bananafarmer

Hello,

I am new , to this forum, reading posts for some weeks.

I am a Bananafarmer in Turkey, I own a greenhouse, it has the size of three hectare.

I really like this forum, there are many topics that are really interessant for me, I am facing many different problems every day,many are written in the forum.

For some problems I have different solutions, hope I will post some in the near future.

I will introduce my greenhouse in the near future, with pictures, showing the whole system, air circulation, watering,e.t.c.

I earn money with this job, but I really love growing bananas, best job I have ever done.

There is some kind of ambition within this job, trying to make it better every day, you look at the bananas and you see your progress, that is the point that motivates me.

Sincerely yours

oakshadows

Yes this is a very good site to get information about bananas but also many other plants.
Welcome from central Florida, USA.

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Richard

Absolutely!

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harveyc

I definitely look forward to seeing your photos. Welcome!

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Dalmatiansoap

Welcome from Croatia!
Thats a nice project U run there, what varieties U grow?

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bananafarmer

"what varieties U grow"

I only cultivate one sort of bananas, it is very similiar to Grand Nain, maybe one kind of G.N.?

I have some fotos in my gallery, you can see the weight of the bunch, at the picture look at the scale-display (red-led).

Dalmatiansoap

Bravo! If thats regular bunch, you are doing a great job there.

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harveyc

wow, looks great! Do you have any disease or insect pests with your greenhouse operation?

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GreenFin

Awesome! I also use a greenhouse to grow my bananas, but it's pretty small, so I'm eager to see your giant greenhouse pics

A hectare is around 2.5 acres, so you've got around 7.5 acres under glass/plastic. Pretty cool!

I offer one bold prediction: you will start growing more types of bananas as a result of this website! I had only intended to grow one banana plant when I started a few months ago...and now I'm growing 12 different kinds lol.

Welcome to the forum

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Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

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bananafarmer

Yes sadly, like almost anyone here I have spider-mites and aphids in my greenhouse.

In the winter the bananas suffer a little bit from cold, and in the summer the leafs can burn, shadowing is important when the sun becomes stronger.


I think what the mites do not like is shadow and moisture, I try to keep the greenhouse moist and shaowed all the time.

Furthermore I make pest control about three times a year. Black Sigatoga or other diseases never appear here, I do not have any other problems than aphids and spider mites.

One more , I had rats in the greenhouse, they damaged the fruits sometimes, so I gave them poison to reduce them. I created feeding stations in every corner of the greenhouse.

Gave them different poison-food, also put food into pipes to give them the feeling of safety.

I was also very kindly to cats that come to the greenhouse, gave them some snacks.

I could not recognize any other diseases until now, maybe I did not realize.Maybe some disease do not occur here, we have subtropical climate here.

harveyc

I'm curious about your growing of bananas in a subtropical climate. How cold does it get at your farm? Do you heat your greenhouse? What allows you to compete against large growers from the tropics?

I have a very small greenhouse where I shelter some of my bananas and other exotic hobby plants but don't think I could justify a commercial venture of banana growing due to the costs of production being so high with a greenhouse structure. This past winter was a cold one for my area with 35 nights of frost and dropping down to 22F once. Hopefully, you are working with a more favorable climate.

Thanks for answering my curious mind.

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bananafarmer

Hi,

our climate is singular in Turkey, our town is at the Med-Sea, the North is protected from the Taurus Mountains, at winter we have almost never frost.I never heat the greenhouse.

The reason why we can compete with the TNC´s is that the domestic market in case of banana fruits is protected. Foreign banana fruits have to be declared.

This protects us from Dole, Chiquita etc., it creates jobs here, is good for our industry, also ecolocially it´s better, remember the fruits are shipped many thousand miles.

The WTO is not so excited about this policy, in my opinion the WTO represents some strong states and is supporting their Companys.

bananafarmer

Our structures are very simple, will post pictures, we have a banana-industry here , there are many teams that create greenhouse structures, so its not extremely expensive.

One hectare greenhouse costs about 9000 Euro(the material). With one hectare in superb condition you can earn about 4000 Euro in one year.

Working costs for one hectare is about 800 Euro(the amount you have to pay for the construction team) .

bananafarmer

Here are some pics , from today.

harveyc

Do you use any fans for cooling?

Might the bananas you grow possibly be Gros Michel? Before you wrote that you thought that they might be Gran Nain, I thought they appeared like some of the photos of Gros Michel we've had posted here.

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GreenFin

Thanks for the pics

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Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

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bananafarmer

No , I do not use fans, I have many windows for air-circulation, one is in the middle on top of the greenhouse, goes from north to south, the whole length, also I have windows, at the nort side , at the south side , furthermore on the west and east side.

I also use chalk to shadowing the greenhouse, when summer begins, the whole outer surface.

I have a real good temperature inside, at the moment max. 30 degrees, at 12 o´clock at noon. Inside I feel the air circulating.

I do not know If they are Gros Michel, the results are very good, the sort is very strong and resistent against diseases, also the bunches are heavy and of good quality.

I got the bananas six years ago, from a farmer who where cultivating them for many years outside, that made natural selection, just the best ones where choosen to be cultivated again.

I really dont know exactly which sort my bananas are, maybe a mix of something?

GreenFin

How tall are the p-stems when the plants fruit? (not the height to the top of the leaves, just the top of the p-stem)

Gros Michel is a substantially taller plant than Grand Nain (I think Grand Nain fruits at around 8' of p-stem and Gros Michel fruits at around 12' of p-stem). If your plants are fruiting at 12', then they're probably not Grand Nain. If they're fruiting in the 6-9' range, they may be Grand Nain or they may be a dwarf form of Gros Michel. [OK, somebody start shining the banana signal up into the clouds so Gabe knows we need his help here.]

Regardless of whether your naners are Grand Nain or Gros Michel, they sure look great!

__________________
Set out runnin', but I'll take my time; a friend of bananas is a friend of mine.

www.GreenFinGardens.com

bananafarmer

Tomorrow I will try to check this in the greenhouse. One more photo from today.

bananafarmer

Your project looks really cool to me, like the fishes very much, look what picture I took today inside the greenhouse.