Maturation?
 

How long does it usually take on average from flower to fruit maturation?

That really depends on your growing conditions and most importantly, the variety. The wild Rhodochlamys species (like velutina and ornata) usually average about 5 months or so. The larger wild species will generally take about 12-18 months, however, in the perfect conditions 9 months is normal. Edible cultivars will usually also take about 12-18m months, even dwarf varieties, however, some of the taller ones like 'Saba' and the Reds (dwarf and tall 'Red') will easily take 2 years or more, especially the first time they fruit, but again, most of these (except the Reds) can fruit in 9 month under supreme conditons. 'Raja Puri' has been recored to fruit at 6 months, but usually take the normal 9-12. All of these times though are under the assumption that you can keep your bananas actively growing all year long without any longs breaks, this means basically the extreme Southern US, other tropical regions thru-out the world, or a heated greenhouse.

ok, that helps...but the question i was wondering about had more to do with when your first see the banana fingers appear what is the average time until they are ready to be eaten?

oops, sorry:o

Usually about (I assume you're wanting to know about edibles) 3-4 months or so.

That's about right. But it also depends on how a big of a bunch the plant has. Bigger bunches naturally takes longer times. Sometimes in some cultivars, it could take up to 9 months to a year to have all fruits in the bunch ripen.

maturation
 

I have found 'Saba' to take the longest for fruit maturation after blooming. I grow about 30 cultivars.

Joereal,
You have a good point about it taking longer for larger bunches, but also know that you really only have to wait until the first hand is ripe then you can cut the bunch and bring it in for the rest to ripen and then it can even be winter then : )

Gabe15, that is correct for most varieties, I was thinking about 1,000 fingers at that time when I wrote it. Anyway, even with shorter bunches, some bananas require a lot longer time to fill and then mature enough so that they can be harvested and ripened off the tree.

is there anything you should do to protect the bunch from rodents? bugs? etc?

sean,
you will often see blue plastic bags covering the bunches in plantations. The bags keep out pests and quicken the ripening process by trapping the ethylene gas. Also, I forget why, but the actual blue coloring I think has something to do with something, but any clear bag will work as well, I just would'nt use a black trash bag.

Joe,
You are right. There are some that take way too long in my opinion, Ive noticed the Reds (Dwarf and Tall) take a longer time to fill and ripen. Ive never seen a 1000 Finger bunch completley fill out, 2 days ago I met with Don Chafin (owner of Going Bananas Nursery), he had a 1000 Finger bunch there that only had about 2ft of fruit (probly had something to do with nutrition), so they dont always take a long time but if you could manage to get a full bunch (like 8ft), then I dont think you could salvage the entire bunch without having some of them being over ripe while others are still filling. I also noticed on this cultivar that it really has a strange flower pattern and it really changes with nutrition amounts. It is known that the first few hands will always be male flowers, and then the females come. But I noticed that with lots of nutrients usually only female (or bisexual) flowers will follow and produce fruit, however, I saw that if you do not fertilize them alot then it will change the flowers back to male. It really is an odd Musa.

thanks Gabe!