So any verdict as to what type of banana this is? So far, we have either orinoco,really stunted regular namwah, or something namwah-like. There's another bunch fruiting at about 10' tall that's not pictured.
Okay, so crazy story, my wife and I went back to this thai restaurant last weekend and ordered a meal. I pre-empted her asking if she would be embarrassed if she saw me digging up one of the banana plants while everyone watched, and she didn't think I was serious (only you guys truly understand how serious we are about these sort of things). At the end of the meal, I went up to the owner (wife) and asked her if she would be interested in trading one of their bananas for an American Goldfinger. She at first said no, but I thought this one through way in advance and prepared for such rejection: my immediate response was, "well, I have this extra plant in my trunk, can I just give it to you?" Keep in mind, she has a business to run, who has time for this crazy customer with such a strange request?
She told me to hold on and went into the back of the kitchen, and out came the main chef (the husband). He asked me to take a look at the pup I brought him, and after he saw it as well as photos of the plant with fruit on it, he told me he'd love to trade! Turns out, the husband was the one growing the bananas! He then asked me how I was going to dig up a pup, they're difficult to get out. Well, I had brought a shovel and some potting soil...I even offered to plant the american goldfinger in place of the plant I was going to dig up, but the owner told me the restaurant is sadly going to turn into a condo pretty soon. He said he's going to move all the plants and plant them in their restaurants down south.
I tried to dig up one of their small plants, but the corm was planted so deep, I severed the p-stem and for the life of me couldn't find the corm! The chef dude told me I was making his wife nervous, but he then let me try to dig up a pup from the main plant. The soil was ROCK hard, no organic matter, and bone dry! I wasn't able to get any roots because of how rock hard the soil was, but got the corm fully in tact! In the end, the chef dude was happy and so was I, we chit chatted for a while and shook hands before parting.
On the drive home, I told my wife this was literally a dream come true, as I had been thinking about this ever since I made this post and had several dreams of successfully acquiring a corm....big mistake, LOL "So you dream about digging up bananas from a restaurant, but don't dream about how we got married?" Ouch....ummmm. so it was a sunny day today......
Here's me digging up the pup successfully, can anyone ID this plant now with that male flower?
My daughter helping fill up the hole with soil:
