My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

I just finished making 2 albums in Gallery with my Banana plants at end of April 2006 and now (July 2006).
You can visit by clicking on "ngiann's Gallery" at left.
Hope you like it.

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Beautiful Photos!! Your Banana Plants are gorgeous and have really grew!! Your Grapes are beautiful also and look so delicious !! Good Job!! :bananas_g


Frank

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Heh - tickled over your gorgeous nanners - but your grape arbor has really given me excellent inspiration over how to protect my taro from the Texas sun. I have blanc du bois, reliance and primitivo here that would do well over those arbors - perhaps some maypop and/or hardy kiwi. Nevertheless - your nanners are awesome! Must be nice living in Greece. At first, I thought you were in Arizona or thereabouts until I double-checked. :) Your saba and ice-cream look to be in the lead there - very vigorous growers!

A hui hou,
Mike

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Those are wonderful pictures!

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Thank you all for your comments.

Mike: You must check if your Grapes are the appropriate kind for making arbors. Here in Greece, there are two different kinds: the normal (Dwarf?) kind with countless subtypes of color,taste etc, and the long ones (also many subtypes) that are very long and have the tendency to "lie" horizontally. These are "table" grapes and they are no so good for making wine(not much alcohol), but they are excellent to eat. They can cover big areas quick, and they give a pleasant shadow, also they can trained to go very high (I saw many of them covering 2nd floor flat roofs!).

Our climate here where I live (Aegina island) is mediterranean type: Mild wet winters & dry hot summers. This climate appears to be also in S.California, a part of Chile, South Africa and a West South part of Australia.
This is basically my 1st year with bananas and I really had a very hard time to collect the ones I have now. No one here in Greece (except one or two) knows what I'm talking about when I say Ice Cream, Raja Puri etc
In garden shops you can find just "bananas" - no more info. Some people in our island put them in their gardens as ornamentals, and they leave them as they are. Never trim or remove the flowered pstems. But I saw one that is making real fruits every year - not far from me, and this gives me hopes.
Of course in Crete island, there are some professional growers (they have Cavendish), but this island is southern and is warmer.
So far my bananas grow very fast, and we are warm here until mid November or may be more and now that I have some more cold tolerant types I hope to have some fruits in the future.

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Yes, also in the Turkey (Antalya and Mammara) are profesional banana growers (Dwarf Cavendish, Grand Nain).

You also should try Grand Nain, Dwarf Orinoco, Goldfinger (FHIA-01) and Sweetheart (FHIA-03).

Your climate is nearly frostfree, very seldom night frosts during winters. Nearly ideal conditions for banana growing!!!

I hope that you will harvest soon! :bananas_b

Best wishes
Joachim

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Any idea where i'll find them (FHIA-01 & FHIA-03) ?

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

These folks have both of them (FHIA-01 & FHIA-03) and they have sent me nice plants in the past few weeks !!:07:

Frank

http://www.aandbtropicals.com/

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Frank thanks, but i meant someone that can ship to EU!

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Hi ngiann,

I think, I know some sources in the EU.

http://www.kobakoba.co.uk (Koba Koba, David Constantine)

http://www.bananenshop.at (Achims Bananenshop)

http://www.tropische-pflanzenwelt.de (Tropische Pflanzenwelt Michael Peuthert)

You can Achim ask for more bananas, there are also new banana varieties in his onlineshop. You can ask Achim for FHIA-01 and FHIA-03. Also you can ask David Constantine from Koba Koba for these cultivars, also Michael Peuthert.

To order plants from the EU members is cheaper than from the U.S. (shipment charges and phytosanitary charges!!!).

I hope to help you.

It's very interesting to grow bananas in your country! :bananas_b

Happy Banana Growing
Joachim

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

There is no online shop. David is very difficult to contact, he replied once and told me to wait until summer but nothing yet and I mailed him twice again

I bought most of my plants from Achim, good plants, fast shipping, but he does not have fhia-01 & fhia-03, also his English are elementary and I don't speak German so I did not figured out if he is going to have them in the future.

More expensive, site is only in German, I tried to make an order by e-mail but I never got a reply.. He may also not speak English.

Correct, that's why I try first to get them from EU, and leave the rare ones for USA sources.
The things got more complex: plants now need 3 inspections with a time distance of 3 weeks between them (=9 weeks total), in order to get the phyto..
This is a new policy since last April as i found out with the hard way: I made an order that costed me $450 (incl shipping + phyto), I sent the money and the agri department said that from now on the new inspection procedure must be followed. Now I am waiting to decide what I'm going to do: to get my money back or pay some more and get the plants.
I don't have any complaint from the Banana vendor, they are ready to do whatever I decide - and they did not know the procedure change because some months ago they had sent plants to Greece again without problems.

Thanks
Nikos

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

Hi, ngiann,

there is a plantfinder to find plants in the U. K.

http://www.rhs.org.uk/rhsplantfinder/plantfinder.asp

But I could help you. I know, that Achim doesn't speak English very well, but he speaks Spanish well, he was emigrated for years to Spain.

I could email Achim about you and ask him about FHIA-01 and FHIA-03. Then I translate his email in English and send it to you.

Yes, it's a problem to get bananas in Europe because of the different languages.

Oh yes, there is a tip for you: http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=eng

You can scan the descripations from Achims Bananenshop and the Google Language Tools will translate from German to English.

You see, that I try to help you.

Perhaps you can ask also INIBAP (http://www.inibap.org), they are speaking English very good. I got from INIBAP even pics for my book. The people there are kindly. Perhaps they will tell you some good English or Greek speaking sources in the EU.

With the best
Joachim

Re: My Banana Photos (then & now)
 

This sounds good Joachim, if you have any news let me know..