robguz24

Fascinating! I didn't know any of that.

Your thoughts on the photos? I'm more convinced now that they are a GM variety. Rich golden flesh, not like any cavs I've grown. More creamy texture, and tastes very close to the other GM I grow. Male flowers matched GM.

The fruit are surprisingly good sized (for me). My friend in an area with deep soil and at least double the rain tends to get huge versions of the same fruit I grow.

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PR-Giants

Could you post some pics of the pups.

If you want to read more about it do a search for Mlali subgroup, the paper I read was done a few years ago.

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robguz24

Will do and thanks! After reading this, I'm more convinced mine is a GM.

"Cultivars in the Gros Michel subgroup can be easily confused with Cavendish cultivars. One of the distinguishing characters is the green or pale pink colour of their underlying pseudostem sheath, compared to the bright red one of Cavendish cultivars."

One of the underlying sheaths is shown here. Produces few pups, so really just a hint of a sword for now.


The following fruit are left to right: My Dwarf Bluefields, a GM from Gabe, a local grocery store Williams from Hamakua Springs.

Taste and texture from the first 2 are much more creamy and flavorful, and color more golden.

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Without knowing how different environments effect colors, I can confirm my pups resemble the TARS photos. The Bluefields are a blue purple and not the red of the Cavendish.

EDIT

I haven't harvested anything yet this morning. But I did let a 72 year old Chicagoan, who was cleaning the road, harvest a 90+ lb bunch of Williams. Conditions... if you can carry it... you can have it.

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crazy banana

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Tall Namwah harvest.
The plant did not have ANY leaves to support this bunch filling in. The first hand showed February 1, but all the leaves of the plant got hit by some cold winter morning hours in January. However, this banana mat has at least 10 pups of various sizes, so I assume this bunch filled in with the help of the surrounding pups. I thought that maybe the taste would be sub-quality, but the bananas are absolutely delicious. The bunch probably would have come in heavier with the support of some leaves on the plant, but it is more important that I have some delicious bananas.
There is a second bunch filling in without any leaves on the plant which looks even better and bigger. Hope to post a photo of that harvest soon.

crazy banana

The entire bunch turned yellow in two days. Devided it into individual hands and fingers and the total edible finger count was 203.
And this bunch looked smaller than the second one still filling in. I did have a bagel for breakfast, but nothing else than bananas for the rest of the day.

kubali

I mean to tell you once you grow your own, never will you buy another store pineapple this thing was super sweet.

crazy banana

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Second tall Namwah bunch in less than a week. Have not counted the fruit yet, but it came in at 45 pounds.

This is another example that a bunch CAN fill in and ripen without any leaves on the plant (all leaves were destroyed by cold winter morning hours in January, inflorescence came out in February with only the flag leaf).
Works on all my Namwah (dwarf and tall), but has not worked on other varieties though.

robguz24

First rack harvested from the lot I bought a year ago. 70 days flower to harvest. 1 year and 2 weeks from planting to harvest. Hua Moa.

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robguz24

My first 1000 Fingers in a while. 3 other bunches on the mat right now, most of them larger. This is the best thing to come out of my Aloha Tropicals purchase a few years ago. Very vigorous plant. Fruit is quite good. Reviewed it a while ago.

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venturabananas

After about a month and half with almost no bananas, except for a bunch of small Rose bananas, we now have a banana glut.

Dwarf Red: this is only the second bunch I've grown of these, and I'm pretty surprised at how big the bunch is, given that reds don't love my climate (though this summer's tropical-esque weather has surely helped). This bunch was 31 lb, with only 6 hands, but the fruit were big, averaging about 6 ounces. This bunch developed in the shade and so the fruit never got the dark red color.




Reds and Pisang Ceylon: In the last week, two Pisang Ceylan p-stems folded because, foolishly, I didn't prop them. The fruit weren't completely filled, but close enough that the flavor and texture are good.


Pisang Klotek: 44 pounds.


These tall varieties (Pisang Klotek and Pisang Ceylon, which I think are the same plant) have some nice features, but in my small yard, with plants packed too tightly, harvesting them and managing them is a real pain. They might have to go, but that would be a major project.

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crazy banana

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32 pounds of dwarf Namwah harvested after less than 4 month.

venturabananas

Wow, the tropics really have moved to California this summer! That's fast for here!

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PR-Giants

Congrats on the banana glut and it's nice to see a decent sized Red.

I've had a few bunches similar to yours that developed in the shade and also in the sun and I had attributed the fruit color to a partial reversion, but I think it's more complicated than that.

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Nicolas Naranja

It's actually a pretty neat science experiment. A lot of plants known for having red leaves will have green leaves in shady conditions. The reason has to do with the primary wavelengths of light in sunny vs shaded conditions

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PR-Giants

That might actually be a pretty neat science experiment, but regardless the Red banana has green leaves not red leaves and anyway I was referring to the color of the fruit. All of my Red bunches that develop in the shade remain red and if bagging the bunch or shaded conditions changed the color of the fruit to green American supermarkets would probably stop calling them Red bananas.

I've read that there's a reversion that produces red and green striped fruit, if I see it I'll definitely take a pic.

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Nicolas Naranja

The ovary is basically a modified leaf. It's photosynthetically active. Anyways, I have seen green stripes on red banana fruit. Not like Ae'Ae, usually one stripe on one or two fruits in a bunch They run longitudinally. Next time I see it, I will take a picture.

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Nicolas Naranja

I hope you are laughing and waving because you know I am correct.

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PR-Giants

I just know the basics, the ovary develops into the fruit/finger and the bracts of the inflorescence are modified leaves, but I wouldn't be surprised if many parts of this leafy plant were an evolutionarily modified leaf.

Based on observing thousands of Red bunches, I've been able to correctly predict fruit color 100% of the time many months before the plant even flowers. Shade has never affected the results.

This Red bunch was grown in shade and when the bract lifts the fingers are green but quickly change to a dark red.

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