George

Hi
How do I know when I can pick my bananas it's been about four weeks now since the fruit started to grow but they are still green and about five inches long?
Thanks
George

Bananaman88

George,

It typically takes between 4-6 months for fruit to be ready to harvest, depending on which variety you have.

George

Hi Bananaman88
Thanks for that, I didn't think it took so long do I have to wait for the bananas to go yellow?
George

Bananaman88

You don't have to, but if you can wait for at least one or two of them to start showing a little color then you'll know it is OK to either harvest the whole bunch or take off a few at a time as you want them. If you take the whole bunch, the rest will go ahead and begin to ripen. Sometimes they will start to ripen all at the same time so unless you want to be eating a lot of bananas at once I'd cut a few at a time if the current weather conditions will allow you to leave most of them attached. I'm not sure what your weather is like so if cold weather is likely you may be forced to cut the whole bunch and allow them to ripen inside. That is what usually happens to me.

George

Hi Bananaman88
I have only about 24 bananas on the plant because I cut the stem because a lot of the young bananas were falling off. This is my first plant and I thought that I would get more than this but may be it's because it's a new plant or may be that's all I will get from each plant, fingers crossed. I live in southern Spain.
George