djmb74

Ok so I take my 3 youngest kids to one of the parks near my house today and me my 8 year and 11 year old start talking about growing banana's again and how they want to get a few different kinds. Then my 8 year old starts telling me this story of about 2 years ago him and his brother would go ride bikes with one of their friends(that moved away) in the neighborhood next to ours. One day they are walking through the power lines easement and they found some banana trees and picked some and ate them. I was like why didn't you tell me this before and he said he forgot... he said they didn't taste too good I guess because they weren't ripe enough or something. Well I ask them to take me to them and show me what he is talking about. Sure enough banana city was within 10 minutes walking distance from my house.

They are actually on the back side of someone's property so i went and knocked on their door. They do not like banana's and have idea what kind it is and all they use it for is a place to throw all their yard waste into. there is branches and grass and leaves all thrown in the middle of the banana plants you can't even get in to the middle of them as the stuff is piled up high in there.

They told me I could take as much as I want banana's and plants...

So what kind are they and when should I pick the banana's? They are so tall!!

I took a picture of a pup as well, should I dig that up or let it get a little bigger?

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Gabe15

Musa 'Orinoco', 100%. The fruit should be eaten raw when it is very ripe, past just yellow, starting to blacken a bit even in my experience. They also make great cooking bananas in the early yellow stages.

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paula

I don't know . But it seems you hit the JACK POT.

djmb74

They are huge like 20ft high...

Trying to stick with plants I can grow in pots, thinking these wouldn't do so good in pots... haha

So can I harvest the fruit now and let it ripen or do I wait until it ripens on the tree... the owner said the garbage men get the fruit and eat it so I am assuming they have been picking some of it...

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LilRaverBoi

They look like orinoco's to me as well (though I'm no expert). Seeing that picture makes me want to be a kid again so I can crawl inside and build a fort inside there! LOL. That'd be sweet!

As for taking plants from there, if you could find a decent sized pup, just separate it in the manner described in other threads on this site. Otherwise, you could easily just dig up the corm of one of the larger plants, and just chop off the stem at virtually any level. The leaves will grow back once it is transplanted. Good luck!

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BANANA RAVE!
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Vickie H.

wow you hit the Mother Load! Congrats.

sbl

If you want a naner to grow in a pot- try a dwarf variety or Raji Puri. I have a RP in a container in bloom--less than 2 yrs from start.

BTW--if the bananas are mature (filled out--ie rounded edges) you can cut the whole stem and hang it until the fruit ripens--if it is Orinoco--you can use them for cooking when light yellow or eating fresh when full yellow to some dark spots).

djmb74

So last night my oldest (18yr) got home and the younger kids told him all about the banana forest. He got all excited and got up before everyone else this morning took a shovel and went and dug some stuff up! lol






This next picture is plants that my kids already got from people donating them on freecycle to us and they put them in pots. Only 4 of the plants the people knew what they were and told us they were dwarf cavindish and showed us the mother plants with fruit.



we have 2 more different ones that we have no idea what they are that the kids planted in the ground in the front yard...

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LilRaverBoi

LOL...with that truckload, it's only a matter of time before you have your OWN banana forest!!!

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

djmb74

The boys could not wait and made me harvest a few banana's from the Orinoco plants they had found... gonna leave them hanging in the garden until the ripen up or should I hang them inside somewhere?

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MediaHound

Careful where you drip the ooze that comes out of those cut ends, it might stain your light carpet. The dark rug wouldnt show it too bad.
But yes, hang them in the garage or on your patio. The bunch in the middle (in your boy's right hand with the fullest fruits) and the bunch on the left (double fisted bunch) are the ones I'm cheering for. Wait as long as you can with Orinoco as Gabe pointed out.
Fun for the whole family, enjoy the good times.

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djmb74

haha... thats what I figured as well. The only reason they got picked is when we went to look at them 2 of the bunches I picked were sitting on the ground as it had snapped in the middle and fallen over from the weight. Kids are pretty excited about the Banana's and once my wife saw us come home with the bunches she got excited about me planting our own. lol

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sbl

Orinocos can be used as a cooking banana as well as a dessert banana. I have also read that you can eat the flower as well (the purple part at the end). I think there is a recipe on the forum somewhere.

djmb74

Some good folks today traded my boys another banana plant for some of their chocolate mint they have been growing.

They told us it was an Indonesian variety - red skinned he thought. He got a few from a friend of his that is a horticulturist and never got around to planting it in his yard.

Can you guys identify this variety? The kids are making labels and trying to keep track of what all banana plants they have.






Thanks!

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djmb74

okay now I got an e-mail back and was told its the French Horn Variety from Ecuador...

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lorax

I'd agree with the 'French Horn' designation, although it's what we'd call 'Platano Corona.' That's a plantain, then - it can and likely will get very very tall, and then will put out between 3 and 8 hands of long, curved fruit. These are strictly cooking bananas, both green and mature. There are a number of recipes for plantain kicking around the forum in the Banana Recipes section - I'd reccomend starting with Patacones.

CAVEAT LECTOR

It's also very similar to 'Lacatan' as a pup. If it develops a strong red pseudostem as it ages, it's not a plantain, it's red bananas.

conejov

How'd I miss this Congrats on the Score!

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