I can't quite figure out what it is. It's probably not more than 10 feet tall.

All my banana-loving boyfriend wants to know is can we eat it? If so, when?

[LilRaverBoi]

I would say you can definitely eat the fruit once they're ripe (but I would cut one in half to make sure it's not seeded first). Just let the plant continue to fill out the fruit and ripen them. Once you see the first few turning yellow, you can pick the bunch and allow the rest to ripen (there are threads about it around the forums). Should take ~4-6 months for the fruit to fill out and ripen from what I've read.

[Abnshrek]

I think bryan got it covered other than the type. Gabe? Very Nice Pic's BTW :^)

[Gabe15]

It's 'Dwarf Cavendish', very common and very edible indeed.

[ChristineInSocal]

Thanks so much. Dwarf Cavendish was on my list of possibilities, but I just couldn't quite narrow it down. I'll look at some of the other parts of the forum to figure out how to let the fruit ripen and harvest them.

Between the banana plant and exceeding productive fig tree next to it, we should have plenty of fresh fruit this summer.