Anniedee

I'm very new to growing bananas (I'm in zone 9b, FYI.)
And I got this small tree out of our swamp. Moved it where it
gets more sun. Apparently this banana was given to the previous
owner of the house, but the swamp grew up around it so I
moved it. (I moved a dozen of them actually.)
This is only 7 feet tall, maybe a little more with the leaves.
The stem is fairly slender. It might be stunted from being in
the swamp (wet and dark conditions.)

Here are photos of the flower.
Can you ID it from these, or does the flower need to grow some more?










It is the tallest plant in this photo, which was taken a few days ago
when the flower wasn't open yet.

__________________
I have Dwarf Cavendish, Brazilian, Dwarf Namwah (from user Merce3) and a Manzano. Plus, a dozen Orinaco I moved from our Swamp.

bananaT

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
You have an Orinoco.
The hardiest, most hardcore death defying fruiting banana
In the world!

__________________
Come visit my corner spot; read some interesting post, buy rare edible plants & animals
and maybe learn something!
SUBCRIBE!!
https://youtu.be/sPa7tzsIbhM

T.Farms

Anniedee

Thank you, thank you!! I was afraid the mystery trees might be a whole lotta plantains. Orinoco is indeed good news.

But I thought Orinoco was a really big, tall one? Maybe this is a Dwarf Orinoco then.

Death-defying... I believe that, considering the poor conditions it has labored under in our cypress swamp!

__________________
I have Dwarf Cavendish, Brazilian, Dwarf Namwah (from user Merce3) and a Manzano. Plus, a dozen Orinaco I moved from our Swamp.

Tytaylor77

It is Orinoco. Keep caring for it and it will get taller. I am bad about digging orinococs all up and down the road around here. I have a lot of them. Some are medium size 8-12' then some are very tall 17'+ My dwarf Orinoco are very stocky and very short around 6' I got them as TC plants not locally. Congrats on your flower. They take about 4 months to ripen here. The only way I like them is with lots of black on the peel. They are sweet then and good as long as the core is ok.

__________________

150+ Varieties!!. See profile for list. Help me add more!

www.bananapups.com

Gabe15

Definitely not the dwarf, there are a number of reasons it could fruiting small right now, but if you take good care of them they will get larger and fruit taller with bigger bunches in the future.

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

Anniedee

There's one more in the swamp that I didn't move because it was larger. I went to check on it today and it's really looking healthy: thick sturdy stem and huge leaves. I'm a little puzzled as to why it's so healthy, since none of the others looked this good. Maybe digging up the pups around it was good for it. I'm sure they're all the same kind. It gives me an idea of what the other Orinoco will look like when they've had some decent treatment.

We actually did get a few bananas from the parent tree in the swamp (back in May.) There were only five on the entire bunch, but they fit the description of Orinoco: thick fibrous skin and very sweet if allowed to fully ripen.

Thank you for the ID and the advice. I appreciate all of it. I'm glad they're not Dwarf trees, too.

__________________
I have Dwarf Cavendish, Brazilian, Dwarf Namwah (from user Merce3) and a Manzano. Plus, a dozen Orinaco I moved from our Swamp.