eggo

Anyone on this board ever fruited one of this? I think I'm about to give up on this plant. I've had some plants for almost 3 years now and I think I'm gonna just dig em up. I'm in a California zone 10 so it shouldn't be too difficult?!? Thanks.

MediaHound

About ten years ago I got fruit from mine. Then two years later I potted up the plant for to remain in a pot for the next six years or so. And now they are back in the ground as of about two years ago.
Anyway, yes I have gotten fruit from them but it was a long time ago and unfortunately I have no pictures.
I have some that are getting big lately and so I hope to get fruit again in the near future.
I should add for the record that they fruited at about three - three and a half feet of pseudostem from what I recall.

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JoeReal

Remember that this plant was designed for indoor foliage and not for fruit production. Makes fantastic ornamental. Mine is 5 years old and had more than 500 leaves later and was fed up with it. It should fruit or it should die. Just left it outside one winter and promptly died, never to return. Good riddance.

Gabe15

I have personally never grown them long enough to fruit, but to address the main question...yes, they fruit. What I have noticed is that they seem to hate changing conditions, they like long periods of optimal growing conditions with few and mild breaks in that, if any at all. They also seem to better in places like Southern Florida, rather than Southern California.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

the flying dutchman

For what it is worth, I have seen one fruiting inside a local nursery
overhere in holland this year. It was in a large pot and the fruit was more tiny than the fruit on gabes pix. It had 1 big sucker aswell.

Ron

NANAMAN

Thanks for the pictures Gabe, I guess since I'm in so.Fla. I can expect to see fruit in a couple of years or so! Ha! Isn't high color mini just a more colorful sport of SDC ? This one is about 10 months old.

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eggo

Thanks for the pics everyone. I do expect it to fruit but by taking this long, it may not be worth the effort. Anyone knows how tall a dwarf Cavendish fruits at? The ones I seen shown as dwarf Cavendish fruited at what seems to 5 ft or so. I'm looking for a rather short growing fruiting banana as it will be planted next to some fruit trees that requires the full sun it gets.

Gabe15

super dwarf is generally 2-3ft.

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eggo

Gabe, I was thinking I may have to try a dwarf Cavendish as its still pretty short and may fruit more consistently than the SDC.

bencelest

I bought a dwarf cav from one of the members in this forum. It is doing really well. I planted it in a whiskey barrel . I plan to protect it during the winter time. But what I want to know is what is the lowest tempt it can tolerate without losing it.
I had a super dwarf cav that grew so nice but did not make it last winter.

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Banana Nut

JoeReal

Benny,

if you keep it dry during the winter and put a breathable row cover over it, the pseudostem should survive. The SDC on the other hand will get reset every winter even if it survives, and so will endlessly leaf out and never bear fruit in our zone.

Another very good dwarf banana that I found to be cold-hardy is the Mauritius. It is potted and forgot to bring it in during the Arctic Blast, and it is growing well now. The pseudostem survived. The Mauritius is slightly taller than the SDC by a foot and shorter than Dwarf Cavendish and have fruits slightly smaller than Dwarf Cavendish but bigger than SDC. So having passed that brutal in-the pot test, I will plant it in the ground later. So perhaps just 2 more years when it develops nice trunks while inground, it will bear fruit. There is hope. At least my own Mauritius is cold hardy even if the literature would say it is just as cold sensitive as most cavendishes are. If my Mauritius will surive this winter while inground, then I may have my own cold hardy sport. But that needs multi-year testing and will give you a pup Benny.

Joe

bencelest

Thanks Joe for the offer. But please give me an example what a breathable row cover ?

Benny

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Banana Nut

JoeReal

I buy these from eBay. Avoid the pricey sellers, here's a more practical price, and I usually buy 4 of them to save on shipping.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Floating-Row-Cov...QQcmdZViewItem


And I usually sew them together to cover entire canopies like so in the last arctic blast:

bencelest

Thanks Joe.
I just ordered 4.

Benny

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Banana Nut

ravenheart

It takes 5-6 years before this plant bears fruit as
This is when the tree is considered Mature so you
have to wait a couple of years more. I bought my tree
When it was only 6 inches tall and now she has 5 pups
(very prolific pupper) and one of those pups had separated
Itself from momma and I transplanted it into its own pot
and doing very well. Good luck

momoese

We bought our house in June 2004, I planted this SDC the following April 2005 and this bloomed in July 2007. That's just over 2 years. The plant was a little stunted from winter and being in a moslty shady area. Because of that he fruit never really filled in properly so I can't tell you how they taste. If grown in full sun with decent weather, proper food and water it would have bloomed much sooner.