sirdoofus

So I just returned from Uganda and while the trip wasn't about bananas, they definitely factored into my interest during our time there.

I thought I would share some of the images I was able to capture in a series of a few posts and while most certainly far from inclusive, I think it will give you at least an idea of just how important this staple crop is in this part of the world.

Bananas figure very prominently into the culture and lifestyle of the areas we visited as evidenced by the sheer abundance of them everywhere we went. They are ubiquitous, being grown from literally every small garden plot all the way to vast swaths of what I can only assume are massive plantations.

Here are a few quick videos of the countryside as we were driving from Entebbe to Queen Elizabeth National Park.







And a few pics of a random planting....note you can see the characteristic black on the p-stems typical of matooke (pronounced Ma-Toe-Keh). Virtually all of the plantings I saw looked well managed with healthy plants well spaced and thinned. I almost never saw any 'clumped' mats. 1-2 main stems with 1-2 followers seemed to be the most common scenario.



Maybe these on the lower right are not matooke as they don't have the typically black on the p-stem, but I can't be sure



Of course the vast majority being grown are matooke cultivars, but they also do grow others, i.e. dessert bananas, plantains (which they differentiate from matooke even though they are both cooked), etc.

I didn't get a lot of opportunity to explore the banana landscape as my travel companions were, shall we say, a little less enthusiastic about bananas than I am, however, I did get a few random pics. I was also very hesitant to walk into any field, even though it would have been very easy to do so, for biosecurity reasons, although it didn't really seem there was much concern about contamination, nor did I notice any plantings that appeared to be diseased.

The majority of plants seemed to fall into one of 3-4 groups (clonal sets?) of matooke as evidenced by the bunch characteristics (primarily angle of hang and rachis habit), but unfortunately I only have a few pics of what seemed to be the most common one, plus a couple of less common sightings.

Matooke - slightly angled hang: Most of the bunches I saw no longer had the bud attached as in this photo. The primary differences I noticed were bunch angle, anywhere from almost horizontal to vertical, and rachis habit being either straight in line with the bunch angle, or bending, mostly 2 bends with the distal portion in line with the bunch but on a different plane, and then either bare or with persistent bracts.

Slightly angled bunch:



Almost horizontal bunch:



Persistent bracts (sorry its a bit blurry):



Matooke - Mbidde (one of the 5 described clonal sets), at least according to the guy I was talking to, used mainly for producing an alcoholic drink



This photo is, according to the same guy as above, is one of the dessert varieties. I only really noticed 2 different general types of dessert bananas in the markets, cavendish (at least as far as I could tell), and a small ladyfinger type which had a very tangy flavor, delightfully different than cavendish.



Plantain - again according the the guy mentioned above. Plantains seemed to be used differently than matooke. What I was told, and noticed, is they are typically roasted and eaten as a snack (often seen being roasted on the side of the road). Apparently they are allowed to turn yellow and as such are mildly sweet and have a similar taste to what I would associate with a plantain here.



Not sure what this is. I saw these occasionally growing within matooke stands but never anyone around to ask about them.



Typically the bananas are harvested locally and transported to depots on everything from bicycles to trucks.

Centralized depot:



Local community depot:



Loaded motorcycles:





Loaded truck:



And bicycles:



Matooke is a cooking banana almost exclusively eaten when still green. It is generally steamed, mashed and then eaten with some sort of accompanying dip. I found it to be very good. The flavor isn't so noteworthy, its basically kind of like eating a potato with no accompanying flavor enhancer and a slight essence of banana...not sweet at all. However, the texture is fantastic. It's thick, stiff, sticky and substantial. It is usually eaten with something to dip it into, like meat stew, or commonly, a type of peanut paste/sauce. Here is a pic of a pretty typical Ugandan lunch time meal. It includes the matooke (big mound on the lower part of the plate), a piece of avocado, squash, peanut sauce upper left and and chicken stew upper right.....It might commonly also include sweet potato, potato, cassava, yam (actually what we would usually call taro...I didn't see any true yams), rice, beans, etc...although matooke usually seemed to be the largest portion on the plate. This particular meal is actually pretty small, I had to ask them not to give me so much as lunch is the main meal of the day for most people and the amount of food usually given was more than I could fit into my stomach.



And then there were a number of these plants around, but mostly in the bigger cities and towns in yards....presumably as ornamentals...I never saw any growing amongst the food crops. I am assuming they are Zebrina which is thought to be one of the original plants matooke descended from. Notice the black on the p-stem which is a very common feature of matooke p-stems:





I hope that was somewhat entertaining even though brief, with potential errors, and painfully incomplete. Uganda is an amazing place and I would highly recommend it if one has any inclination to travel to Africa.

I will do another post later on the few Ensete I did come across.

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beam2050

thank you. that were great. so, banana beer, thumbs up or down?

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subsonicdrone

thank you for the tour
matoke grows great here... pups a lot as well

sirdoofus

Unfortunately I never came across it. I had one lead but when we got there, they were all out. I think its mostly produced locally for familial use and, as far as I could tell, not produced commercially. Although, I must admit, I didn't try very hard to find it. Next trip when I go back

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momoese

That amazing! Thanks for sharing with us!

sirdoofus

If/when you get fruit, definitely look up the traditional way to prepare it. It usually involves steaming it in wrapped leaves on top of stem and leaf parts. It is said the flavor is better when done this way (as opposed to just using a regular steamer or boiling), and when compared side by side, its easy to tell the batch prepared traditionally.

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sirdoofus

Ensete - I did come across 3 sites with Ensete, but I am pretty sure they all were planted on purpose. My understanding is at least one variety, maybe 2? are native to Uganda, but I didn't see any growing in what I would call 'the wild.'

The plants I did wee were all growing between 2000 and 2500 meters and it's my understanding that it's typical for the native varieties to grow at altitude where it's a bit cooler.

The first one I came across was this beauty. I have no idea what it is and I can't seem to find any pics or description that might lend some idea of it's provenance. If anyone has any input, I would be very interested. This particular plant is obviously well groomed and still fairly small....about 1.5 M tall or so. I did see larger specimens of what I assumed were the same variety growing little higher in the same general area but were interplanted with other items, so hard to take any quality photos of:



Beautiful, almost black p-stem:



The second area I found Ensete growing was on an Island on Lake Bunyonyi at a slightly lower elevation. Here I found what I think are at least 2 varieties, maybe more. Some of them looked very similar to one another with only slight characteristic differences. None of them appeared to be groomed at all.

This looks to me likely to be ventricosum. I was told all of the plants here were "wild banana" as opposed to the cultivars grown, primarily in Ethiopia, for the edible corms. The base of this plant is about chest height, growing on the edge of a steeper slope, so not quite as big as it looks. The p-stem and proximal midribs definitely have a lot of black on them as well. I don't know if that is normal for ventricosum or not.



There were a lot of plants in flower, so I am sure there was ample opportunity for interbreeding/hybridization, which may explain some of the slight differences in characteristics I noticed.

Here are a few pics of the various plants I felt compelled to take pictures of. There were probably at least 30-40 plants overall at this site.

This one was cool. It had a dark red flower and p-stem, which I didn't necessarily notice on other specimens, and little evidence of the red color on the leaves or midribs which was interesting to me.







These photos are of the various green and black forms. some of the specimens differed in the color of the midribs, with some being totally green and others showing signs of a reddish tint. I don't know what the differences are due to, whether environmental or genetic.

Here is a green leafed, black p-stem specimen with a green flower:





And the developing fruit from that flower:



All green leaves, black p-stem:





Green leaves, black and green p-stem, redish midribs, may be similar to the one I am standing under:





I was able to collect some seed from 3 different plants. Unfortunately the plants were, to my eye, completely unidentifiable as they had all be dead for some time and had lost all color. So I don't really know what the adult plants from these seeds will look like, assuming of course they are viable. I believe the oldest seeds I collected were from plants that had fallen about 2 months ago.

Here area few pics of one the the fresher plants I collected from:



Seeds very visible within the disintegrating fruit:



Plucked seeds in my hand:



And finally, an older fall site with the only evidence being the seedlings popping up where they fell



If anyone has any ideas as to the nature of these plants I would be very interested to hear them.

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all43

I'm so very jealous!! Great photos thanks for sharing them.

Jeff zone 8 N.C.

Wow. What an exciting trip. Thanks for sharing. Loved the Ensete pics. The black trunked ones are stunning. The "Zebrina" plants you show are the ones I have posted about on Bananas.org before. They are the narrow leaf, tall, thin trunked, but fast growing, easily clump forming type, that I had years ago. I lost them after many years. Todays commercial market type have broader leaves and are much shorter in stature.

sirdoofus

Right, I do remember you discussing them now that you mention it. Yes, all the plants I came across showed the thin leaf, thin trunk characteristic, and while they didn't seem overly tall for bananas in general, maybe compared to the readily available zebrina here they are; interesting.

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Jeff zone 8 N.C.

Yes, you nailed it on the Zebrina being not all that tall. I should have elaborated that I meant in relation to the commercial Zebrina offered on todays market (at least on the east coast).

sirdoofus

So finally I am having a little success with the Ensete seeds I brought back:



about an hour after I took this pick another one popped up. Both in the C group from this fallen flower:





So far for me 2 seeds (of 11) from this group have germinated. However, at least one other member has had better percentages with this group and at least one seed from one of the other 2 groups.

Hopefully they grow well as I am very much looking forward to seeing what they all end up looking like.

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Best day

Great photos and write up. Thanks for all the great info.

Bill

sirdoofus

As an aside: Maybe interesting, maybe not, but the seeds from the plant in my last post, what I am calling group C, with the best germination rates so far, were all floaters. They did sink within a few hours of soak initiation, but definitely took some time.

In contrast, the seeds from the other two plants, groups A and B, which I think maybe one out of 50-60 have germinated so far, all sank like stones immediately. Now maybe they had already absorbed a bunch of moisture while on the ground, but I guess floating doesn't always mean non-viable.

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Jeff zone 8 N.C.

So I see a heat mat in the pic of your sprouting seed. Did you use it for those seed? What temps are you trying? Did you soak the seed 1st?

beam2050

interesting. might be another one of those [wives tales] being repeated here.

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npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

sirdoofus

Yup, that is definitely a heat mat. I must a bit sheepishly admit that I am not nearly as ambitious as you are when it comes to germination protocol, maybe that’s why you have had better percentages than me.

I did soak the seeds for 24-36 hours with 1-2 water changes using warm water. I don’t have a thermostat for the mat and I have not measured the temperature, so I am not really sure how warm it is. It is the same heat mat I use to germinate veggies, among other things, and I haven’t had an issue so I don’t think I am cooking them. The heat is on for about 12 hours/day and the seeds are in clear containers with lids to hold moisture. This particular batch I sowed in pool filter sand.


You are right about their fast growth. These guys are already 3-4 inches tall with the first leaf opening.

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Jeff zone 8 N.C.

Well your doing something right to get them to germinate. I have the same heat mats with a T stat that is set to 85F. The best things about the mat is that they conduct their heat straight into the soil medium.

sirdoofus

Would love to see pics as those beauties grow

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cincinnana

Sirdoofus,

Did you get to experience illegal charcoal making?

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