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asacomm
07-21-2013, 08:55 PM
Hello friends,

I am looking for cold hardy prolific dwarf edible bananas. I already knew some of
them such as texas Star, Cali.Gold, Dwarf Orinoco.

Are there any other bananas to comply with the above conditions?

sunfish
07-21-2013, 09:23 PM
Hello friends,

I am looking for cold hardy dwarf edible bananas. I already knew some of
them such as texas Star, Cali.Gold, Dwarf Orinoco.

Are there any other bananas to comply with the above conditions?

asacomm I can pretty much guarantee there is no Texas star banana plant.So don't let anyone try and sell you one :)

asacomm
07-21-2013, 09:39 PM
asacomm I can pretty much guarantee there is no Texas star banana plant.So don't let anyone try and sell you one :)

Thanks for your coment, but what about my main question?

sunfish
07-21-2013, 09:41 PM
Dwarf namwah

venturabananas
07-22-2013, 12:47 AM
Yep, definitely Dwarf Namwah. Most productive dwarf banana plant I have. Thanks Tony.

asacomm
07-23-2013, 09:13 PM
Has anybody ever heard of "Dwarf Monthan/Dhusre"?
If such does exist, it must be super good because Monthan seems to grow
up to 6m/18ft and it is almost impossible to maintain in a pot.

venturabananas
08-04-2013, 11:57 PM
I've never heard of a dwarf variety of Monthan, but I agree that would be a good one.

Illia
08-05-2013, 12:25 AM
Rajapuri is another. I've heard Dwarf Brazilian is pretty cold hardy but never tested it personally.

TNAndy
08-06-2013, 07:33 AM
I've got a Super Dwarf Cavendish in flower for the first time, so I can recommend that.

However, I have not heard of any HARDY bananas that are EDIBLE.

You may have to do the same thing I am doing: I planted my banana pup in a 24 inch diameter, plastic, half-whisky-barrel liner. The barrel liner is mounted on casters so I can roll it inside in the fall and back outside the next spring. There may be other varieties that make fruit AND can fit through a door without tilting, but I don't know of any.

Illia
08-06-2013, 11:29 AM
TNAndy, depends what you call hardy. Namwah, Orinoco, and California Gold are all perfectly edible cultivars that can take zone 8, especially if their p-stem is wrapped.

TNAndy
08-06-2013, 03:16 PM
TNAndy, depends what you call hardy. Namwah, Orinoco, and California Gold are all perfectly edible cultivars that can take zone 8, especially if their p-stem is wrapped.

Greetings from ZONE 6!!! I count myself lucky when all my tropical plants live through the winter inside my sunroom. Yes, I said inside.... My planters are mounted on casters.

It has taken my SDC two years to bloom due to all the wintertime it spent hibernating.

caliboy1994
08-09-2013, 04:41 AM
Raja Puri is great. It's not as productive as Dwarf Namwah, but it's a much smaller and more compact plant.

Jose263
08-09-2013, 08:38 AM
TN - would you have a pic of your blooming SDC - how tall is it - I have SDC pups and trying to get some perspective - thanks

I've got a Super Dwarf Cavendish in flower for the first time, so I can recommend that.

However, I have not heard of any HARDY bananas that are EDIBLE.

You may have to do the same thing I am doing: I planted my banana pup in a 24 inch diameter, plastic, half-whisky-barrel liner. The barrel liner is mounted on casters so I can roll it inside in the fall and back outside the next spring. There may be other varieties that make fruit AND can fit through a door without tilting, but I don't know of any.

Jose263
08-09-2013, 08:47 AM
Hardy, edible D. nanas - zone 8b-9a - still require protection in freezes.
D orinoco - also aka Texas Star
D Namwah
RajaPuri
Cali Gold
D Braz
Goldfinger

Cavendish are less hardy than above

venturabananas
08-09-2013, 12:00 PM
Raja Puri is great. It's not as productive as Dwarf Namwah, but it's a much smaller and more compact plant.

It is a great plant, but I wouldn't describe it as "much" smaller than the others, just a bit smaller, a foot or two on average. It's shortcoming in my limited experience of one bunch from mine is that the fruit tend to have a pithy core and can be a bit "corky", but the flavor is very good and hard to distinguish from Dwarf Brazilian. Not sure if the pithy core and corkiness is normal of if that bunch just had a hard time ripening over winter.

venturabananas
08-09-2013, 12:02 PM
Hardy, edible D. nanas - zone 8b-9a - still require protection in freezes.
D orinoco - also aka Texas Star
D Namwah
RajaPuri
Cali Gold
D Braz
Goldfinger


It's a stretch to call Goldfinger a dwarf. I think technically it is considered a semi-dwarf, but with good conditions they often get 10' of p-stem or more.

Illia
08-09-2013, 12:44 PM
Honestly there are a lot more cold hardy nanners out there than Cavendish types. Rose is one who's more hardy, much shorter, and more reliable to fruit in a quicker time. I believe Sweetheart and Goldfinger are also both hardier. Mysore and Praying Hands, though rather tall, are other ones more cold-tolerant than Cavendish.

venturabananas
08-09-2013, 01:07 PM
Honestly there are a lot more cold hardy nanners out there than Cavendish types. Rose is one who's more hardy, much shorter, and more reliable to fruit in a quicker time. I believe Sweetheart and Goldfinger are also both hardier. Mysore and Praying Hands, though rather tall, are other ones more cold-tolerant than Cavendish.

It's true that Cavendish are among the least cold hardy bananas, but Rose is not more hardy, nor shorter, nor more reliable. Rose really suffers during the cool months, fruits at 6-9' in my yard, and more often than not, fails to ripen fruit. I really like the look of this plant, but it just doesn't work for reliable fruit production in my climate.

As a general rule of thumb, and there are many exceptions, banana varieties with more A (acuminata) genes are less cool hardy than those with more B (balbisiana) genes. Of the plants I'm growing, the diploid AA varieties (Rose, Veinte Cohol, Pisang Mas) are the least cold tolerant, the triploid AAA varieties (e.g., Dwarf Cavendish, Dwarf Red) are next, the triploid AAB varieties (Dwarf Brazilian, Brazilian, Manzano, Mysore) are next, and the triploid ABB varieties (Namwah, Orinoco, Monthan) are the most cold tolerant. In my yard, the tetraploid AAAB varieties (Goldfinger, FHIA-18, SH-3640) seem to be slightly less cold tolerant that the AAB varieties, and the only AAAA tetraploid I have (FHIA-2, Mona Lisa) is similar to the AAA varieties. When you start making variety by variety comparisons, some of the generalities fall apart a bit, e.g., some of the AAB varieties are essentially as cold tolerant as some ABB varieties; and plantains (AAB) are notoriously sensitive to cold.

Illia
08-09-2013, 01:14 PM
Good to know, most places I read say Rose is somewhat tolerant. Good thing you said this before I decided to move mine to the cooler section of the greenhouse. :)

venturabananas
08-09-2013, 01:24 PM
Good to know, most places I read say Rose is somewhat tolerant. Good thing you said this before I decided to move mine to the cooler section of the greenhouse. :)

I think it's all a question of what it's being compared to. I would say it is more tolerant of cold than Pisang Mas or Veinte Cohol, but less tolerant than probably everything else I grow. If you are growing it for summer foliage, not fruit, it's a very nice, attractive plant. As for fruit, even under good, tropical conditions, the fruit are tiny, averaging about an ounce.

Illia
08-09-2013, 02:06 PM
Oh I know they're small. Have yours fruited yet? I might have already asked you that though. I'm curious if they really do have a lemon hint, and how good they are. I've seen trials in Africa that say they flower in less than a year under ideal conditions, so, if I get that I don't mind small fruit as long as they taste good.

venturabananas
08-09-2013, 04:22 PM
The mat has produced 4 blooms over the last year, but I have yet to try a Rose banana. The female fingers on two bunches shriveled up and died before getting anywhere near ripening (despite still continuing to produce male flowers), one looks like it will have few if any female fingers, and the other has been hanging around for 8 months but hasn't ripened yet. I haven't had bunches fail like this on any of the other 10 or so varieties that bloomed in my garden. So, no, unfortunately, I can't comment on the flavor.