First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

Hey guys, I'm a Florida boy born and raised and so I've been around bananas and seen them around a lot of my life. This was the first banana plant I've ever purchased from an orchid/plant show I was helping my father with, when I was just a young tyke, maybe 12-13 years old. Once a plant nerd, always one! Haha. Anyone have any ideas on the variety? The flower on this gorgeous plant is massive!

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

‘Dwarf Brazilian’ or ‘Raja Puri’. Im still trying to figure out for myself a reliable way to tell them apart, as they are nearly the same plant.

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

In my yard at least, when grown side by side, Rajapuri has a proportionally larger male bud and the bunch has a little more spacing between hands. And Rajapuri is a couple feet shorter. Since all of those traits can vary with cultural practices and climate, that probably makes them less than completely reliable.

A weird difference that only crops up where boron is low is that Rajapuri shows more signs of deficiency of this micronutrient than Dwarf Brazilian.

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

Looks like a dwarf Brazilian to me for sure!

I totally agree! Raja puri has a larger bud..
Always shorter than DWarf Brazilian!
The fingers on Raja Puri seem straighter to me and I agree more space between each hand!
Raja puri to me always has more wax and has a whiteish pstem.
I know it’s environmental but my Raja Puri peduncle always has more color/purple vs the dwarf Brazilian.

Dwarf Brazilian also has what I term as a flat end of the male flower! Not bud but the flowers. When you see them they just scream Brazilian to me.

I will say I have another dwarf Brazilian I bought as a TC manzano! It looks a lot different. It also gets taller! 12’ or so! Could be some off-type? I only keep one for the collection. The fruit to me is sub-par.

Nice looking bunch! Congrats!

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

Thanks for the awesome responses everyone!

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

YAY! I was thinking DB before I saw what our resident experts said...The extra messy rachis was one thing, but the way the fingers go every which way is a tell also, at least to me, of Brazilians... No uniformity of direction from hand to hand and sometimes fingers within the same hands.

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

I think it is Rajapuri, based on the way that one grows in my yard, but as Gabe said, that is not easy to tell apart from Dwarf Brazlian. Knowing the height would help with the ID.

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

the p-stem height is right around 6-7 feet tall

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

At that height, it could be either. If the next time it fruits it is closer to 9-10' of p-stem, then it is Dwarf Brazlian. If closer to 6-7' more likely Rajapuri. At least in my experience.

Re: First banana ever bought! What variety?
 

I only have or have ever bought one variety. Which is why I wanted to do the research and make sure it was a special one before I bought it. Pisang Ceylon.

It's now growing healthy outside in zone 10. (no fruits yet, but I think soon)