2000 Banana plants
 

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Nicolas are tese your plants ? Still using TC's or replanting pups ?

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

It is mostly all established from tissue culture. I lost a couple hundred trees when it froze last December so those are established from suckers. I switched varieties too, I replaced gran nains and fhia-17s with Nam Wahs, which handle the cold very well. I still have some gran nains and fhia-17s, but I must have lost about 300.

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Nick, dwarf or tall Namwah?

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Nicolas,

I am not far from you (royal palm) where is the plantation located?

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

@ventura Dwarf Namwahs, the tall ones are too difficult to harvest and tend to get knocked down in the wind.

@jeffrey I am 2 miles north of the Erickson mango farm in Canal Point, about 1 mile south of Sand Cut.

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Nicolas, have you considered growing goldfinger? It's supposed to be more cold tolerant?

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

I wasn't a fan of the taste. There is a guy in Belle Glade that grows them and they look fantastic on the tree, but you are stuck with developing a market.

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Hey Nick, how many ppl you need to run a plantage like that?

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

Maybe it's just me, but I think Raja Puri tastes alot like a market banana, have some fruiting now but won't be until late fall til they are plump. Another thing that is nice about Raja Puri is they are cold and extremely wind tolerant. It's been a long time since I have had goldfinger fruit so my memory is a bit sketchy on the flavor.

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

I've really enjoyed the Goldfinger bananas I've had, but everyone has different tastes. To me it is very similar to a market Cavendish, but better by virtue of a little bit of nice acidity to it. If all the commercially grown Cavendish get wiped out by some gnarly tropical fungal disease, I'd be more than happy to buy disease resistant Goldfinger bananas at the market instead!

Re: 2000 Banana plants
 

I'm the only person that really does anything on the farm and it shows. The weeds tend to get out of hand and the sucker management is not nearly as good as it should be. Every once in a while I get the sprayer out and try to get some control over the weeds. I put out all the fertilizer by hand. I do enlist my wife for help when we are packing. I see the crap hitting the fan though when I have 500 bunches of plantains all at once because I don't have the means to harvest and pack that many bunches. When you have a lot of bunches though, you have options. I can call someone in Miami and have them come up and fill up several trucks and be done with it quickly.