Mudturkle

I've noticed that some bananas seem to grow more easily for me than others. At first I wrote that off to location or microclimate. But I've noticed since then that the ones that did well for me at home (8B) also did well for me at our place on the coast (9B). One that hasn't done as well as I had hoped at either location is "Manzano". I read this morning in Kepler and Rust's book that "it does not fare well in Hawai'i's soils". So, my question for you is "Does Manzano do as well for you as the other banana plants you are growing?" Which brings to mind another question. Do you treat some banana varieties differently than others?

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Iholena Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, Pisang Raja.

kaczercat

In experience it does as good as the other bananas. A good grower and pups nicely.

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Matt

Best day

It grows well for me here in SoCal. It doesn't pup much.

Bill

Mudturkle

I read a little further in the book that it likes well-drained soil. I suppose they all do, but I wonder if some varieties are more picky about that than others. Thinking about it, neither of my locations is very well drained. Our place in 9B is close to the water, so the water table is high. And our home place in 8B is clayey where the bananas are. One lady at TRFG said that her's is in clay but she dumps material from her koi pool next to her's. Maybe I need to really increase the organic matter near mine. If the roots can't go get what they need, maybe I need to bring it to them?

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Iholena Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, Pisang Raja.

AZMelissa

I have a manzano (or two...not definite on the second one. Waiting on it to flower). It's been in the ground for over a year. So far, it has put our four pups. Thinking of removing one or two to encourage flowering (does that work?). Currently at almost 6 ft.

The "I think it's a manzano but not positive yet" has put out five pups and I think is closer to flowering as it is pumping out leaves and approaching 7 ft.

Mudturkle

AzMelissa, thanks! I'm hardly an expert on Manzano, but my understanding was that they fruit closer to 12' so I don't think 6 or 7' is anywhere close to fruiting. If it does, and if they are Manzano, that would be great! Dwarf Manzano?

Got pics?

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Iholena Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, Pisang Raja.

pitangadiego

Skinny plants, fruits at 10-12 feet, not cold tolerant. Wasn't worth the bother.

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Encanto Farms Nursery
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We Be Bananas
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AZMelissa

Okay...so not close to fruiting too short. haha. Really putting on growth and the one is two years old (it's taking forever then). I'll have to take pictures tomorrow. Took my dad to dinner for Father's Day and got home too late to take pics.

and @pitangdiego I'll have to replace the manzano with new pups from you next time I come to San Diego again. The Praying Hands and the FHIA 18 are doing well so far. In the ground and starting to push a new leaf each.

kaczercat

The days are getting hot here. Trying to stick to dwarfs this year. I do know of a family who grows them in the greater Los Angeles area and they get two or three flowers from the mat at times. Full full bunches too!
Here's a pic of mine that's 4 or 5 years old. It's been growing non stop for the last 2 years. Before that it was dormant from Nov-March

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Matt

AZMelissa

So apparently I stink at uploading photos. Lol. I have tried twice to upload following the instructions. I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It appears to go through and then says no pictures in file.

Mudturkle

I stink at posting photos too. But one way is to upload them to your photo gallery at bananas.org then click on the mountain icon and include the address (carefully) for the photo in your gallery.

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Iholena Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, Pisang Raja.

AZMelissa

That's what I was trying....lol. It says upload was successful and then has no photos in the gallery.

Mudturkle

Have you tried limiting the size of the files? I make mine smaller using a program that limits size of pictures for emails.

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Iholena Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, Pisang Raja.

AZMelissa

I haven't, no. I will have to see if I can figure that out.