island cassie

Suddenly all of my bananas have sprouted pups (with the exception of the new icecream and ladyfinger which are too small) and I am getting very excited! It must be the rain this week that has made them move. Since last Monday we have had 13.3 inches!! and from Friday night until this morning - 11.7 inches. Sheesh!! The sun is shining now but I spy some more dark clouds. Better than New Jersey where a friend is shovelling his way through 8 inches of snow.

tlturbo

Are you any where near Samana? We will be there on a cruise ship next week and I'll yell HI to ya hee hee

Terry

Sodak

Do you have any pics of the plants?

I sure would like to see. I'm in zone denial.

island cassie

Sorry Terry - we are in the centre of the north coast and about 3.5 hours drive away from Samana on a good day. It would have been great to meet up and I would have bought you a cold Presidente! Samana is a small place whose claim to fame are the humpback whales that come there to breed each winter. It might be a bit early, but keep a lookout as you get near because they come there in their hundreds - we went to see them last spring and it was amazing - courting couples, week old babies everything! Have a great cruise!

Cassie

island cassie

Sodak - will take some pics tomorrow if it has stopped pouring with rain - I will watch for a sunny spell!

Cassie

island cassie

DC with pup

this DC has 2 pups

3 big pups on this one - one hidden behind main plant. Waiting for a flag here.

Rulo with pup

3 tiny pups on this red banana hidden in the grass

apple with pup.

Yes - I do go looking for pups with a magnifying glass each morning! lol

AnnaJW

That's great Cassie! Congrats!

__________________
-Anna Banana -


From the earth we came,
to the earth we return...
in between we garden

island cassie

Thanks Anna - always something to look at when they are growing fast!

JoeS475

Where I am in New Jersey we got about 1 inch of the white *%^$# recently. Before Thanksgiving, which is a bad sign. I guess its payback for having the warmest autumn in memory, almost all my plants stayed outside until October 30th!

Oh to be in the Dominican Republic! Great news on the pups Cassie! Nice pics too! I'm expecting pups in March when most of my bananas have decided they're about to die so they'd better reproduce quick; that'll be my stock for the next year.

Regards,

~Joe

__________________

island cassie

Our new neighbours here are going to split their time between New Jersey and the Dominican Republic, and last week they emailed to say they were shovelling! No need to go to the gym!

But you will have the last laugh when we are either blown away by a hurricane, up to our armpits in rainwater or rattled by an earthquake - all of which are possible. We are on the junction of a number of tectonic plates and on some roads you can measure the slippage by the ever widening varietion in the painted road markings - keeps things interesting.

On the overwintering - do you need to check them regularly, or just leave them to get on with it?

Cassie

JoeS475

Certainly sounds like you've got enough natural considerations to keep things more than interesting, although there has to be a trade off to live in paradise I guess!

For overwintering I simply am leaving all the plants to take their chance in pots by the sunniest windows I can find. I only water when the soil is bone dry, and then only a little bit, just to keep things alive. I check them about once a week, but water far less than that. I tried storing in my basement last year, the lasiocarpa came out 6 months later looking basically like it did the day it went in, and started growing almost immediately. The musas came out so badly that it took them most of the summer just to start growing again!

~Joe

__________________

island cassie

everyone has different problems ! lol