suburbanana

I know there are many dwarf orinoco first flower posts, but I have a banana plant flowering for the first time and it's exciting. The plant grew and pupped vigorously last year. It made it to about fruiting size and kindly waited to flower until the weather warmed up in spring. The fruiting p-stem is a little lacking in leaf power, but hopefully it has stored up enough energy in the rhizome to put out some good fruit. The flag leaf emerged on April 21 and the bud is fully out and turning down as we speak. No bananas showing yet. It is probably 6 ft tall at bud emergency (maybe an inch or two under). The flower looks to be about 14" (also not precisely measured). Anyway, hopefully I'll be eating bananas in the late summer/early fall!
(Purchased as a tissue culture spring of 2022, planted in the ground mid summer 2022)

suburbanana

April 21, 2024

April 21, 2024

May 9, 2024

May 13, 2024

suburbanana

Update: The first hand is visible. Looks like 10 healthy bananas to me! (one might be hiding behind the bract). I tapped the bell and noticed a drop fall out. The abundant amount of banana nectar coming from the flowers is so cool, and delicious. Banana flowers are beautiful and amazing.

5/20/2024



5/20/2024

PR-Giants

Congrats on your first flower.

Did you hand pollinate any of the female flowers?

If you think nectar is cool then you'll probably think creating seeds and producing new varieties is really cool.

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suburbanana

Thanks, PR-Giants.

No, I haven't pollinated the female flowers. That does sound very interesting. Unfortunately, there's very little banana cultivation in northern California, although it's more doable than most think when using the right varieties and patience. I see a plant around here and there, but the likelihood that one of them is flowering and that I am able to get pollen from it is probably pretty small.

So Orinoco is fertile? What varieties are typically able to yield seed?

PR-Giants

You probably meant to ask which Cultivars are typically able to yield seed?

Use the word varieties when including both Wild bananas (aka seeded bananas) and Cultivars (aka seedless bananas - CULTI-vated VAR-ieties). If you're not including both groups it's more easily understood by using Wild or Cultivar as the description.

Pollen is small and members can ship it to each other for the cost of a First Class stamp.

I'm sure when a member with a 'Male Fertile' banana shares pollen with a member that has a 'Female Fertile' banana it's a win win, because they can share in the seeds that are produced.

I group my varieties by 'Female Fertile' and 'Male Fertile'.

The Blue Java 'Ney Mannan' is an extremely female fertile cultivar and the one I recommend members to start with because success is super easy.

Orinoco are female fertile.

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Lyly19

Congratulations on your banana plant flowering for the first time! It's always exciting to see the fruits of your gardening efforts come to fruition. Retro Bowl

Foxhound

Would there be any potential in crossing an Orinoco and Velutina?


Also fantastic pictures!

I'm watering at the mouth waiting for my Namwah to flower!

suburbanana

PR-Giants: Thanks for the clarification of terms. Yes, I meant to ask which cultivars are typically able to yield seed. This leads to another question: which cultivars are typically able to produce viable pollen ('male fertile')?

I haven't pollinated the flowers. Maybe on a future inflorescence. It looks like I'll get 4 hands and about 40 bananas. I'm happy for a first flower on Dwarf Orinoco from TC in the Bay Area, CA. Hopefully Dwarf Namwa and Pisang Ceylon aren't too far behind. They definitely have more growing to do before they are ready to fruit.

Thanks, Lyly19 and Foxhound!

suburbanana

Update - looks like 4 hands and 40 bananas, but we'll see.

May 30, 2024:

all43

Looking good!

CarolinaShoreFruits

Exciting!!