William LeGro

Aloha. We had incredible apple banana plants at our home on Kaua`i, but we had to destroy them all - they got bunchy-top virus. We're trying again, but we also want these plants for our home in Los Angeles. I hate the standard supermarket bananas - make me choke, tasteless. In Hawai`i we sometimes refer to the apple bananas as Brazilian bananas, and also strawberry bananas. Can anyone tell me where I can get some plants/rhizomes? And whether the growing conditions here are good enough? Last year we got only 9 inches of rain, but we have good irrigation and a huge water bill. Southwest-facing, plenty of sun, but the soil is very weird - clay, I think, but seems sandy, too, and water runs right off the top of it like it's Gore-tex. All I want is a decent banana! Mahalo nui loa for any kokua. Or brigada, as the case may be.

raygrogan

Ho, good luck in your quest. You can get some good advice (and maybe keiki) from some of the local LA growers here.

Back on Kauai ... on your next trip, plan a few hours on Oahu and go by UH for some good disease-free keiki: http://www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/UHMG/dow...nanas_ADSC.pdf
You'll see "dwarf apple" on about page 5. Generally you order the keiki a few months ahead of time, then go by the seed lab to pickup. I call the day before and they get the order pulled from the greenhouse. The plants are like 2 bucks each or something reasonable. As long as you watch out for BBTV, and kill the plants that get it, you can grow bananas, just not quite as easily as before.

caliboy1994

Here, we call Hawaiian Apple bananas Brazilian. They're fairly common around here, and do excellent in our climate. The dwarf form will be better for L.A. because it stands up much better to the Santa Anas. I suggest you talk to Mark (venturabananas) or Mitchell (momoese), because I know that they both are growing Dwarf Brazilian. My unidentified plants are probably Dwarf Brazilian too, and I'll let you know if I have any pups available if it turns out to be that. I'm currently up in the San Jose area for college, but I'm a San Fernando Valley native and I'll be home for winter and summer break. I see that you're fairly close to both me and Mitchell, who lives in West LA near Culver City. You should throw him a PM and ask him if he has any pups.

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Abnshrek

Hello, Welcome & Happy Banana plant Hunting. :^)

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momoese

I have some Tall Brazilian/ Hawaiian Apple pups. The original plants were hand delivered from Hawaii by the marine biologist Charles Moore on his research vessel. Pm me if interested. I also have Dwarf Brazilian pups.