bagging your bananas
 

Do you all bag your bananas after the plants bloom and the fruit starts to get some size?
Like the commercial growers do and if so what are the main reasons?

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I use black so it draws more heat which helps fill out banana's and keeps bugs at bay..

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I tried it recently and I don't know what I did wrong but some of the bananas started turning black at the very tips. Seemed to be only where the bag was touching.

Re: bagging your bananas
 

No

Re: bagging your bananas
 

In my corner of the world, (SW Mexico), the farmers use a light blue wrap or newsprint. While being squired around by the head of the local banana co-op, I asked about the wraps. He said that they were introduced here by a fellow from Costa Rica as a way to prevent bruising of the fruit while touching against stems, leaves, etc...

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I do not bag - never have had any problems (here in the Keys). :bananas_b

Re: bagging your bananas
 

me nether the worst ive gotten pest wise is a few white flies and the hose fixes them never had any birds bite them

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I bag what I have time for and it has made all the difference in terms of clean fruit. No windscar, no thrips, less cigar end rot.

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I have never bagged..never a problem yet"knock on wood"the blue bags are also impregnated with pesticide ..and they end up in the water and so on..i have spent years in costa rica and Nicaragua and it is quite the problem with BIG banana producers..but anyway I don't bag

Re: bagging your bananas
 

Thanks for your info.

Regarding cascabel...I am like Indiana Jones...

We have them where I live and it drives me crazy.

Re: bagging your bananas
 

Bagging makes it look like there's trash hanging from my banana plants in my yard, so I don't do. As Nick said, it's done for esthetics. It's the way to get pretty fruit that will appeal to squeamish customers (like my wife). I'd rather enjoy the appearance of my yard without trash bags in the trees and have slightly blemished fruit to eat. But then again, I'm not trying to sell bananas.

Re: bagging your bananas
 

They should make frost cloth (the stuff nick uses) light green colored and allow light penetration plus UV protection so it looks better + doesn't disintegrate after a few uses. Then I am sure more people would use it.

In the tropics it seems bagging really helps with the insects that make bunches look like crap way too often. More people should bag because aesthetics mean a lot! Especially when gifting bananas or trying to make other people try something other than cavendish! If it looks good to them it will taste good regardless of what it tastes like.

Re: bagging your bananas
 

I think you could dye the frost cloth, I've never tried though.