Northern Grower
A life ambition is to bring edible bananas to Ireland, grown in polytunnel or glasshouse.
I am a small scale organic market gardener, and like to think ahead to Ireland's food security when imports are either too expensive or impossible. Melons ripened successfully this year, so if they ripened.... the sky is the limit.
We are trying a growing technique to grow plants with a layer of woodchip inoculated with edible mushrooms which are also beneficial to whatever crops growing beside them. The shade cast by bananas would be beneficial for mushrooms too.
So Ireland's winters are very mild; usually no cooler than -5C, very occasionally -15C. Its the summer heat units that are usually missing, usually around 20-25C for Jun to Aug. But bear in mind these are outside temperatures. In the polytunnel ideally the plants can be left in the ground overwinter and fleeced or strawed if necessary and should also get enough extra heat to ripen fruit.
So it seems I need a plant that starts flowering at 5 or 6" in late spring, from overwintered pseudo stems, and ripens in 3-4 months with minimum heat requirements for ripening. Is this possible with any known cultivars?
I hope the knowledge and variety of banana is waiting for me, Perhaps I just need to do some breeding work...
Thank you all for your shared information, much appreciated
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