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Katie Thompson
09-24-2019, 08:55 AM
Hi all,

A local old-style amusement park ("Jungle Village") was torn down, and I got the demo guys to set aside some of the clumps of neglected bananas for me. I got two trailer loads. After cleaning them up and pulling off pups, I have about 60 new plants. Many are over 7 feet tall. I also got to have a nice experience seeing some old old root masses. Everything looked healthy, just tired and in need of some care.

Here's part of the harvest...

this first shot is a panorama showing the second batch lined up against the outer fence of my west garden. I filled two trash barrels with the dead leaves, also threw out the 'foreign' soil (just in case...). This batch was 20 plants/root masses, but after splitting off pups, the total was 44.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65367&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65367&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65363&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65363&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65366&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65366&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65365&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65365&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65364&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65364&ppuser=30242)

Backyard Banana Joe
09-24-2019, 10:39 AM
Hi all,

A local old-style amusement park ("Jungle Village") was torn down, and I got the demo guys to set aside some of the clumps of neglected bananas for me. I got two trailer loads. After cleaning them up and pulling off pups, I have about 60 new plants. Many are over 7 feet tall. I also got to have a nice experience seeing some old old root masses. Everything looked healthy, just tired and in need of some care.

Here's part of the harvest...

this first shot is a panorama showing the second batch lined up against the outer fence of my west garden. I filled two trash barrels with the dead leaves, also threw out the 'foreign' soil (just in case...). This batch was 20 plants/root masses, but after splitting off pups, the total was 44.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65367&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65367&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65363&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65363&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65366&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65366&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65365&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65365&ppuser=30242)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=65364&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=65364&ppuser=30242) They look like Orinoco :woohoonaner::03::ha::08::woohoonaner:

edwmax
09-24-2019, 11:56 AM
They are .... Orinoco. Hang that bunch up to ripen. Taste when the there is a little brown on the yellow pell and the nana is slightly soft.

edwmax
09-24-2019, 12:09 PM
Don't worry too much about the 'foreign' soil. Just get them back into the ground. ... ABSOLUTELY a great score for $6000 to $10k in mature nana plants.


I would set 4 corms in a square about 2 ft apart; and then space the (4 plnt) groups 6 ft apart. Fertilize & water well, next year your should have a lot of bunches.

Katie Thompson
09-24-2019, 03:02 PM
thanks everybody! I just went to taste some of the green (now some with yellow/black) bananas and they are tasty, but a tough core/string in the middle. Is that a trait of the variety, or due to them looking a bit lean and immature when I got the bunch?

Edwmax, very cool to think of my nanners being worth a lot eventually. I think the demolition crew was a little sad to be ripping everything down, so they even helped load the piles on the trailer. We gave them $40 tip for each load, so I paid about $1.15 per plant. I could barely lift some of them when I was unloading the trailer.

Of course, I will spend another $200 on pots from my pot dealers this week. (I keep everything in pots, 25 gal plus. The soil here is sand. Not just 'sandy'... it is sand, with seashells.) I haven't had anything in pots bear fruit yet, but the plants are beautiful. I buy lots of manure.

cincinnana
09-24-2019, 03:22 PM
Great find.:woohoonaner:

edwmax
09-24-2019, 06:33 PM
thanks everybody! I just went to taste some of the green (now some with yellow/black) bananas and they are tasty, but a tough core/string in the middle. Is that a trait of the variety, or due to them looking a bit lean and immature when I got the bunch?

Edwmax, very cool to think of my nanners being worth a lot eventually. I think the demolition crew was a little sad to be ripping everything down, so they even helped load the piles on the trailer. We gave them $40 tip for each load, so I paid about $1.15 per plant. I could barely lift some of them when I was unloading the trailer.

Of course, I will spend another $200 on pots from my pot dealers this week. (I keep everything in pots, 25 gal plus. The soil here is sand. Not just 'sandy'... it is sand, with seashells.) I haven't had anything in pots bear fruit yet, but the plants are beautiful. I buy lots of manure.




2 & 3 year old corms with an 8 ft growing pstem (mature plants; 25 gal + pots) retails for $150 to $180 at nurseries. The new pups 2 ft tall, $15 to $35. The mature plants are used in 'commercial' type landscapes where a finished look is required.



Instead of pots build raised beds and fill with ground pine bark mix or soilless mix. .... You could also dig out a hole as big as your largest pot and fill with soilless potting mix (mix 50/50 with the sand from the hole).


The tough core you refereed to is from being still green. In the green stage try frying the nana (tostones). The green nana is starchy like a potato. Orinoco are dual purpose bananas. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/16768/puerto-rican-tostones-fried-plantains/

Katie Thompson
09-26-2019, 04:27 AM
thanks Edwmax, I'm so cheap I haven't even priced the big plants. Much more fun to grow them from pups anyway.
And thank you about the tough cores! I was worried. Now I will be patient.

For now, I am keeping everything (except the front garden) in big pots. I'm invading the neighborhood, going up and down the alley and into the neighboring parking field. Everyone is fine with it as long as they stay in pots.
Picked up a dozen barrels yesterday that we will split and drill out. They will be full of plants by the weekend. I'm getting some bigger pots today, too. Nice to have the nurseries around here!

The heat here in the summers in unbearable, but the banana gardening makes it worthwhile. And the beer tastes so much better.:bananas_b

HMelendez
09-26-2019, 10:07 PM
Katie,




Congratulations!....Awesome score!.....Good luck!.....







:2723::bananarow::2723:

hdynad
09-29-2019, 04:30 PM
Very cool Katie! If only those bananas could talk!!! Thanks for saving them and bringing them back to life.

happy growing,

Darla