What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Can anyone identify the variety of this Banana tree?
My mother-in-law gave me a pup from a friend in her garden club who didn't know the variety. Planted two plus years ago and created a plantation! Built up the area with composted horse manure and covered with mulch. This year 3 trees from the same cluster got pods at the same time. Just finished picking the last from the 1st pod. Pictures of some of them in the kitchen. The Banana are about 6 to 6 1/2" long and a bit fatter than Cavendish. They are also sweeter and creamier than Cavendish. The Pods emerge from the trunk at about 5 to 6 feet up, and the leaves can extend upto 10 or 12 feet. The bananas fruit will stay nice and firm even when the skins have a lot of black as shown in the pictures. Wonderful for eating fresh, and great for making ice cream and smoothies (lots in the freezer).
Here are some pictures from today:








Thanks for any clues you may have.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

I would like to have seen a picture of the Brac and the female flowers at the end of the fingers. ... However, your location and the strong Spanish community, I suspect the plant is a Dwarf Orinoco. The pictures you posted of the plant appear to be Orinoco. ... I've never seen Orinoco finger that Fat and bunch that full/heavy. But since you buildup the area with manure compost & mulch the fat finger and heavy bunch would have been expected. ... Good Job! ...

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Thanks edwmax.
I found some photos from previous year with pod and flowers that may be able to help verify.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Still looks like an Orinoco. At the top header bar of the page is the link to the forum Wiki. Click the link and then find & open dwarf Orinoco. ... Compare the pictures.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

100% not an Orinoco.

These look to be dwarf cavendish. And they filled very very nicely! Very fat fingers! Wish mine would fill that good! They are the same as the store bought bananas but I also find they always taste a lot better and are in fact way creamier. Congrats it looks like you have a nice little field of them! Enjoy!

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

I was looking for wine stains on the young pups in the last pictures posted. I don't see any. All my DCs had wine stains. The pictures of the DC & D. Orinoco in the wiki look near identical except for the wine stains on the young DCs.

So, MrCoconut ... Did any of these plants show red markings (wine stains) on the leaves when they were young? The markings would normally be very pronounced.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

It is 'Dwarf Cavendish'. The red coloration is only present on very young shoots, and typically only tissue cultured plants and water suckers grown in lower light levels.

It is definitely not 'Dwarf Orinoco'.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Thanks, ... I also see there is too much yellow on the flower. Orinoco has some red in the flower. I guess I was looking for wine stains too hard and didn't pay enough attention to the flower.

Dwarf Cavendish

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

I could see by the fruit it was not Orinoco as the fruit on those is very distinctive, but with no red on the petioles, I would never have guessed Cav, either.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I was strongly looking for red markings to define the plant as Cavendish, but just didn't see any even on the pups in the bottom picture. .... :nanadrink:

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

I didn't take a close enough look at these photos late last night when I made my ID, and I may revise it slightly depending on some more information. It still most certainly a Cavendish, but I'm curious, did you manually pull of the dead bracts and male flowers attached to the stem below the fruit, or did they fall off naturally?

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Wow all of you are very knowledgeable and helpful in identifying bananas.
I went out and searched for the "Wine Stain", and found it on one of the pups.
So I guess Dwarf Cavendish it is.

People are always asking what kind is that tasty Banana. Now I can tell them.
Thank you all.
:birthdaynana:

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Mr C... Did you see Gabe's question at the bottom of his post?

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Gabe: I just let them fall off naturally. I leave these on as the bees like to feed on the flowers, and then hopefully the bees can pollinate my other fruit trees.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Ok, so with this information I'm going to revise my ID, it is not a 'Dwarf Cavendish', but rather likely one of the shorter forms of a tall Cavendish, such as 'Williams' or 'Enano Gigante'. True 'Dwarf Cavendish' retains it's dead bracts and male flowers on the rachis below the bunch, and is also a very short stocky plant. Looking closer at your photos, it appears the plant is a bit too tall to be a 'Dwarf Cavendish', but the bunches are still on the small side, indicating this plant could use some more sun/water/fertilizer and become a taller plant with larger bunches.

Re: What is this tasty Banana in South Florida
 

Thanks for the info Gabe. I will see if I can find images on those two varieties of Cavendish to see if one looks more like mine.
In the mean-time we are enjoying the bounty, with more on the way!:0517: