Size of banana fruit
 

Hi, (first time in my life) I am growing several banana plants in a year-round 24/7 climate with temps +10C to +27C (50F to 80F) and for 9 months the temps in my yard are below +20C (68F) and above +8C (47F). The summer months get temps 65F to 80F (18C to 27C) with most temps around 68F to 75F (18 to 23C). Now the "problem" is that after 2+ years after being planted (they were about 2 ft. (60cm) tall back then) I got 7-8 lants to bear fruit and the size of the fruit is very tiny, even smaller than the locally grown bananas in the local stores. Some are more or less curved and I am afraid if the fruits will not fill more (blow up more, become thicker) here will be not much inside after the skins are peeled. Pencil size at most. My neighbour says that first planted bear smaller fruit and their offspring will bear larger fruit. Is this true or false?

Other people in the town I spoke to they told me our cation is not good for growing bananas, but I see a small field of bananas nearby within 3 km or so which has bananas, although I can not discern their size from a far. We are about 150 m above sea level, about 2 km from the coast, in a small island in the Atlantic Ocean (Azores).

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

Hi! What island of Azores you live? Portuguese? :03:

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

Are you fertilizing regularly? They won't grow much without some source of food. Plenty of well composted manure works. Regular watering, but not too much, and sandy or some other well draining soil makes a big difference, too.
I used to live in Illinois, where we can grow most anything easily because of the good soil but bananas didn't do well because it held too much water, but I had one spot that was very sandy for some reason and the one I planted there grew much faster and bigger than all the rest.
Also, just to be sure, you do know bananas take several months to fill in and ripen, right? I like to let the first one turn yellow on the plant so I am sure they are done.

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

luisport: Pico island, Azores

sputinc7: I planted them begining of June 2015 with well draining but not rich soil full of stones and you could call it sandy as well, gave fertilizer and mulched everywhere so not a single grass grew and weeded regularly, then some months later gave them a different big bag of fertilizer. Then early this year I gave them seaweed from ocean, but which one was kept for a while to rain-drain of salt contents. Those with seaweed "mulch" started giving fruit soon after. We get a lot of wind, but my location is in a slight pit, still gets wind but not as bad. I thought bananas want rich dark black soil. Our soil and ground is extremely well draining so even dug up pits never get flooded. I thought the problem could be NOT ENUFF HEAT, or too much wind in "winter" or poor soil I gave it, but I added black soil around the stems and gave fert. and seaweed, so I thought small bananas are caused by my 150m (about 500 ft.) elevation and northern slope oif the island, but we still get enough sun for the bananas althoufgh not as much as coastal locations where Sun rises or sets low.

I am surprised that even southern Illinois would bear banana fruit? Zone 5 and 6? Perhaps zone 7 in the south? I lived in NC and SC for a while, zone 7 and 8. US East Coast's potentially (sub)tropical climate is destroyed by arctic air, even in Florida. I am 38 degrees north same as SF, Indianapolis or DC yet we have a coolish tropical climate here, or oceanic subtropical.

Yet my main question would still stand: is there such thing as 2nd and 3rd generation (offsprings of planted bananas) banana fruits turn out larger than first ones?

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

P.S. Regarding fill in and ripen, do bananas grow in size AFTER they become hanging with fower? First plant bear fruits in March but I dont think the fruit became thicker (fatter, wider) since then. Some fruit is triangular and some more square. On some plants the fruit is extremely curved and even more tiny, like a size of a large finger. This is my first time growing bananas (except in SC I grew banana plants but they never gave fruit for obvious reasons - bad climate, 33 degrees far enoygh south, but North America (US/CAN) is not blessed with reasonable climate due to huge landmass up north and no mountains to block the cold air), so I am having all kinds of questions in my head and here.

I believe we must add several criteria together:

Climate (probabaly not good enough)
Elevation (150 m or 500 ft.) probably too high)
Sun exposure (probabaly a bit too little)
Quality of soil (probabaly too poor)
Fertlization (probabaly to little)
Wind exposure (probabaly too much)
Watering (I water enough and not too much)
Mulch (?) (I got lots of pine bark mulch in the entire area of 12m x 1,8m (40 ft. x 6 ft.) that is surrounded by low stone walls.

Regarding watering the locals told me they never water bananas as Azores get enough rain, but once during summer can get 2-3 weeks with no rain at all.

As you can see per above, a lot of factors that are too expensive, too time consuming, so the bannaas grow in their small Azorean size (reasonable) and very tasty.

The locals say bananas are better grown on the south and west side of the island. Our bananas are same or tiny bit longer than the ones in your avatar.

One guy told me to wait until October to open up the bananas to have them ripe and then I will see whether it is worth growing bananas in my yard. A lot of people here grow bananas in deep pits, full height of bananas covered by pits, to protect them from wind. Otherwise they grow natural fence from plants such as Faia or shrubs. In addition to all this trouble we have to go through, in our area the soil is just lava stone, so we must buy soil or make our own. One truck of 15 cubic meters (probably 170 cu ft?) of soil (with some large stones included) costs about $200 and imagine how many trucks you need to cover a reasonable small field with a couple feet deep of good soil.

Because of wind, one needs to ave a cold frame greenhouse just to grow anything reasonably year round. Because of wind.

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

Pico is a fabulous and very beautiful island! Congratulations, i know it well. Good luck to your plantations! :08:

Re: Size of banana fruit
 

talk to your neighbor with the near by banana field. find out what type of bananas he is growing and his suggestions. Most banana plants grow best with temps in the 78 deg F to 90 deg F.