venturabananas

I had the good fortune of having ripe Dwarf Brazilian fruit and ripe fruit from an unidentified variety in the Pome subgroup in my yard at the same time. The unidentified Pome was acquired from Jon (pitangadiego) as "Cardaba", which is what is was labelled when he bought it. It's definitely not Cardaba. And it's definitely in the Pome subgroup. It's very similar to, if not the same thing as, a moderate height "tall" Brazilian (i.e., not the monster Brazilians that get 20' + of pseudo stem). This one fruited for the first time at just under 12', which is typical for this one, from what I recall Jon telling me. It's a winner. Among the fastest to bloom (17 months) and ripen fruit (7 months) in my cool climate of the varieties I've tried. And the flavor is great. Really, the only downside in my view is the height, which is only a problem in that it gets really shredded when it's windy.

Here are some photos of the fruit, comparing it to Dwarf Brazilian. If I was forced to choose one of the other, I'd choose the Pome. The flavor, though darn near identical was slightly better to me (less earthy or vegetal), and the plant is much faster to produce than DB. The only other noticeable difference between the fruit of these two varieties is that are more of the black "aborted seeds" in the Pome fruit that then DB fruit.

Unidentified Pome on left, Cavendish from store for scale, Dwarf Brazilian on right.


Pome on left, DB on right.


A very tasty bowl of cereal. Pome on left, DB on right.


Fruits of unidentified Pome. One is a fused double and the top one is normal.

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Julian

Your DB fruits are a lot smaller than what I am used to seeing in Hawaii. About half of the size.

robguz24

I see all kinds of sizes of them in my yard and in farmers markets. Some are as small as my big 1000 fingers fruit, others are bigger than supermarket cavendish. Elevation, microclimate, amount of water seems to make major differences.

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My micro-farm

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Julian

Interesting indeed.

venturabananas

Julian, I basically agree with you, though as Rob notes, you see lots of variation in size in Hawaii. What I've never seen here in So Cal is really large DB fruits, like large Cavendish size, which I have seen in Hawaii. I think it's just not tropical enough.

On the other hand, I have grown Dwarf Namwah fruits that were bigger than what I think is typical for the tropics (Cavendish size), so go figure.

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Julian

I have never seen Namwah that size, and I buy 6 pounds a week from someone who probably has one of the largest Namwa banana farms in the islands. Awesome. Thank you for sharing.

robguz24

I thought you weren't too impressed by the Namwahs. Have they grown on you? Got some here last week that were ono. Can't wait until my two huge bunches are ready.

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Julian

It's the same guy that I bought from that first time. He lives down the road from me and sells it out of his house for $.60 a pound. You can't go wrong with that. That's half of what I can find DB's at. I buy about 6 pounds every week. My kids love it, I like it, my wife is just okay with them. They have grown on me. At the right stage, they are pretty darn good. Too early or too late and the slimeyness kills me.

raygrogan

Great report. How big are your DB at fruiting, to compare with the Pome at just under 12?

venturabananas

This was the first time for this DB mat and the p-stem was very short -- right around 6', so almost half the height of the Pome. They'll get taller here. I'd say 8-10' is pretty typical around here. Don't know if the Pome will get taller than 12', but I would guess so. The follower is already around 12' and no sign of a bloom yet.

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