barney

I have been reading the Banana,org posts for quite some time, but unable to register & join in due to a Paypay problem. Now that the rego is free, you`ll have to put up with riff raff like me!
I live reasonably close to the Indian Ocean in SW Western Australia, about 3 miles away, so we are lucky in not having frosts here! However cold icy winds from the Southern Ocean are often prevailing in the winter & both humans & Banana trees dont like`em!
When I get over the fact that ive just been made a grandpa to my first baby grandson tonight I will send some photos, but in the meantime CHEERS everyone!!
Barney

The Hollyberry Lady

harveyc

Welcome, Barney. What varieties do you grow there? I've heard that bananas are heavily regulated there so you can't get very many varieties for fear of spreading diseases to commercial growers.

__________________

barney

Thank you everyone for such a warm welcome! The only variety I have is Cavendish. yes we are very restricted in Aust.re. what we can buy. In fact I believe ordinary folks in Qld cannot go to a nursery & buy a musa of any description. In WA we seem to have 2 legal choices, kavendish & Lady finger, thats all, but its better than nothing.

harveyc

I wish I had a some sort of legal restriction on what I could buy. Sometimes self control isn't what it should be. I think I've bought at least 40 varieties by now, way more than someone in my climate should be trying to mess with. I'm a bit thankful that this past cold winter took out 4 or 5 of my plants so I have room for some other things.

__________________

barney

40 varieties is quite something harveyc ! Do you have any pics of them as a group & do you get frost in your neck of the woods?

harveyc

Yes, you could say we get some frost!

While much of the USA had a mild winter, northern California and the northwest had a cold winter. I'd guess we normally get 4-8 days of frost in a year and get down to 28F. This winter we had 35 days with frost and got down to 22F. Pretty tough year.

Here is where I posted a photo after the first frosts in December:
Current weather

Here's a more recent frost that shows the destruction!
Harvey's Hardy Banana

Both photos just show a portion of my banana plantings with more bananas to the far right where I have some older plants that fared pretty well. One of them hasn't put out any new leaves but has flowered and is maybe up to 80 fingers and it's going to be fun to see if adjoining plants will nourish them and allow them to develop reasonably well. I've never had a banana flower for me in March before. I sure wish it had at least a couple of new leaves emerge.

__________________

barney

Harveyc, obviously California is a lengthy state like Western Australia with just about every climate possible! I admire your tenacity regarding growing musa in such a cold winter climate. Next question is have you had a harvest yet?

barney

A big thank you to everyone today who have also welcomed me to Bananas.org. I know I will be amongst like minded friends here!

Narnia

Congrats Granpa Dave! Over here Lismore NSW we had no trouble obtaining Tisssue Cultures from DPI Theres a few varieties available over here so far we just grow Cavindish,Dwarf Cav,Gold Finger and Lady Finger The DPI Regional Office gave us a permit to get some suckers from an approved grower in our area. You could easily get a list of available varieties then ask the nearest Office if they could tell you where to get some.The DPI in Murwillumbah is always very helpful in providing info . Your Grandson's name?

harveyc

Yes, I have bananas every year, but last year's summer was even cool so many did not mature (think I had 6 bunches). Some are more reliable than others. My best so far is some unknown (mislabeled) variety that grows to 10-11' which I have given the name "Mystery Busy Bee banana" (I once posted a photo with the flower fully of busy bees....real creative). A few winters ago we had just 3-4 frosts and down to 28F and most bananas still had some green leaves by spring so that was much better than this winter!

__________________

barney

Thanks Narnia! New bab`s name is Cooper! Re. bananas WA quarantine is like the Gestapo so unlikely to succeed with tissue cultures but maybe worth a try!

barnetmill

In the US some states on the major interstate highways have agricultural inspection points for certain items. For example I know you are not suppose to bring in citrus products to my state of Florida. Do you have simlar restrictions between your provinces in Australia? Prior to the high cost of gas (petrol) many people here would drive coast to coast for vacations and to see family.

Narnia

Recently our visitors from Victoria declined taking bananas home because they can't take fruit over the boarder
We used to have tick gates at various points in country areas = an inspection point for livestock passing through, at that point also, any produce had to be declared.
In recent years East Coast Aust has had trouble with a disease on frangipani trees. And another major concern is a thing called Myrtle Rust.

barney

At the border between WA & SA on the Nullarbor at Eucla the quarantine is very strict. No fruit , vegies, ( even peeled onions) or honey are allowed into WA. They can strip your vehicle if they suspect anything!

CMatt527

Congratulations on becoming a grandfather!

__________________
There's a lot to be said for nowhere...,

barney

Please tell me dear musacians! To post a photo do I click on the envelope thingy between the whatyoumacallit & the doodaa?

NSW Bananas

Welcome to Bananas.org From another Aussie you might be able to order tissue cultures from bluesky backyard bananas Blue Sky Backyard Bananas | Banana Plants for backyards | Australian Bananas

They sell tissue cultured tube stock Not sure about to WA but you could ask.

harveyc

Depends on if you have your photo hosted somewhere (stored on the Internet) already. If not, you can upload it to your gallery here at the org (until you run out of storage space allocated to you) and then post the BB link you get from there. If you already have it hosted somewhere, click on the little button in the reply box that has an image of mountains and the sun on it and then paste the link to your photo there.

__________________

barney

Thanks for the info NSW Bananas & Harveyc. I havent tried tissue culture of any kind so it would certainly be a learning curve for me. Will check to see whats involved. I will attempt to send a photo of my cavendish in its protective frame & you might recognise it NSW B
from Daleys forum!
Not as easy as Daleys either cos I am asked to enter the URL of my image instead of browsing thru my Picassa 'pictures'