Jeff

I've been checking out this site for the past couple weeks and finally joined yesterday as I've enjoyed a lot of the discussions here.

My question is what is everyone's favorite plants for fruit and for looks?
My favorites seem to change from year to year. Right now for fruit I would have to say SH3640 as I recently ate lots of them when my bunch ripened all at once. They were sweet and delicious and melted in your mouth!


For looks I would definitely say Dwarf Red. I love the red pseudostem, red petioles and the very wide paddle shaped leaves.

Bananavilla

For me:
Eating has to be Raja Puri. Raja is also a very pretty variety with its darker coloration and somewhat erect leaves, but I do very much like the ensetes as ornamentals. Purely Massive!!
Mike

Southern-Grower

ditto

so far for wife & i is the raja for fruit..
so i'll be harvesting 4 plants next year with any luck.. got them stashed in gh..

i didn't really care about the looks.. till i saw that little pic of the pearl namwah.. that look pretty nice..

just some yummy candy bananas..

jeff,
i still love the look of these fruits.. they look yummy!!

i'm working on the fhia18 to see what shakes out of that plant..

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Happy Growing,

SG

Enjoy Life as it's too Short

Marc

For size of fruit and eating my favorite is 'Gros Michele'. I know it's a generic cavendish but I am like the majority of American consumers. I'm not big on funky tasting bananas, usually make banana bread out of then or give then to my Latin workers. For looks I like ensetes and 'Dwarf Red'.

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

Jeff

Marc, where did you get your Gros Michele? I have read that years ago they used to be the main banana that was sold in the grocery stores but were wiped out by panama disease. Not sure if that is true or not. I have always wanted to try growing one but they are not that readily available from most banana growers. Going Bananas doesn't even have them listed. I have also heard of a dwarf form. Do you have the tall or dwarf?

JoeReal

Tall or dwarf is not the question, at least for me. Rather, how high is the pseudostem when Gros Michel blooms?

JoeReal

I would grow a Senorita if I can obtain one here. The pseudostems are pink, it is short, bears fruit quickly. I don't know about its cold tolerance. In the Philippines, it is so ordinary because it is so easy to grow and very productive, making it the cheapest fruit in the market. Over here in the US, it is quite rare. I may have to ask the oriental stores where they get their supplies of senorita fruits. I love its taste the best, followed only by Lacatan. The plant itself is ornamentally beautiful, and since it is so plentiful in the Philippines, it never got the same recognition as the others.

Marc

Jeff,
My Gros Michels are the tall ones. They need support when fruiting and if we have a tropical storm they break easy. They did well at my parents place in Bradenton. I got mine from Going Bananas in the early 90s. I have some for trade.

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

GATrops

Jeff-I have heard that one of the FHIA hybrids (I think it's FHIA-23) is supposed to be very similar to "Big Mike" (Gros Michels). I have one of them I got from Going Bananas in April of this year that has over 8 feet of pseudostem at this point but I'm afraid the fruit might not beat the cold in November. (We'll see.) Don at Going Bananas can tell you for sure about it's similarity to Gros Michel. I have no first hand experience that is just what I have heard.

bananalover

I would love to try a Senorita too. Not sure I could grow it here but would love to try anyway.

JoeReal

Let's hope in 2-years we can get one.