Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Update:

"Namwa twins activate! Form of big bunches!"

Getting about 18 fingers per hand since the first hand which was 12 or 14 fingers. Twelve hands so far. I propped up both bunches with 14' of schedule 40 pvc pipe.



Tall Orinoco has a lot of fingers on the first hand.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

:nanadrink:

had two 6 week periods of no rain. and am another one now. irrigation cant quite get them satisfied, wish those folks in south florida would share the wealth. maybe next year I will be able to get something growing. congradulations.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

My medium size namwa bunch produced its 13th hand which contained male flowers and one normal banana. All previous hands contained female flowers. I will let it run until the end of the month and then cut the bell and prune half the nanners in order to concentrate resources in the remaining bananas due to limited season left. I will get a final banana count prior to pruning.



My monster namwa is still producing female flowers and is up to 15 hands as of this morning. This bad boy is huge with a Foster's beer can thick peduncle! Hope he can squeeze out a couple more hands!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

I have a Namwa bunch that filled out after only three months. You have a good chance to get mature bananas before frost is a problem.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

That would be excellent but if I was picking three months for the bananas to ripen I would not pick Oct - Dec! Haha. We will see.

December temps range from about mid 40's to mid 70's but our first frost usually hits around the second week of December. Sort of an overnight spike low type of thing. Maybe I will get lucky and the frost will be delayed to early January which is very possible.

I'm happy to get the plants to fruit this year. My family and friends are pretty impressed so that works for me. Next step is to get some fruit to eat. For my area I need to complete 60-65% of vegetative growth in year 1 to insure that I have fruit in year 2 taking into account a three month pause for winter.

I expected my namwas to flower somewhere between 12' and 14' based on the experience of members and estimated which month to take a pup in year 1 to achieve 12' - 14' by July of year 2 however I expected the plant to hit somewhere between 12' - 14' and then "Boom! Flower!" But the plant actually gets within the target zone and then makes tons of leaves within a 1 1/2' growth area after chugging along at 20" of growth per month. I didn't appreciate the "crowning" time. Now I know!

Thanks for your comment!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Monster namwa is up to eighteen hands as of this morning. I was worried it would blow down in an overnight storm but its still hanging!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Congrats Donald!.....


Wooohoooo!.....WOW!......18 hands Namwah monster!.....That's insane!......You should enter it in the Namwah contest thread/post!.......Start counting!.......LOL!...........http://www.bananas.org/f211/2015-06-...est-22180.html......:08:





:2723::bananarow::2723:

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Thanks Hector!

Is the namwa count contest based on before or after pruning of the bunch? I think I will only have 150 or so fingers after pruning the bunch 50%. Maybe 160.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Donald,



I would enter the Namwah fingers count before and after pruning separately with pictures!.....




:2723::bananarow::2723:

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Final photos before I prune the bunches back 50% in the hope the remaining fingers will develop into mature fruit before our first freeze. I will not prune the "unknown" plant in the hope that it can be identified by its male flowers.

Interestingly the "unknown" plant's first hand contained the most fingers (25) with subsequent hands fewer fingers while the Namwas first and last hand was always the smallest.

Final photo and tally:

Small Namwa "Rabbit Ears"
10 hands/147 fingers



Medium Namwa
13 hands/202 fingers



Monster Namwa
19 hands/331 fingers!



Unknown Plant
9 hands/141 fingers

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

woe dang you the man #&^%$^&&…..**&^^%*())_&%

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

How'd those bunches hang through Hurricane Michael? My bananas were leaning one way from TS Gordon, now Michael has them leaning a different direction. Ground is too dry to straighten them now. Hope everything is good for you!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Same thing happened here. Gordon brought wind from the S and some of the more vulnerable tilted to the N. Michael brought wind from the N since we were on the west side and pushed the same plants back to the S. Basically back where they started!! Except I did lose one that snapped off at the ground level which is not a big deal. Chopped him up into mulch today. Two bunches were propped (2" PVC) on the S side with wind on the N so they were okay. Two bunches were without prop but they did fine. The wind was not very strong here. We were very fortunate.

Hard to believe the storm rolled into Georgia as a CAT 3.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Wow nice namwa! Very smart pruning! My experience with namwa shows the respond very well to pruning! So good luck and let us know how it ended up! Good or bad!!!

Very interesting mystery bunch!! Any info or history on it? Also pics of the plant and bunch backed off further will help a lot! Also pics of the 3rd leaf down from the flower. A picture from above looking down where the pedicle connects to the pstem! Also a picture from the front looking horizontal at the same spot!

Has the plant ever showed any color on the roller leaf? Is there dark brown/black splotches on the pstem?

Amazing bunches! Excellent work!
Good luck pruning! I’m a big time believer in pruning bunches for several beneficial reasons!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Thanks for the kind words Ty!

All my bunches bagged and filling out pretty good. I'll be sure to post up the final results.

I noticed on the first day that condensation was collecting inside the bags which were closed on both the top and bottom. I am a bit worried about mildew, fungus, etc. so opened the bottom of the bags so that excess water can out. Once temps turn decidedly cooler both day and night I will probably close up the bottom.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Are you just using clear bags? Blue banana bunch bags? Or something special like the green/silver ones from Australia. I’ve heard they do great but never tried them.

Good luck man! Hope we get a late winter this year.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

I'm using HDX 50 gallon 1.1 mil thick clear trash bags I got at HD. SKU 677 856. 50 bags per box for $15 or so. They look pretty legit hanging on the plant!!!! Neighbors probably think they are Halloween decorations (ghosts). Haha.

Extra: I've got them them upside down i.e. cut a hole in the bottom and pulled over the bunch so the wide open area is down which helps with air circulation a bit.

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Nice bunches, looking fantastic Akula. Congrats!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Thanks Louis!!

Namwa Update! Not sure how big the bananas usually get but they seem to be coming along. Our temps are starting to cool but hoping they will get filled out over the next month or so even at cool temps (low to mid 50's at night and upper 60's to low 70's during the day). Gonna be close!

Re: 2018 Banana Patch: Pensacola, Florida
 

Looking awesome!
John