alah

If it is , can anybody post me a photo of the fruits, please?
Thanks, Alberto.

damaclese

Musa and Ensete are two different sup species of the Musaceae family. as far as Ensete go only the Ventricosum that i know of has an edible pseudo stem. in Ethiopia were it is grown as a food crop they chop the P-stem and corm up and ferment it. dry it out, then grind it in to a flower for the making of a bread. the seeds are consumed but only in times of extreme famine

i hope that answers your question

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Helping to foster understanding for the learning disabled

lorax

Also, for E. ventricosum the very heart of the pstem of young plants is edible similar to heart of palm, but it needs to be boiled first to remove the bitter oxalates.

alah

Thanks, Paulo. I Know almost nothig about species and varieties. I mostly know about cambur, topocho and plantain. These are all edible and here in Venezuela is what is cultivated.I don´t know any body who cultivates, or sells, bananas as ornamental plants.

alah

Excuse me, Lorax. I only thought that this would bear edible fruit like plantains..... I wouldn´t dare to chop one of these! That would be a crime.
By the way, are you into TC? Can´t believe I´m the only one over here.

Gabe15

E. ventricosum has very small fruits with very large seeds, definitely not something that should be grown for fruit production. Traditionally the inner stem and corm are eaten as mentioned before. They only fruit once and then die completely (not like Musa which do not die when they fruit as is so commonly thought, the plants keep growing, just the shoot that bore fruit dies). You can asexually propagate E. ventricosum but it requires cutting down the plant before flowering.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

lorax

Alberto, didn't notice your location! ¡Bienvenidos! It's nice to finally have another northern SA member.

I'm with Gabe - E. ventricosum is not something I'd be growing for its fruit - it is far too seedy to be of value as an edible. If you want plantain-type fruits, I'd go with the Cien Libras (Platano Macho) or maybe Orinoco (Chato) cultivars, or if you can find them, Maqueño (Gros Michel - I have them here in Ecuador, so there's no reason for them not to be in Venezuela).

I am not yet into TC, largely because my farm is in the middle of nowhere and I don't have a reliable clean room that I can keep the cucarachas out of at the moment. When I finish constructing the lab, I will certainly start TCing, largely to meet the demand of people here on the org that want South American varieties.

Want Them All

Approximately at what age do they fruit? I recently bought one that's about 5' tall. I'm hoping I can keep it for a while, and not have it die on me after producing fruits. Thanks,

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Gabe15

Normally after 2-5 years of growth, depending on environment. I have seen them fruit anywhere from 3ft to 15ft+, which again greatly depends on environment.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Bob

Gabe, do you notice any certain stresses( root bound,light, water/drought, altitude, over fertilization .....does that make sense as a stress?) consistently induce flowering at a lower height? I understand these have an effect on bunch quality etc........... but ..... just trying every avenue to get a flower.

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lorax

Bob, altitude plays a huge role. In Quito, E. ventricosum fruits at 15-20' height, where in Puyo they go past 40' sometimes before blooming. Soils also might have something to do with it - Quito is very sandy and poor with a kaolin foundation, where Puyo is rich black soil with a red clay foundation.

Also if your plant is young, you can pollard it (chop the pstem back) to reduce effective height, but be careful because you can also take off the flower. I think we discussed height-pruning in another thread.

alah

OK, Thanks, everybody. Just to be sure I got this straight I up loadaed the photo which started this thread:

Musa and Ensete are two different sub species of the Musaceae family.

E. ventricosum the very heart of the pstem ( pseudostem? )of young plants is edible

E. ( Ensete? ) ventricosum has very small fruits with very large seeds.
So, for sure, this an Ensete Ventrcosum. It takes about three years for it to fruit and the seeds can be germinated. Right? Thanks.

lorax

You got it!

Gabe15

They are not subspecies, they are genera of the Musaceae family. There are 3 genera in the family: Musa, Musella and Ensete. Each genera has in it a number of species, of which some species have described subspecies.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.