Going Bananas

BTW re growth rates and speed of growth...

Although the growth rate listed in official publications
is for tropical conditions, a fast maturing species
would still be the fastest grower relatively
where ever youre growing in a 10B or 6A zone?
IE. Although the article might say 291 days for a tigua,
it would still be faster from plant to harvest as compared
to an ice cream or any slowly maturing species?
That 291 days might be 3 years in a 6A but comparatively,
the other species might take 6 years as opposed to 3 years per se?

What do you think?

Richard

That's the south side of the house.
Just the second one.
They're already deep in mulch.
No. The interruption of our winter (or taking them indoors in colder zones) can cause several changes in the maturation cycle of the more tropic-specific varieties. In some cases the charts you've seen will be turned on their heads in our zone with some of the faster tropic-specific breeds being slower than some of the near-tropic breeds; e.g. Namwa.

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Going Bananas

Really?
I didnt know that!
So for 10A SoCal...
what would be the top 5
fastest to mature/harvest?

In parity to this situation is the Taste Report.
So many variables from soil quality to growing conditions
such as zone differences to organoleptic/subjective
differences/preferences among individuals.

Maybe thats why people on this site diss and degrade
store bought cavendish so much because we use it
as a measuring stick to judge every species of banana to it.
Everyone has tried the common store bought banana
and we use it as a measuring stick to judge everything else.

Its just too bad some people take offense or lets say passionate
when we try to make a judgement call on a taste report.

Just a thought!
Cheers

Richard

There are other threads on that topic. On this thread I would prefer to discuss the Temple Banana I obtained 4-5 years ago.

As stated back in the day, it came in a suitcase from a customer of mine visiting her home town in India. I don't know which Temple it is from, and as these things often go there are hundreds of temples in India each touting that they have the original Temple Banana -- and all of those bananas are of different strains and/or breeds. Note that they are cultivated for offerings, not commercial sale or production so we're not predicting fabulous taste or copious fruit. A few members of this board have grown out and fruited pups from this plant. This is the first time I know of that it has occurred mid-season when the chances of getting a good tasting crop (at least for this zone) are possible. I will be taking pictures of the flowers etc. as it develops so perhaps we'll be able to discern what genetic group this "Temple Banana" is from.

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PR-Giants

Our resident banana expert in SoCal 'Sunfish' did this a while back, the plant, bunch, fruit, & male bud were all consistent with cultivar Manzano - Silk subgroup AAB. The photo of the fruit were perfect quality.

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15,000+ Varieties

Richard

The bud hangs almost straight down, with a violet tip (my phone is poor on colors). The leaf ribs have a narrow pink edging.

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Richard

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Richard

There's 5 hands of 11 female fingers on this bunch. At the current stage, the average finger is 4.25 inches long and 1.25 inches wide.

The male flowers are pale.

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Lau

Beautiful

Richard

The fruits are now all plumped out and the bunch will be ready for hanging in a week or two, depending on how cool the nights are this month.

The typical finger is 6" x 1 5/8". Based on what I've observed on this plant and others along with comparisons to the Wiki, I believe it is from the Pome AAB group.

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Richard

I hung them up in the garage tonight. There's 5 full hands of 11 fingers plus a few extras. Bunch weight - about 40 lbs. Compare that to my Namwa bunch of 159 fingers at 60 lbs. The nearly all the fingers are rounded, not angular. Any appearance otherwise in the image is due to coloration and not shape. Note the finger in the bottom right with the shiny spots -- this is due to latex dripping from the fresh cut of the peduncle. The proof will be in the taste. So far, I'm one proud papa!

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Mark Dragt

Bunch looks good! Tast report soon?

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Richard

As soon as they ripen.

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akravindran

You're right, Richard. There's no such thing as a 'Temple Banana'. Bananas are an important part of rituals in Hindu temples, so almost every temple - small or large - will have a banana seller close by. A large number of varieties are used for worship - it's more about the banana, less about the variety. If this is for the Virupaksha Temple in a state called Karnataka, there's a good likelihood that it's of the Yelakki, or Poovan.

Unrelated: what does a Hermitian Operator do?

Richard

Yes, but I am cautious.

Like addition and multiplication, a Hermitian Operator is commutative. They are not used in arithmetic but rather in vector and tensor calculus.

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Richard

Some of the fingers have begun to ripen. The skins on some of these have split long ways, running most of the length of the fruit and open to about 1/8th inch. I've cut those fingers off and put them in a paper bag to finish ripening. They are heavy: 7-8 ounces a piece. Too early for a taste report - my visual and tactile senses tell me they would taste like chalk.

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Richard

I've tasted a few of these now. They are an improvement on the taste of grocery store Cavendish, but otherwise similar in taste. The mere density of each finger is astounding -- they are heavy for their size. You can't help but notice as you hold and eat one.

The skins do split as they ripen. The photo below is from last night and you can discern a few splits in the upper left. This morning all the yellow fingers have splits.

Overall its been an interesting cultivar to grow. I'm going to pot up the pups for anyone who'd like to try it. Please don't ask me to ship them -- I won't. Nor will I sell them. They're available 1st come 1st serve, any extras will be donated to my local CRFG chapter. In their place I'm going to plant a Gros Michel I obtained from sddarkman.

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