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Clare_CA
09-01-2009, 01:10 PM
Has anyone heard of this banana? Any additional information about it would be greatly appreciated.

JuniPerez
09-01-2009, 01:21 PM
The "sweetheart" is listed in Agri-start's website (http://www.agristarts.com/musa_sweetheart.htm). I see it's a few years new, but I'm sure it'll be no time before there's plenty out on the market.

It's also on the Wiki here on bananas.org (http://www.bananas.org/wiki/Musa_FHIA-3_Sweetheart).

pitangadiego
09-01-2009, 01:48 PM
We Be Bananas (http://webebananas.com/bvar-R-S.html)

It is a large, sweet banana. Huge pseudostem, tall plant, large bunches.

Clare_CA
09-01-2009, 01:56 PM
Awesome. Thank you for the links and information. I am glad that I have this one. It was just recently transplanted from my friend's yard to mine. The link said that the temp should stay above 65, but it gets into the 40's here in the winter with an occasional high 30's for a few hours. Maybe I'll have to cover it this winter.

mike
09-01-2009, 04:02 PM
I have had mine for three or four years. It gets below forty here and I dont have a problem with them coming back. My problem in timing. Mine are ready to fruit at the time the cold comes in every year. Looks as if this will be the problem this year also. This year I am not going to thin and hope for fruit next year. I was not aware they were rare. Mine do not pup much at all one maybe two a year but could just be me. Your stem looks tall and thin. I dont recall mine every looking that way. This could be growing conditions. Mine are pretty thick in the stem and grows pretty thick, different conditions could be the reason. Congrats on the new baby they are beautiful plants and produce pretty nice size bunches.

sunfish
09-01-2009, 04:09 PM
Clare_CA in zone 10 you won't have any problem growing FHIA-3.

Gabe15
09-01-2009, 05:10 PM
This kind of information is not yet available for all the varieties in the international genebank, but for the released hybrids from breeding programs (such as FHIA), there is a new system on the Bioversity International site.

FHIA-03 (http://platforms.inibap.org/cultivars/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=84)

Clare_CA
09-01-2009, 09:46 PM
Thanks, Mike, Tony, and Gabe for your replies.

Richard
09-01-2009, 10:52 PM
Awesome. Thank you for the links and information. I am glad that I have this one. It was just recently transplanted from my friend's yard to mine. The link said that the temp should stay above 65, but it gets into the 40's here in the winter with an occasional high 30's for a few hours. Maybe I'll have to cover it this winter.

Sounds like my weather here in northwestern San Diego. My sweetheart continued to put out a few leaves a month last winter. Then it let me know its 15-gallon pot was too small ...

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/Sweethearts_2009-04.jpg

Clare_CA
09-02-2009, 12:50 PM
Whoa! That's awesome, Richard! It broke right through the pot! Cool. I've had brugmansias do that.

Yeah, our climates are similar, I'm sure. I'm in Camarillo, CA, in Ventura County. I just moved to a new more open location just a mile away from where I used to live, but the microclimates are definitely different so it will be interesting to see how the bananas do here.

JuniPerez
09-02-2009, 03:43 PM
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=16422 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=16287)

Woah... new cultivar??? Musa Hulk?!?!? Ripped right through the pot! :ha:

Richard
09-02-2009, 06:35 PM
Yeah, our climates are similar, I'm sure. I'm in Camarillo, CA, in Ventura County. I just moved to a new more open location just a mile away from where I used to live, but the microclimates are definitely different so it will be interesting to see how the bananas do here.

A very good friend of mine lives in Somis. He has no problems growing bananas, not to mention the two fruiting Lucma's (Pouteria lucuma) on his property.

Richard
10-05-2011, 10:37 AM
Sweetheart ... or not Sweetheart ... that is the question !!!

The first generation of the famous "crackpot" plant discussed 2 years ago did not produce much fruit. However, a pup from the corm grew into a very dense, stout plant with an 11-inch diameter base, 6-inch vertical spacing between leaf petitoles, and a 6-foot high pstem that threw out a large bud of about 120 fingers.

So is it really Sweetheart ... I have some doubts. Here are some photos of leaf front/back, female flowers, and male flowers:

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetheartLeaves_540x720.jpg

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetHeartFemaleFlowers_540_435.jpg

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetheartMaleFlowers_540x540.jpg

caliboy1994
10-06-2011, 12:17 PM
Sounds like a cultivar that I might want to take a look at. I plan on getting a bunch of other varieties next spring (i.e. the REAL Ice Cream, 1000 Fingers, maybe Dwarf Red). The good news is that after we're done working on my backyard there will be a lot more room to plant stuff. The fence around the pool was removed and I was amazed at how much bigger the yard looks now. How does this one taste compared to other varieties like Cavendish types and Ice Cream?

Richard
10-06-2011, 12:53 PM
Sounds like a cultivar that I might want to take a look at. I plan on getting a bunch of other varieties next spring (i.e. the REAL Ice Cream, 1000 Fingers, maybe Dwarf Red). The good news is that after we're done working on my backyard there will be a lot more room to plant stuff. The fence around the pool was removed and I was amazed at how much bigger the yard looks now. How does this one taste compared to other varieties like Cavendish types and Ice Cream?

Sweetheart ... or not Sweetheart ... that is the question !!!

sunfish
10-06-2011, 01:12 PM
What could it be ?

Richard
11-28-2011, 03:55 PM
Ok, so here's the final count, from 1st hand to last hand with fruit:

29
22
20
20
18
16
19
15 + a few males
8 + males
1 + lots of males
--------------------
168 total.

Typical fruit size: 4 inches (10 cm) long and 3/4 inch (2 cm) wide.

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/Sweetheart_bunch_525_700.jpg

Clare_CA
11-28-2011, 04:10 PM
Mine hasn't fruited yet so I can't do a comparison to mine. Your leaves look a little wider than mine, and I don't think mine has the white on the back of the leaves that yours do.

venturabananas
11-29-2011, 02:20 AM
Richard, according to the official FHIA key, FHIA 3 is the only FHIA banana with a pseudostem that is "bright light green, no blotches or very few". The red on the pseudostem of the one in your old photo seems to suggest it is not the real deal, but I've been amazed at how much red/pink some cultivars can get in the pseudostem and petioles under certain conditions.

See attached.

bananimal
11-29-2011, 02:51 AM
Clare ----- be advised. A few years back I got some FHIA 3 fruit along with a pup from a friend. After tasting the fruit I gave the pup away and tossed the rest of the fruit hand. It was so sickly sweet that I just couldn't get it down.

Try to sample the fruit before investing in a pup. Oh yeah, my buddy told me he tossed his entire mat soon afterwards. He couldn't eat the fruit either. It made good compost. :ha:

Dan

Richard
11-29-2011, 12:05 PM
Richard, according to the official FHIA key, FHIA 3 is the only FHIA banana with a pseudostem that is "bright light green, no blotches or very few". The red on the pseudostem of the one in your old photo seems to suggest it is not the real deal, but I've been amazed at how much red/pink some cultivars can get in the pseudostem and petioles under certain conditions.

Thanks Dan, everything about this plant seems to contradict what I've read about Sweetheart.

Clare_CA
11-29-2011, 05:12 PM
Thanks for that info. That's good to know. Maybe it would just be a good banana for smoothies then. I've been growing it for more than a year now so I might as well let it fruit and see. I'll be yanking it though if the fruit is less than desireable. It seems to be a very slow pupper.

Richard
11-29-2011, 06:08 PM
Ok, so I'm still wondering what I have!!!

Clare_CA
11-29-2011, 07:00 PM
Well, what cultivars have white powdery undersides of the leaves and a red trunk like that? Mark?

Did you put it in the I.D. forum for Gabe?

bananimal
11-29-2011, 08:20 PM
My understanding of the FHIA goal was to develope naners that could grow well in areas of the word devastated by plant diseases. I am amazed how well FHIA-1, the Goldfinger, does in my same crappy soil as others that don't. Great taste and performance. Year after year.

Maybe other countries/cultures cook Sweetheart instead of out of hand raw?!

Richard
11-29-2011, 11:01 PM
My understanding of the FHIA goal was to develope naners that could grow well in areas of the word devastated by plant diseases.

And stand up to seasonal hurricanes.

venturabananas
11-30-2011, 03:06 AM
FHIA 3 was intended to be a cooking banana.

http://www.fhia.org.hn/dowloads/info_hibridos/fhia03.pdf

bananimal
11-30-2011, 07:05 PM
I don't believe that I have never checked out the FHIA website before. Just stuff others have written about them. Great stuff!

So go ahead and cook them Sweethearts folks. Any tetraploid is worth growing just to avoid disease issues.

Clare_CA
12-01-2011, 01:24 PM
That is a good website. Maybe I don't have a Sweetheart. Mine does not have a dark stem as it says in the description.

Clare_CA
12-07-2011, 12:59 PM
Sweetheart ... or not Sweetheart ... that is the question !!!

The first generation of the famous "crackpot" plant discussed 2 years ago did not produce much fruit. However, a pup from the corm grew into a very dense, stout plant with an 11-inch diameter base, 6-inch vertical spacing between leaf petitoles, and a 6-foot high pstem that threw out a large bud of about 120 fingers.

So is it really Sweetheart ... I have some doubts. Here are some photos of leaf front/back, female flowers, and male flowers:

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetheartLeaves_540x720.jpg

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetHeartFemaleFlowers_540_435.jpg

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/image_gallery/SweetheartMaleFlowers_540x540.jpg

I think it's possible yours could be the same plant as my Raja Puri. My Raja Puri has white powder on the underside of the leaves, and the fruit stalk pattern looks about the same. The only different that I can see from the pictures is that my fruit is slightly smaller. My Raja Puri has beautiful dark green leaves and pups like crazy. I just spent spend a good part of yesterday thinning my mat and noticed the white powder and thought of yours.

Richard
12-07-2011, 04:22 PM
I think it's possible yours could be the same plant as my Raja Puri. My Raja Puri has white powder on the underside of the leaves ...

Thanks, although whitish underside on my plant is not a powder or anything that rubs off.

sunfish
12-07-2011, 04:25 PM
Thanks, although whitish underside on my plant is not a powder or anything that rubs off.

Ricard I got a pup from you it is different then Dwarf Cavendish and RP

Richard
12-07-2011, 04:42 PM
Ricard I got a pup from you it is different then Dwarf Cavendish and RP

I would agree with Gabe that my mislabeled banana has Cavendish genetics, but I also agree with you Tony that it has some different features than D.C.

If the original source got FHIA-3 confused with FHIA-2, then it would be Mona Lisa. Looking at the pictures posted by Gabe, I would say its a good match:
http://www.bananas.org/f12/could-mona-lisa-9056.html

Clare_CA
12-07-2011, 08:54 PM
It looks like the Mona Lisa has little red male flowers whereas yours are white, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to identification so I'll leave it to the experts here.

Richard
12-07-2011, 09:02 PM
It looks like the Mona Lisa has little red male flowers whereas yours are white, but I'm pretty clueless when it comes to identification so I'll leave it to the experts here.

Well, I'm more clueless than you!