Bananas.org - New to bananas

Quote:

Originally Posted by apple (Post 115212)

Got interested in bananas thru a friend on this site--Am interested in growing a few of the more cold hardy varieties as I will be planting in central fl and central georgia, anyone out there have any suggestions on a couple of cold hardy varieties?? We see temps in both places in the low 20's to high teens every year

Thanks!!

Expect to lose the leaves during the winter time but the corms and p stems are easy to save when the winter comes in your area. Just wrap them with cloth then clear plastics and make sure they are dry. If you have lots of fallen leaves you can use them as a protection by burying the p stem to them.
Worm Farmer has told you some good varieties to start with.
Here's some suggestions that I copied in my folder:

Musa 'Brazilian'
Remarks: Extremely sweet fruit. Somewhat wind resistant.
Musa 'Brazilian'- This excellent landscaping specimen has good wind resistance. Very popular also for its small bunches of extremely sweet, tasty fruit. It grows best in tropical climates in the ground where it can show off the green-and-pink-tinted pseudostem and dark green foliage. One of our most popular bananas.Height: 15 to 20 feet
MISI LUKI

DESCRIPTION:
[H]as the same characteristics as 'Dwarf Namwah', and disease resistant. The 4" fruit has excellent flavor. (032) [A] vigorous plant with purpley pink midribs somewhat tolerant of drought and poor soils, with very tightly packed cylindrical bunches up to 77lb of slightly yellowish fleshed pleasantly sweet/acid balanced, short and fat attractive bright yellow 'bottle necked' fruit. It is known for the fruit to hold well on the bunch, even at full ripeness.This cultivar is the main commercial banana of India. It is suceptible to Panama disease. (056) [s]hort, rotund, 4" long finger-type bananas are very sweet. A large, skinny grower, it is best in locations not exposed to hard winds. While some say it tends to go dormant at higher temperatures than other varieties such as Goldfinger or Orinoco/Dwarf Orinoco, others dispute this. It was reportedly selected from a high elevation in Samoa, and it does seem to produce good quality fruit to 4" under cool conditions according to one commercial grower in New Zealand. Another Southern California grower in a warm location rates it among his best (079) Samoan variety, crops really well in New Zealand. Bananas are short, fat and very sweet. (078) Selected variety from Samoan highlands. Originally from India. Fruiting banana of excellent quality. We have extensively trialed this banana with excellent results. A good all round variety for subtropical conditions. (038) [A] vigorous plant with purpley pink midribs somewhat tolerant of drought and poor soils, with very tightly packed cylindrical bunches up to 35kg of slightly yellowish fleshed pleasantly sweet/acid balanced, short and fat attractive bright yellow 'bottle necked' fruit. It is known for the fruit to hold well on the bunch, even at full ripeness. This cultivar is the main commercial banana of India. It is suceptible to Panama disease. [Same as Mysore.] (058) Apple-like flavor. (910)
{EDIT} Mysore is the original misi luki, same banana, different name. It is an Indian desert banana, very widely grown. Problem is, the Misi Luki plant you have is almost definetly not the true misi luki. Here is the history; A Dutch guy called Dick Endt settled in Auckland NZ in the 50s, with a fascination for tropical fruit coming I believe from his familys time in the 'Dutch East Indies' colonies. He has done a huge amount of work with cool tolerant high altitude tropical plants, being one of the people who introduced Babaco to the West, as well as pushing plants like Parajubaea and Mountain papaya forms. Most of the plants he introduced into NZ, he then sent to USA via his CRFG contacts. Anyway, he was in Samoa one time, and found a banana at high altitude there called 'misi luki' by the locals. He brought it into NZ, where it grew well. He then introduced it to the USA, and this is the form that you Americans know by that name. The trouble is, there was an eralier import of misi luki into NZ, which is a very differnt plant. Thewr eis now a lot of debate as to whether Dick Endts Misi Luki is a misi luki at all. To sum, up, I have no idea what the difference between the Misi luki that you and I have, and the true misi luki, and mysore. Sorry, I am no help at all! One thing though, I did once prune a misi luki (same form as yours!) bunch right down to about 2 hands of about 10 bananas each. The fruit got so big that I couldn't get it in past my teeth, and the fruit ripened in an amazingly short time, but I cant remeber exactly how long. I think about 2 months or less???? "Ben" via D JohnsonTYPE:
GENETICS:
HEIGHT: 10-12' (910), (032), 12' (038), 15' (056), 15-20' (079)
ORIGIN: India (038), Samoa (078) (079)
DISEASE: Panama susceptible.
HIGHLIGHTS: Apple-like flavor.
Musa 'Manzano' (Apple)- This plant is a seedless diploid that is rendered so by bearing sterile female flowers. It is not produced commercially on large scale but it is usually grown in backyards for family consumption. Its sub-acid flavor is reminiscent of a cross between an apple and a very sweet banana, which make a pleasing combination. It must be allowed to ripen fully before eating. The plant is somewhat cold hardy and will not be harmed by temperatures that are close to freezing. If frost is allowed to form on its leaves they will turn brown. The plant grows 12'-14' tall and is mostly green colored with just a light margin of red around the leaf. Full sun.
Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 6 to 7 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Very tasty, edible fruits.
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Musa 'Double (Mahoi)
Musa 'Double (Mahoi)- Dwarf plant that grows to about 5 to 7 feet tall. A very rare and unusual plant that produces two large heads of fruit on the same plant. Can occasionally produce a third head of fruit also. Fruit is very tasty and sweet. Double (Mahoi) makes an excellent container plant. A must for serious collectors. A 'Dwarf Cavendish' mutation. Mahoi means twins in Hawaiian.
Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 5 to 7 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Good for containers. Excellent sweet fruit. Conversation piece.

-------------DOUBLE - This beautiful Cavendish type has very wide, dark green leaves and produces a full sized fruit. Also called the Mahoi, the second generation produces multiple bunches of fruit, usually 2 but sometimes more. Height 5-6 ft.
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NINO - This exceptional sweet, thin skinned baby banana produces a fruit about 3-4 inches long. It is a light green plant that grows rapidly to about 8-10 ft. It may take several to quench your banana hunger but every bite is a treat
SWEETHEART
FHIA-3

DESCRIPTION:
The FHIA (Fundación Hondureña de Investigacion Agrícola) is a federal organization that is owned by the Honduran government. It has been breeding bananas for forty years. Their first widely available cultivar, Musa hybrid FHIA-1 ('Goldfinger'), is already, having some impact and this new hybrid is sure to follow. FHIA-3 ('Sweetheart') was bred and selected for increased disease resistance and yield. Excellent flavor and good size make it attractive to the home gardener. (032) A very new, improved fresh or cooking type, capable of being grown cooler and winter cold tolerant, disease resistant, semi dwarf, stocky. Very similar to 'Goldfinger.' It is very tolerant of sub-standard growing conditions, especially poor quality soils. The fruit ripen very quickly after picking so they should be left on the stalk until almost needed. Just harvest one hand at a time. It has great flavor, with a good sweet/acid ratio, very smooth texture, and resistance to browning after peeling. It also has a relatively fast production cycle, is a heavy producer, and a fast ripener. This variety seems to be a classic "home" variety, a poor commercial shipper of wide climactic adaptability and great fresh quality. It has a reputation for drought and wind resistance. Clusters are usually 30-60 lbs. (079) A new banana cultivar known as FHIA-3 was tested in Uganda in comparison with established local cultivars. FHIA-3 had excellent yield characteristics and resistance to black sigatoka disease. This work describes research into the suitability of FHIA-3 for processing into matooke, a starchy food prepared from cooking bananas. FHIA-3 was compared with three indigenous matooke banana cultivars known as Nakabululu, Mukazi-alanda and Nakyetengu. They were evaluated by a panel of trained judges for softness, lumpiness, stickiness, sweetness, astringency, aroma, yellow color intensity, color uniformity, and by another panel of untrained consumers on overall acceptability alone. Their physical attributes such as bunch compactness and fruit sheen which are known to be important in the market were also subjectively evaluated. Further evaluation was done using objective methods on soluble solids, color and texture. FHIA 3 was completely unacceptable to the consumers as a matooke cultivar although it may be suitable for other forms of utilization. (091) [A] disease-resistant cultivar that doubles as both a dessert banana and a cooking banana. it is now grown commercially in Grenada and Cuba (where it is used primarily as a ripe dessert banana). The plants are hardy, semi-dwarf, sturdy and productive, resistant to black Sigatoka, Panama disease, and Moko disease and tolerant to nematodes. (126) FHIA-3 This strong hybrid looks like the traditional" moroca" variety that has been an integral part of the diet of many inhabitants of the Americas, Asia and Africa. FHIA-03 is highly resistant to both bacterial wilt known as marchitez bacteriana (Moko) and to the leaf spot disease known as Black Sigatoka. It's productive in poor soil and in other adverse conditions where other varieties do not grow well. It has very good qualities and may be consumed either ripe or green. This sturdy banana is capable of prospering under limited agricultural and ecological conditions. It presently contributes to the food security of various regions of the world where other traditional cooking bananas produce small yields due to various phytopathological factors. It is not apt for export since the fruit ripens very quickly after harvesting. The best way to grow this variety is in family plots and to pick fruit as needed in order to avoid unnecessary spoilage. By doing this, the remaining fruit on the tree remains green much longer. (095)

TYPE: DESSERT, COOKING
GENETICS: AABB (032) (079)
HEIGHT: 10-12 (032) (079)
DISEASE: Black Sigatoka resistant, Panama resistant, Moko resistant, Nematode tolerant.
Musa 'Orinoco'- A nearly ideal banana for many locations. This plant is vigorous and produces large clumps of wind-resistant foliage and gives a very tropical landscape effect. It is relatively cold hardy and easy to grow. Produces large racemes of angular fruit that can be eaten out-of-hand when ripe or cooked when green. 'Orinoco' produces fruit nearly every year. responds well to heavy fertilizer and lots of water. This is the common street and garden banana in New Orleans and is widely grown alon the Gulf coast, south Florida, and Cuba.
Hardiness Zone: 7 and higher
Type: Dessert and Plantain
Height: 16 to 19 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Relatively cold hardy. Common on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Excellent reliable fruit.

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Musa 'Dwarf Orinoco'
Musa 'Dwarf Orinoco'- Another dwarf cultivar of a popular banana that only grows to 5 feet tall. Produces large racemes of fruit weighing up to 40 (18k) lbs. Like 'Orinoco', it is both wind and cold resistant. It tolerates a wide range of conditions and is suited to smaller gardens, containers, and greenhouses. It is a heavy bearer of thick-skinned fruit that can be eaten fresh when ripe or cooked when green. Plant is nice solid green color. Fruit is almost square in cross section.
DWARF & TALL ORINOCO - Named from the region in South America near the Orinoco river where they grew profusely, they are also called the horse banana or "burro". These angulated cooking bananas are also a tasty treat out of hand when fully ripe. Their versatility make them popular in many regions of the world. Height 5-6 ft. dwarf & 12-14 ft. on the tall.

Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert and Plantain
Height: 5 to 6 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Deserves to be grown more widely. Overall excellent. Fruits are very angular.
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Musa 'Dwarf Red'
Musa 'Dwarf Red'- One of the most beautiful of banana plants and many red-skinned cultivars. A strong, vigorous plant which produces a medium-size bunch of bananas that are a brilliant red and gold upon ripening. Fruit is very aromatic with creamy orange pulp. Most red bananas are much esteemed for good tasting fruit, and this one is no exception. This cultivar also has red pseudostems. A favorite small banana, this cultivar takes 20 to 30 months to bear fruit the first time, then every year thereafter. The skin should be almost black before it is ripe enough to eat. Sometimes the red will mutatee from red to all green resulting in 'Dwarf Green Red'.
Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 6 to 8 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Plant and fruits show beautiful red/yellow colors. A beautiful looking plant easily reccognizable from a distance.

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Musa 'Raja Puri'- Often recommended for beginners, this banana has it all. It is very resistant to wind, cold and some diseases. Because it fruits readily in many climates, and has very good-flavored medium-sized fruits, it is still a good choice in other parts of the U.S. It can flower in as little as nine months. It is a popular banana in India for first time growers. Recommended and nearly fool proof! Easy to grow. One of our best tasting bananas.
Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 6 to 8 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Top choice for home landscape. Wind and cold resistant.’
RAJA PURI - A very popular sturdy plant originating in India and becoming a favorite around the world. Due to the rapid growth and delicious taste of these 3/4 size fruit as well as cool tolerance they have won the hearts (and taste buds) of thousands.
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Musa 'Saba'- This large plant is often grown just for shade in its native Philippines. It is widely grown in Indonesia and Malaysia. The overall green color suggests a sturdy quality that agrees with its cold tolerance and wind resistance. It's dual-use fruit can be cooked or eaten out-of-hand when very ripe. It does best in the landscape or in a large greenhouse. At maturity, this cultivar can form a huge base up to 24 inches in diameter.

Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher.
Type: Dessert and Plantain
Height: 17 to 21 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Large plant with good cold and wind tolerance. Mainly used for cooking. Good shade provider.
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Musa 'Super Plantain'- This is a popular variety, which grows to about 12 feet high. The fruit is terrific and is a staple of Caribbean and Latin cuisine. Full sun. Zone 9-10
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SABA - The "sequoia" of the banana plants with huge pseudostem (range 12-24" diameter) and heights ranging from 16-20 ft. here, however clients have reported even greater heights in other areas of the country. The wonderful tasting cooking banana makes the best tostones we have ever eaten. A sturdy plant and somewhat cool tolerant. (A must for the collector).

Thousand Finger- 'Thousand Finger' is a beautiful solid green plant that grows 10 (3m) to 12 (3.6m) feet tall and produces sweet 1 1/2 (3.5cm) inch tiny bananas too numerous to count. 'Thousand Finger' continues to make fruit until the stalk touches the ground. Raceme of fruit can be as long as 8 feet. This is not just a specimen for collectors, but a good producer of fruit as well. Quite a conversation piece. Fruit is edible.
Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 10 to 12 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: Can produce hundreds of small, sweet fruit
Musa 'Williams Hybrid'- This banana, Musa hybrid 'Williams Hybrid', is obviously a different much-shorter form of 'Williams' or 'Giant Cavendish' group of closely related cultivars. Like most of them, it has cold and wind resistance. It is also grown commercially, but in the home garden, it is a good source of excellent sweet dessert bananas. Produces large bunches of fruit.

Hardiness Zone: 8 and higher
Type: Dessert
Height: 6 to 9 feet
Form: Musa
Remarks: commercial variety. Cold and wind tolerant.
WILLIAMS - A Cavendish type that produces a full sized fruit with excellent flavor. An all 'round favorite. Grows about 8-10 ft. in height. A popular variety for good reasons.