Tropicallvr

I have had the same problem with balbisiana in zone 8 northern California. Stem looks fine from outside but inside all rotten. The ones I tried also seemed really drought tolerant and didn't "shrink" in full sun, when it got over 100F for a week.
I'm starting to think those bananas in Cologne Germany are really an early introduction of Musa sikkimensis 'Darjeleeing Giant' (M.sikkikensisXM.balbisinana).

momoese

This is one of the stands near my house at the end of the street growing in a small planter competing with other plants for water and food. They have an automatic sprinkler that provides water but I seriously doubt they ever receive any food.

Musa Balbisaina? I think I'll get one of the fruits just to see how they taste!







Here is a fresher bloom. You can see the pollen on the flowers.

Gabe15

mitchel, those are definetly balbisiana, and i remember seeing them when i visited too.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

momoese

I just got back from the nursery and on the way home I decided to actually study all the big stands in peoples yards. Almost all of them look just like Musa Balbisiana! Another interesting observation is that I know of only two stands of red bananas in my whole area. You just don't see them!

Just out of curiosity does Musa Basjoo look the same as Balbisiana? I know they are very common too.

Gabe15

With enough practice you can easily indentify a basjoo a mile off with no flower, they have some distinctive traits, mainly they are devoid of any wax so they give off a very clean, bright green color. and if there is a flower, they are super easy to identify because they are pretty much the only green/yellow budded variety available in the US.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

JoeReal

I have grown tremendous varieties of fruiting cultivars in my yard. Just want to make clear as to what do you mean by parthenocarpic in the context of bananas.

I know very well that certain plants like persimmons and citruses can naturally produce fruits without fertilization. Thus these plants CAN be parthenocarpic, and it does not strictly mean that they only produce fruits parthenocarpically. But one thing for sure, pollination and fertilization are not a prerequisite for fruit formation for parthenocarpic fruit sets, but fertilization can still happen and the fruits would most likely has at least one seed.

This is exactly the case with some bananas like Saba. While the fruits can form parthenocarpically, pollination and fertilization could still happen and you would have produced fruits that have seeds. Without pollination, the fruit forms anyway, and that is called parthenocarpy.

With most plants that can be parthenocarpic, fertilization will enhance fruit sets. And in the case of pollination variant persimmons, pollination and fertilization tremendously increase the flavor quality of fruits. I have cultivars like that and they are called pollination variants, specifically for persimmons, these are Pollination Variant Non-Astringent and Pollination Variant Astringent. The presence of seeds makes the fruit wholly pleasing, while the absence of which the fruits makes them almost inedible when eaten firm ripe.