reloadyour9

Hello everyone, first post. Within the last month or two I have become hooked on gardening. I started with tomatoes and cucumbers, added a 10 year old avocado tree and a 2 years old fuerte, and just purchased a Caligornia Gold from Jeff Earl (a great guy), which will be arriving next week. Everything I have planted is in whiskey barrels as I plan to move next year. Along with the California Gold, I would like to plant one other variety that does well here in 10a (southern California) produces a nice tasting fruit, and is somewhat exotic (I like having rare things). On top of those restrictions, I would also like for it to be plantable in a whiskey barrel, for at least the first year of it's life. Also preferably something under 10' tall. Any suggestions would be great! Also, if you have pups for sale, please let me know as I would rather give my money to someone that is passionate about their plants as opposed to a nursery.

Thanks in advance!

Jarrod

caliboy1994

Lots of varieties do well here. I live in 10a SoCal as well. I have two unknown varieties, a Mysore, and an Ice Cream. Pretty much anything except for the really cold tender varieties can be grown here.

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reloadyour9

Thanks for the info. We are neighbors as I am in studio city. I will have to look up the ice cream and mysore, as I am new to all of this

sunfish

Dwarf Namwah is a very good banana for Southern California

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Tony,Thanks

harveyc

Momoese in west LA is convinced Psiang Klotek is the best. I could sell you a pup of something else but would suggest you get one of those.

Jeff Earl is a friend of mine and I live an hour north of him.

If you want to try something different, you might want to add pitaya (dragon fruit) to your garden. I've got hooked on those and had over 30 varieties last year but lost quite a few to the harsh winter we had up here (35 days with frost).

Good luck!

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caliboy1994

The only thing about Mysore and Pisang Klotek is that they're tall and slender. They might not stand up well to the Santa Ana winds if planted in an exposed spot. I think I'm going to have to get PK for a side by side comparison of that and Mysore, because they're very similar plants.

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reloadyour9

Thank you everyone for all the replies and welcomes. I spent part of the day going to different nurserys here in the San Fernando valley, and none of them seem to carry banana plants?? Is it not season for planting? The only thing I found were Musa Red Bananas and two really raggity looking Musa Ice Creams, which is one I am interested in, but one of the three leaves was completely brown and dry. Which brings up a question, if the other two leaves looked great, would that be a good purchase at $12? Would it recover?

Where do all of you find/buy all the different varieties I have been reading about on this great site for the past couple nights?

sunfish

As long as it's not the new leaf that is brown and dry ,no problems.HD and Lowe's usually have banana plants

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Tony,Thanks

reloadyour9

Would the new leaf be the tallest? It was the very lowest leaf.

sunfish

New leaf is the closest to the center

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Tony,Thanks

caliboy1994

You can get plenty of banana plants from other members on here

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reloadyour9

Thanks again for all the replys. After much research, think I've narrowed my wants to the following three. If anyone has pups, please pm me.

Musa double mahoi
Dwarf red Brazilian
SDC

From my research, these should be good container plants, not too tall, with good tasting fruit. I only plan on keeping them in 25g pots for the first year. After that they will go in the ground.

caliboy1994

I believe Green Arrow Nursery in North Hills is carrying them right now. I went there maybe three weeks ago, and they were carrying Ice Cream, Manzano, Mysore, possibly Raja Puri, and even Musa Velutina.

The less common varieties like Dwarf Namwah you could always get from a member here. Jon (pitangadiego) carries a lot of varieties (somewhere around 100) including Dwarf Namwah.

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reloadyour9

thanks for the heads up on Green Arrow. I forgot all about that Nursery. I went there today and picked up Dwarf Jamaican Red, about 18" tall and a little pup emerging.

caliboy1994

Congrats! One thing about Dwarf Jamaican Red and other red varieties is that it's not cold hardy. I know it can be grown in the San Fernando Valley (they have it at Papaya Tree Nursery), but it probably won't deal with our winters very well. Good luck with it!

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reloadyour9

Thanks for all your help caliboy. Quick question, what do you recommend I fertilize with (store bought) and how often?

momoese

Welcome aboard! I suffer from Fuerte envy.

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Mitchel

reloadyour9

Thanks for the welcome! The fuerte is a bunch of work, but even more so is my 12' bacon that I rescued from some guy who grew it in a 10 gallon pot it's whole life. It's a very unhappy tree right now that needs a lot of attention. It has about 200 avocados on it about the size of a pea. I'm guessing it will drop all of them, but as long as I can keep it alive and get it healthy again, I'll be happy. I have also added a Reed to the collection as of two days ago. I guess I'm hooked! Once my California Gold gets here, my collection will be complete.......for now.

harveyc

Feeling "weak"?

My Fuerte avocado died for some reason, probably was root rot.

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caliboy1994

I'm new to this too, but Richard has a fertilizer designed especially for bananas called Banana Fuel. I don't think it's organic, but I know that it works really well. If you want to go the organic route, maybe try Milorganite or fish emulsion. People here use all different kinds of fertilizers.

Info:Fertilizer - Bananas Wiki

Fertilize once a month during the growing season (April to October).

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