waggoner41

I live in central Costa Rica at 884m (2900 ft) altitude.
We have a rainy season from about mid April to mid November but the balance of the year is usually very dry.

Knowing that everyone has an opinion I ask what is the best variety of musa to grow for good production of sweet out of hand eating?

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Soil Type: Black Loam

bananimal

What's your weather profile temp wise at that altitude?

waggoner41

Generally runs between 65F at night and 85F during the day (18C to 30C) all year long. There is very little variation.

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Soil Type: Black Loam

Zacarias

I'll let you the experts direct you but wow you're in a great tropical zone, you can grow any banana you want!

Z

waggoner41

We are aware of how great the climate is for growing bananas. We are overrun with Guineo Cuadrado plants and have added a couple of Platano Maduro and four Nino/Lady Finger plants. Another neighbor gifted us with six plants of an unknown variety of bananas but we will have to wait to determine exactly what they are.

Our property is built up on the side of a hill with the poorest sub-soil imaginable so we are digging out 1/2mx1/2mx1/2m holes and filling them with healthy soil trucked in by the cubic meter to accommodate banana types and papayas.

For the fruit trees (Mangos, avocados, etc.) we are carving out cubic meters of soil to be replaced. Eventually the entire 1/3 acre planting area will be replaced.

What I am wondering is if there are types of bananas in the AAA group that generally produce larger bunches.

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Soil Type: Black Loam

venturabananas

Well, there's a reason the Cavendish varieties and Gros Michel before them have been the dominant bananas of global commerce -- they make big bunches. I can't think of any other AAA varieties that will make bigger bunches. Their weakness is susceptibility to disease.

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waggoner41

Knowing that, if the Cavendish or Gros Michel varieties do become victims of a disease will it spread to the other varieties.
All that we have now are local varieties and their susceptibility is unknown.

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Soil Type: Black Loam

venturabananas

Hard to say because it depends on the susceptibility of the local varieties. Provided you don't bring diseased plants and thus introduce new diseases to the local varieties, I personally wouldn't be too worried. That said, I'd play it safe plant more disease resistant varieties, like FHIA-1, Goldfinger, which also has pretty high production.

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waggoner41

I'm in the States now and will bring back 3 Double Mahoi TC plants and 3 Grand Nain corms. They will be phytocertified by Colo dept of AG for export to Costa Rica.

There should be no problems with disease so I will be OK.

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Soil Type: Black Loam

PR-Giants

Those seem like odd choices, there's gotta be millions of GN in Costa Rica and the DM is really only a novelty banana that might be OK during your dry season.

BTW, most of the diseases are probably already in your barrio and the Dwarfs are more susceptible.

The Mahoi is a Dwarf Cavendish.

I'd agree with VB on the FHIA-01 and add the 03, 17, 21, & 3640.

Good Luck

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