momoese

Here is a Hawaiian Apple that broke at the roof line in the wind but still bloomed anyway! The bunch will end up laying on my neighbors roof unless I keep helping it to grow my direction.

chong

That's called natural pruning!

chong

Just tie a rope at the base of the fruit stem and pull, then anchor the rope in the direction that you want it to lean, giving sufficient clearance from your neighbor's roof. You might also need to prop the stem to keep the p-stem from breaking or toppling after the fruits develop.

If you had cut it earlier, the arch of the fruit stem would have been lower to where you can reach the fruits without a ladder.

harveyc

In another thread I started a while back I asked if the fruiting height could be lowered by whacking back but it was said that it would cause a "reset" and would still end up fruiting at the normal height. What say you, Mitchel? I don't remember the height of the roofs from when I visited you and this isn't the kind of whacking I was talking about. Also, do you think the bloom was already in the pseudostem when the wind broke it?

Thanks and good luck!!!

Harvey

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momoese

I can tell you for sure that the flower was in the p-stem just below where it broke because the flag leaf is also broken short. You can't see it in the picture but the flag is only about 5 inches long due to the break, so yes you can lower the fruiting height at the expense of all the leaves to power the bunch! The amount of p-stem that broke off was about 4-5 feet I think. I remember a thread here about a plant that broke close to the ground but still flowered, also with zero leaves.

I guess to make it work you'd need a flower finder, kinda like a stud finder so you can chop off the top when the flower just starts up the p-stem but then still have time to grow a few new leaves to help power the bunch.


@ Chong and Harvey, the roof height is 10 or 12 feet, either way the bunch is within reach with a step ladder which is much easier that harvesting the ones that are 20 feet off the ground! That's always exciting!

harveyc

I'm looking forward to getting up 20' to harvest fruit from the "bad boy" you sent me a while back. I just told Pete the other day about my crazy stunt on getting up to replace rope on my flag pole 35' up in the air so this should be a piece of cake!

Just in case you really want to know...Pete made me promise the other night not to do anything this stupid again....and I did promise to replace my rope soon to avoid a repeat performance. I used a forklift from a business partner that went 20' up in the air but that wasn't nearly high enough (I needed a full 35'). so I put a tomato bin (4' square by 2' high) on the forks upside down and used chain and chain binders to hold it fast. Then I mounted a 12' orchard ladder on top of the bin. But the "peg leg" needed to extend out further than the 4' width so I screwed down a 2x6 board onto the bottom (now top) of the bin and wisely (?) drilled a hole through the aluminum legs of the ladder and screwed them down to hold it somewhat steady. Now, I couldn't operate the forklift while on top of the bin so I trained my son, who was five at the time, to raise the forks up very slowly. Still, my slightest movement made things shake quite a bit and when I touched the pole it moved and threw off my perception of everything quite a bit and I feared I was going to screw up big time. There was a 10' tall orange tree or a 6' tall cyclone fence on which I could land if I fell. I think it must have been the scariest time of my life but, thankfully, I moved slowly enough and my son was a quick learner! If I had planned it out a bit more in advance, I'm sure I would never have done it. I'm planning on getting a 16' orchard ladder soon and it should make the 20' banana harvest much easier! Anyways, I have much to be thankful for! I wish I had a picture of this to remind me to use my head a brain a little more in these situations!

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Bob

Harvey, being a former back hoe and forklift operator I can say with certainty be very thankful your son didn't sneeze during this operation.

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bencelest

THAT was very scary Harvey.
I also did some scary (stupid things in my days).
While I was in the US Navy, and a teenager, I volunteered to replace a Navigation light on top of the mast (the tallest part of the ship) when no one else did when on underway and the waves were 10 feet or higher and the only thing that supports me was a vertical pole about 4 inches diameter.
I could feel the sway of the ship forward and sideways and I hang on to that pole with my dear life and I thought I would die from sea sickness and fright.
And to top it all our executive officer at first won't stop our radar for fear of collision.

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Banana Nut

Taylor

Mitchel,
That wall might retain heat during the day and release it at night. In other words, it being broken to that height could be a very good thing for it! It isn't good that it doesn't have leaves, though.

Good luck!

momoese

Gnarly Harvey! Fyi, there is an easy way to harvest without risking life and limb, but even it's tough to do by yourself. The trick is to harvest like they do on the plantations by cutting the p-stem and slowly letting it hinge over until you can safely reach the bunch while standing on the ground. The hard part is holding the bunch while using a tree saw to cut the p-stem! This is where some help is a good idea!

dablo93

good for you that it flowers after it broke down!

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