Originally Posted by venturabananas

Hi Ed. I'm not trying to discourage you from growing this cultivar, as I suspect it will do better in your tropical-like summer conditions. Just letting folks know what my personal experiences have been. After my initial excitement about its appearance and relatively quick time to bloom, the fruit part of the equation has been a disappointment for me with Rose. Of the 4-5 blooms I've had so far, all but one has had the fruit rot before they ever came near to ripening -- and that was not during winter. I haven't had that happen a single time on any other cultivar I'm growing. The one bunch that ripened never really filled, with an average fruit only weighing 10-15 grams. Mine looked like the least filled ones in the photo below from Encanto Farms (Jon, AKA Pitangadiego). Note that even in the Philippine study you quote, when these fruit do fill, they still only weigh around 30 grams -- about an ounce. The fruit from the one bunch that ripened were OK, not particularly good or bad, but I suspect they'd be better had they filled properly.



I haven't had the same experience as Jon with tolerance to cooler temperatures. Rose does just as poorly with cool weather as Dwarf Red in my yard. Could be a microclimate thing.

The comment about dwarfism in bananas was a technical point. Rose is a small plant, but that's not how dwarfism is defined. A leaf ratio (blade length : blade width) of less than 2.5 is generally considered a dwarf. More accurately, it is defined relative to the characteristics of the standard size cultivar it was a sport of. BTW, Rose can get taller than you might suspect. Mine are now flowering at 9', and with those long, erect leaves, the tops of the leaves are pretty darn high.

Good luck with your Rose. Keep us posted when it flowers, etc.