Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Hello. I am going to post four of my juvenile bananas which have been in the ground for only one summer. The problem is that I did not keep the labels, so I don't know the names of these banana trees anymore. One should definitely be a Kandrian and one should definitely be a Saba. One MIGHT (not sure) be an ice cream banana, but I can't remember. I have absolutely no idea what the fourth one is.

I will start posting the photos in a moment within this thread. Any identifications would be much appreciated! Thank you.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Here is the first one, including a photo of the entire tree and a close-up of one leaf (click to enlarge).

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Here is the second one, including a photo of the entire tree and a close-up of one leaf (click to enlarge). This one has been the fastest grower this summer, even though it is primarily growing in shade. It may be either Kandrian or Saba due to it being the largest in just a few months. I welcome your identifications!

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Here is the third one, including a photo of the entire tree and a close-up of one leaf (click to enlarge). I think this is the one that I really can't identify at all. It may not have been one of the three that I mentioned above (and mixed up accidentally). I'm just not sure. However, this one definitely has narrower leaves than the other three banana trees.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Here is the fourth one, including a photo of the entire tree and a close-up of one leaf (click to enlarge). It has been the second-fastest grower of the four banana trees this summer. It has not grown as big as the second banana tree (above), but isn't too far behind. I am suspicious that it might be Kandrian or Saba due too its vigor, but I have no idea what those trees look like. Please help me identify these bananas! Thank you.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

There are still no replies, but there are 95 views. Does nobody have any ideas? Your help would be much appreciated. Thanks.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Juvenile plants are very hard to ID. I think it's almost impossible unless it is an A'e A'e. Sometimes you have to wait until it produces a flower or fruit. I have a large plant that still has no ID and it fruits every year.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Where did you get the plants? As you will find out you don't always get what you purchase.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

And it makes a difference where you live if you procured them locally. If you bought them, did they have tags? If gifts, have the donors had crops? (I have a few mystery Musas I've purchased/found/been gifted but am not "jonesing" to have IDs yet.) If you bought them online, you were told what you were buying which might or might not be valid.

It gets so old telling people to put their location in their profile but it really does help others to help you.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

sorry, my profile is new. My locatiom is Gainesville, Florida. Two of them should be the Kanrian and the Saba which I purchased zat Going Bananas in Homestead, Florida, but I can't remember which is which. Going Bananas is extremely knowledgeable and they would not have mismarked their bananas. One of them MIGHT be the Ice Cream banana thatI bought from Lowes, but I can't be sure because I have killed a banana or two for reasons that I won't get into here. One is a mystery banana. If it is one that I am thinking of, it was never identified in the first place.

I hope this helps. Thanks for any input you can give, even though these bananas are still young.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Editing your profile to say you're in Gainesville would be helpful in the future because I suspect you're here to stay.

Sorry to say but the Ice cream you purchased at Lowes is probably a dwarf Namwah because that's what the ICs in FL seem to be. Supposedly I have one that has yet to produce but I've heard it yields very good fruit so all is not lost.

If you have a chance, post a bit about yourself Member Introductions - Bananas.org so we can welcome you to the forum properly.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

Oh dear. Well, I also bought a Williams banana tree from Lowes, so it may also have been mismarked, I suppose. However, at least I know which banana it is because I never lost the label for that one. (It is not among the photographed bananas above).

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

If I understand these things correctly, will not the Saba and the Kandrian eventually reveal themselves not only in terms of shape and fruit, but also in terms of size? Is the Kandrian not the tallest of all banana trees, followed by Saba as second tallest? I am not expecting my Williams banana to grow nearly as tall. As for the dwarf Namwah (sold as ice cream), I have no idea what height it will eventually achieve --- that is, if I even still have it, but everything has got mixed up.

Re: Please identify these 4 juvenile bananas
 

My Saba is pretty slow growing compared to my others but maybe it's just mine that is,or its location. It looked pretty much like one of my Tall Orinoco until it started to get bigger and I was a bit upset thinking it was mislabeled, but now there is a difference in the way the leaf attaches to the petiole, and a little bit of difference in the coloration of the sheath edges, also the slower growth rate. Since all Orinoco are clones, there should not be much difference from plant to plant. The main way I can tell them apart is on the hopefully saba, the two halfs of the leaf lamina where it attaches to the petiole are pinched inward toward each other like your photo of number 4, my Orinoco does not do this, but It's very hard to tell them all apart when small, and only now would I be able to tell which is which if they were mixed up. Saba is also supposed to get a massive trunk when older. I believe the Namwahs sold as Blue Java are Tall Namwah, but not certain.