bigdog

I finally got around to taking some pics of my bananas today, after photographing my musa 'Royal Purple'. Here they are!

Musella lasiocarpa getting set to bloom. This is the third season for this guy. Received as a small pup in the Spring of 2004. Anticipation is killing me !



Musa basjoo, transplanted from Nashville (as were most banana plants). It spent the winter under the house, and now the middle pseudostem is getting set to flower at only about 5-6 feet of pseudostem.




Small clump of musa velutina, received this Spring in a large pot. This would account for them blooming at such a small size. Four blooms thus far on this little clump.



Musa cheesmani, first year in the ground. It is just sprouting its first pup, so I think I will separate it next month and leave the mother corm in the ground to test its hardiness. Pretty fast grower too!


Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii', in its second year of growth. It lost over half of its pseudostem under the house, but actually started growing before planting it out. This year, it has put on some good mass to it, and next year should be even better. If you look closely, you can see an argiope spider in front of the center leaf. You can see the web pulling two of the leaves together.



Jamaican Red. The pseudostem in the front is actually the pup, having overtaken the mother pseudostem in the back.



Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger', first year in the ground. This one will be left in the ground. Sorry for the shaded picture. There is quite a bit of red on top of newer leaves, but it fades after time.



Musa itinerans. Two corms were planted here, and I didn't get them in the ground until late July. Good, hardy banana plant!



Musa 'Tall Orinoco' clump against the side of the house. Being a pretty hardy sport, I decided to incorporate one clump of orinocos into the landscape.



Front of the garden.



Another view from inside the (weedy!) garden, looking back towards the house. Please ignore any and all weeds.



Now for the fruit! My bunches were very puny this year, so don't laugh, all of you FL and CA people... Not sure what to attribute the puny sizes to, other than the number of leaves at bloom time. All corms were full-sized, and had no pups cut off of the corm (although I kept new pups trimmed down to the ground). It's OK though, because they will still taste very good!

A whopping 5 bananas on this one hand!


7 bananas on 2 hands here.



And 9 bananas on two hands here. A couple of these bananas are actually two bananas fused into one.



My AeAe banana, in a planter with lime zinger elephant ears.



Hope you enjoyed!

mikevan

I take it you're trying hard to replace the weeds and remaining lawn with nanners... right?

Cool Pics! Inspirational.

Be well,
Mike

Frankallen

WOW!! What some Beautiful Photos!! I love to look at other people's Plants and Gardens. I think your Fruit is Gorgeous!! Down here in Zone7, as you know,just getting any Fruit here, we are very Lucky!!! Congrats on such Beautiful Plants and Fruit!!!


Frank

Zac in NC

Thanks for sharing the pics, Frank. They are great.

Zac

halo

Thanks for posting those gorgeous pictures.

Carolina

I'm not laughing. You have fruit.. I don't. You have Ae Ae... I don't. And my maurelii is just a babe. Next year, though, look out! I'll be in competition then.

Great pics, but I couldn't bare to look for the spider. Phobia.........

MediaHound

Very nice collection you have there!

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momoese

Looking good!

PhilMusa

Great pics Bigdog . I really got to get me an Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii'. You have a real beauty there .


Regards,

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BobbyinNY

WOW.... Excellent... Bigdog.... I'm still debating whether to store them or keep em going.... I'm putting up a huge greenhouse this winter so I'll have plenty of room to grow - it's just that these bananas can take up alot of room fast... The one that I might store is my cavendish that's about 15ft right now.... It was SUPPOSED to be a dwarf.... I guess not.

austinl01

Great job, Frank. I consider you a real banana nut! LOL! You rock! I always appreciate you posting the pictures and helping us out.

You were right...my musella lasiocarpa didn't bloom this year but has about a zillion pups right now. I still have it potted and maybe will bring it indoors this winter to extend the growing season. Do you think there's a possibility that it will flower inside the house. I don't have a current pic right now though.

Keep up the great work. BTW, what does your girlfriend think of your bananas? Mine thinks they are wonderful and is amazed by their growth this year. She loves my hobby which makes it all the better. I like her hobby too of card making!

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microfarmer

Thank you Bigdog for all the wonderful pics. I did a google search and found your 'putting nanners to sleep for the winter' thread and loved it.

I am a 'nanner newbie and have learned alot since getting them in July. I have 7 varieties (Goldfinger, Ice cream, dwarf Jamacian Red, dwarf Orinoco, CA Gold, superdwarf mini Cavendish, and Blue Java) and they are all doing well 'cept for the Blue Java, which got spidermites and I misdiagnosed it til it's too late. The rest have given me about a 1/2 dozen or so leaves each and are about 18" tall and going strong.

Being in z9 in the CA central valley, we have a mediteranian like weather but we get frosts and occasional freezes. My plants are in 20 gallon containers til next spring when they'll all get put in the ground. I'm trying to get a small greenhouse built for overwintering them, and it should keep the temps up around 60-65 deg. all winter, so I am hoping to get a jumpstart on spring. I should be able to put them out in early March

Keep up the good work!

Jeff

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AnnaJW

Beautiful pictures!!! Thanks so much for sharing!

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Gard

Wow!!! Thank you for posting this thread, really cool pictures, and very helpful!
I would never thought of doing it like that, digging them up and all! You've made me get loads of new ideas now.

Gard

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sandy0225

Your bananas always look so good, and you're far from a tropical area. It sure looks like one from the pictures though! Keep up the good work...

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Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

bigdog

Thanks, all!

It sure is fun right now. When my back gives out in a few years, then I'll probably stop dragging them in and out. One day maybe we'll have a cold hardy edible banana that can produce mature fruits in one year!

momoese

According to Zac you might have cold hardy edible variegated bananas in the future!

BobbyinNY

Here's a picture of my monster here on Long Island.... This was sold last year as a Dwarf Cavendish.... Yeah, right.... Now I'm trying to figure out what it really is....

GAPEye

Very nice pictures, make the yard look so relaxing.

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bigdog

Thanks. The yard doesn't look very relaxing these days though! After some very heavy winds (over 50 mph) here last week, this is one of our four Virginia Pines:




That scraggly little Shortleaf Pine got in its way, or it would probably be on the ground by now!