Davey

Our grocery stores have been carrying a "plantain" cooking banana for years. It's a bit longer than the usual standard yellow bananas ('Cavendish'?) , usually sold fairly green, and when cooked tastes kind of like a mild - flavored sweet potato. We like using it in Spanish-style recipes.

Does anyone know what the cultivar name might be, and is it possible to grow here in Baton Rouge, LA, USDA Zone 8b?

After finding out our "edible banana" was not a 'Cavendish' but an 'Orinoco' / Burro Banana (which explains a LOT!!!! ) , and usually considered a cooking banana, I'm now wondering if it would be significantly different than a backyard-grown plantain.

Now I'm wondering about the i.d. of another banana plant we bought from a small Lafayette, LA nursery 2 yrs ago. They had lost or were not sure of the cv name, but said it did well in our area and had a sweet and delicious fruit to be eaten out-of-hand. It has gotten off to a slow start, but seems to be taking off now. No blooms yet....it's only 3' tall, with leaves no more than 2' long so far, but it does have a distinct powdery blue-ish blush on the underside of the leaves. The leaves are all green, with some of the leaves having a slight maroon midrib.

Would like to i.d. it before trying to get a 'Nam Wah', which sounds like a good one for us.

Any ideas? I know it's not much to go on......but would really like to avoid duplication as garden space is of course at a premium.

What would be the 2nd most likely edible cv for our area? (Now I know I have the 1st----'Orinoco'---thanks to y'all!!!! )

Thanks in advance....again......

Miriam and Rex Davey
Baton Rouge LA

sputinc7

It sounds possible you have a 3 foot Nam Wah already. Got a pic or two?

__________________

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.

Kat2

Is the nursery still in business? If not, ignore the following. But why can't you go back and ask them where they obtained this plant? Sure, they may have lost a tag but they know who their vendors were a couple of years ago. (They'd better have records back that far--IRS thinks they should.) I doubt more than a couple of growers supplied them with musas; asking those suppliers what they produce is a start. If your nursery grew the plant on site and it grows well in your area, they would have harvested from the mother during this time I suspect. Or at the least have a hanging bunch you could photograph. If you post a picture of your 3 footer someone (not me) may be able to dismiss it as being a Namwah.

__________________

Davey

Am starting a new ID My Banana thread entitled, "Could this be NamWah?", with 3 pics.

Thanking all of you in advance,

Miriam

Davey

Sputink77 I've trying to get some pics up but for the life of me, can't recall how I got that done the other day.

Can you check my gallery ? They seem to have gone up on the gallery with no problem but can't get them onto the forum.

The most recent 3 pics are of this mystery baby.

Thanks so much...giving up now.....


MiriamDavey
Baton Rouge LA

Tytaylor77

I can't tell exactly what it is. You most likely won't know until it's bigger or flowers. I can say it is for sure not a Namwa. I also see some wine spots on the leaves. It looks a little dwarfish. Could be a cavendish type but it could be lots of other varieties also.

__________________

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

www.bananapups.com

sputinc7

__________________

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.

Davey

Thanks for posting my pic! Yes, it does have wine spots. When we planted it, it had darker wine spots. They seem to be fading. And hubby now recalls the word "dwarf" used when we bought it.

We can call the nursery & ask if they know the cv. Or, at least give us a short list of what cv's it might be.

Or.....we can get serious about caring for it and post a pic of its bloom/fruit..... and in that spirit, I dumped a couple of teaspoonfuls of Osmocote on it & weeded it a bit yesterday.

Love this group! A buncha banana wonks! My kinda folks!

Miriam/ Rex Davey
Baton Rouge, LA

Davey

Latest on quest to i.d. mystery baby previously pictured:

Phoned nursery we got it from, and it's undergone a few management changes in the meantime.

They said send a pic, which I might do. But 2 yrs ago, their most commonly offered edible bananas included:

'Seminole'---had just started offering that
Dwarf Cavendish
Double Mahoi
Thousand Fingers
Rajapuri

After reading about each one, and looking at y'alls pics and other pics on the internet, am leaning toward Rajapuri. Hubby remembered that he had been looking for an edible banana with a sturdy leaf for cooking fish on the grill, that was a bit shorter than our monster 'Orinoco' for which we usually need a ladder to harvest a leaf.

Many of the pics of very young 'Rajapuri' show wine spots, which mine does have, though they've faded a bit from when we planted it.

After reading a little about 'Seminole' I sure hope it's not that one......if it's anything like our clump of 'Orinoco', by the time it gets to flowering/i.d. stage may need a backhoe to remove it....

And 'Thousand Fingers' doesn't sound like anything I'd want to devote garden space to, either....

Keeping fingers crossed for Rajapuri, Dwarf Cavendish, or Double Mahoi.

Guess I still need to round up a 'Namwa'.

What's a good source?

Miriam/Rex Davey