Nicolas Naranja

So after much thought, I have decided to take my field nursery out of the back yard. I have different objectives now after figuring out what works and what doesn't work in terms of bananas and plantains.

I have decided to change my business model and only grow plantains commercially, and to be specific, dwarf plantains. I have zero problem selling plantains and I sell every plantain that I grow in 1 hour every two weeks. The backyard will be planted in late-season Avocados. Which grow fairly well along the lake.

I plan to have my backyard cleared of bananas by March.

If there is something that you are after as far as specific variety, PM me

FHIA-1
FHIA-3
FHIA-18
FHIA-17
FHIA-23
SH-3640
Williams
Dwarf Brazillian
Gros Michel
Pisang Klotek
Pisang Ceylon
Mysore
Tall Namwah
Dwarf Namwah
Raja Puri
Blue Java
Paggi
Hua Moa
Njalipoovan

I also have available
Tall French Plantain
Dwarf Superplantain
Harton Comun
FHIA-21
Giant Plantain
African Rhino Horn
Pisang Raja

But they have a reprieve for at least a few more months after the ones are gone from my house.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Richard

What, you're not going to plant Naranja's ?!

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Nicolas Naranja

Nope I may plant some Toronjas and Mandarinas. UF has developed an interesting production technique that breaks even at year two.

The Naranja thing has to do with the place Naranja

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Kat2

How neat that you've been able to focus on what works for you. I'm a bit older and still don't have it figured out. Thankfully I probably have, genetically, another 22 years or more to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. Now that I'm finally getting plants out of pots (took me over 2 years to figure out where to put them), I'm up to adding more varieties to my "stable" but the Yankee in me hates asking prices; I've recently begun testing my wings with dickering here in FL but it's very alien to me. If it's not too much trouble, could you put prices on pups in your listing? And perhaps add a zip if peeps want to pick up? I won't be driving more than 100 miles RT until after the 1st of the year so you might run out before then. Hope so for your sake--not mine.

Wishing you great success in your newly directed course; I'm a big fan of plantains.

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Capitum

Same question as the other reply about cost (I'm scheduled to come South to Orlando for the Thanksgiving holiday, but I think Pahokee is a little far for me).

I've been keeping a low profile, but looking primarily for the only three varieties for which I hold any hope in Atlanta;

Viente cohol, and

Since I'd have to overwinter any new corms inside at this point, small corms would absolutely be ok (maybe preferable even)

Many thanks!

edwmax

I would be interested in these as replacements for the plants I lost in July. But I have to drive about 450 mi oneway to pickup. PM is being sent.

1st choice: Dwarf Brazillian; Gros Michel; Pisang Ceylon; Dwarf Namwah; Raja Puri; Blue Java

2nd choice: FHIA-1; FHIA-18; Williams; Hua Moa

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Nicolas Naranja

My house is in Pahokee, 33476. PM me for an address. If you want just a few suckers, I am charging $7/sucker. If you want like 20-30+, I am charging $3/sucker.

For shipping: $20 for 1 sucker, $30 for 2 suckers, and $15 more for each additional sucker. That price includes shipping.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

Here we go!

Planting time! by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Botanical_Bryce

I am sorta in the first stages of this also. I was wondering if I should grow more plantains. I have almost 50 varieties and first ones I decided to get rid of are tall namwah and tall red. I may keep one each just because but not for fruit production. I am very interested in your plans, models, and customers so I can replicate in my area.

Nicolas Naranja

This is a big bet. I live in an area with a large caribbean population, the kind of place where you go into the grocery store and see someone with 30 plantains in their cart. I have never really had trouble selling plantains. I can sell bananas, and I can sell Hua Moas but I really gotta hustle them. With plantains, I had people willing to come to the farm and cut everything that I had and pay me by the raceme. I gave up on Farmer's markets, the closest one to me just wasn't worth the time I was investing into it. Basically 8-10 hours per week and 70 miles roundtrip, my normal gross was only $200. I found other vendors at the market that wanted to sell my fruit and that's my primary mode of sale for the bananas now. I highly recommend it as it's tough to get enough of a margin on bananas to make a ton of money. Towards the end I was selling at $1.50/lb which was great because it means a stalk of Goldfingers was worth $60 when cut into clusters, but selling 200 or 300 lbs of bananas isn't easy unless you have a big market.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

sputinc7

Check with the Thrifty market chains... I know they do buy from local growers and cater to Caribbean tastes. Here in Palm Bay we have a large Thrifty and several other stores very similar (Bravo, Downtown Produce), and a large Caribbean population. So many that even our local Walmart sells burros, reds,Manzanos and sometimes others.

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Nicolas Naranja

Progress!
Plantain party. by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

I had furrows made to make it easier to set out plants. The system is basically a twin row where the plants are 5' apart in rows that are 5' apart. You then leave a 10' road between the double rows to drive down

Plantain party. by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

This is the basic idea you lay the plants out in the furrow and then cover them. The furrows are about 12" deep.

Plantain party. by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Richard

What plantains are you growing there?

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Tytaylor77

I think they are PR Dwarf Plantains. If so he picked a good one!

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150+ Varieties!!. See profile for list. Help me add more!

www.bananapups.com

Richard

Yes, just checking for any fine tuning to his crop plans.

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HMelendez

Looking good Nick!.....

Nicolas Naranja

Dwarf Puerto Rican Plantain.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Nicolas Naranja

The furrows were a huge help. I planted about 250 plants today.
Plantain planting day 4 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

Plantain planting day 4 by Nicholas Larsen, on Flickr

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Botanical_Bryce

Why did you choose that variety over others like the regular or super plantains?

Nicolas Naranja

Dwarf varieties are more tolerant of wind, and the super plantain, while it does make a good heavy bunch, the fruit isn't as well sized. So it left me with two options :try to get a large shipment of curare enano from Galiltec (Banana Plants | Plantain Plants | Galiltec S.A.) or get some Dwarf Puerto Rican Plantains from Agristarts and also macro propagate some myself. Galiltec never responded to my queries, and Agristarts was more than happy to sell me a few thousand plants.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.