Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

I recently (today) acquired another cold hardy banana from a good friend to the north of our city. He said it came from the highlands of Guatemala and is proven in his yard to be cold hardy at the pseudostem each winter, and is able to fruit here in our area. It has green pseudostem but the fruits are Red.

Was wondering what the proper name of this banana could be. Incidentally, I also have a Jamaican Red Banana which has survived the arctic blast, and that one has red pseudostem and pink leaf stalks. Although the stem survived, the outer sheaths are mostly dead after the arctic blast but grew back from the height where it stopped last winter.

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

Wow very nice, Joe.
Congrats on your latest acquisition.
Hopefully it works out for you as it's esteemed to be.
We need more variety of reliable cold hardy bananas.
And the green stalk with red friuts should come as a welcome addition to your garden, that sounds very nice.

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

Jarred, do you have a listing of red skinned bananas with green pseudostem? Too lazy to sort through the databases today. I would suspect it might be one of them and would like to compare notes during my test this coming winter. I'm a skeptic, so I test them first, then and only then I would say that this might be something new.

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

That's a very good question!
Unfortunately, no, I do not have an exhaustive list readily available.

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

Here's the nearest candidate:
http://www.greenhousebusiness.com/bananaplants.html
Dwarf Green - Red banana plant - banana tree padThis is a beautiful dwarf green banana plant with red and green markings. This banana tree grows to 8'. Sweet tasting, green skinned fruit that turns yellow. Dark red & green trunk and on the borders of the large green leaves is a very thin red line. This is a Dwarf Red banana tree that mutates to a Green Red banana tree. A great banana plant for collecters. They are smaller in size than the common Cavendish banana and have a creamy white to pink flesh, with a slight raspberry flavor just like the Dwarf red. They can be sliced and dried or eaten raw in salads, but are usually eaten fresh out of hand. They Height: 6' to 8' depending on light and watering. Zones 8-11

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

Dwarf Green-Red has green fruit, not red. It seems the banana you have is a cultivar that has not been introduced into cultivation. There are so few in our market compared to the vast diversity out there.

Re: Guatemalan highland red banana?
 

Thanks for chiming in Gabe. I will know for sure when mine will fruit hopefully after 18 months.