momoese

Tall Brazilian and Hawaiian Apple are one in the same. I got ya covered if you want to try your luck with those bad boys!

MediaHound

I think I missed this thread, congrats Harvey!

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harveyc

Thanks, Jarred.

Also, I posted a question on a page back or so: Is it common for both female and male flowers to appear on the same hand? I had hands with finger counts of 7, 7, 7, 8, 8 and then the next hand appears to be 3 female and 5 male, or maybe just the fingers didn't develop correctly. The next 2-3 hands that have shown up are all male flowers which have dropped off but the tiny things on the 6th hand are still hanging on.

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Gabe15

This is very common but its occurrence varies by variety. Not that it really matters since for the hobbyist banana flowers are non-functional, but the basal flowers are usually female or bisexual, but before it completely switches to the distal male flowers, you will often see a slow transition with intermediate forms of both flowers occurring within hands and between hands as well, these transitional flowers may not form into fruit but will remain persistent while the male flowers fall off. This is not a consistent trait though as there are many different flower arrangements and forms within Musa.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

jen

I missed this post and this is a tree that was recommened I purchase. How is it doing? Do you have any updated pictures? I was wondering what you do with these dwarf nana's if they hit the ground like yours looks like it might? Dig a whole? Also, I have ants on the ground whenever a leaf drops they swarm it so I would worry that if I get one of these the ants will find there way up the plant.

Jen

Richard

Jen, you need to show those ants who is the boss!! You can purchase a squeeze bottle of Boric Acid powder for a few dollars at a big-box store like home depot. It's made from the mineral Borax, which in California is mined out of the ground in the Mojave desert (right near Kramer's Junction). Ants absolutely hate it, and it safe for your pets and children. Put along your fence line, edge of the house, sidewalk crack where ants crawl, etc.

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jen

Oh that's good info. I have a california desert tortoise who eats everything and two kids. That would be amazing if there is something that works that is safe for the kiddos. I will check into that today. I'm running some errands and Lowes is on my list. Thanks again Richard. You are full of good info.

Jen

Bananaman88

Richard just makes all this stuff up.....

Just kidding! He does always have a lot of good info.

harveyc

Hi Jen,

The plant/flower have done well and I'll try to take an updated photo soon. I ended up with something like 42 fingers, I believe, with several hands of male flowers after that. I was waiting for at least 12 inches of flower after the last fruits before cutting it off but now I'm less than a foot from the ground and I may just let it go a bit further for the heck of it. I don't see it as a problem, though. I'll cut the flower before digging a hole. The largest pup of this plant is already a little taller than the original plant (from a pup given by Joe Real last year) so I don't think one needs to worry about the fruit touching the ground.

I don't have an ant problem and I have a messy farm yard so I'm not worrying about spent male flowers, etc. There are lots of honey bees enjoying them and no ants so far. I'm somewhat afraid of using borax around plants for ant protection since boron is already high in my soil and can become toxic. Around homes, sidewalks, etc. it can be very helpful, I've heard. I heard a while back that coffee grounds around some plants has worked great to deal with ant problems. Worth a try, though your problem doesn't seem to be around the plant itself.

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harveyc

Here is an updated photo of my Dwarf Brazilian bloom. I may wait until the bud touches the ground before cutting it off, just so I can take an interesting photo.

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mskitty38583

nice looking bunch you got there harvey....i want to see you get under that one and take a pic!

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harveyc

Well, I was going to wait until the flower bud actually touched the ground for the fun of it, but I was cutting other blooms today so I went ahead and cut this one today also. The bud came within 2 inches of touching the ground.

This is my earliest of three bananas to fruit this year and I'm hoping the removal of the bud will help divert more energy to the fruits.

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Chironex

I am hoping that by cutting your buds, it will send energy to MY banana plants, so that I can see a blossom this year. Nice job Harvey, lookin' good!

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Scot

harveyc

This plant has a pup that is taller than the momma but I don't want it to bloom this late in the year. Next May would be great, though!

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NANAMAN

Harvey, Congrats on the bunch! After looking at the pictures I couldn't help but notice that the bunch hangs vertically. The D. Brazillians I grew had horizontal hanging bunches at 10' height. Are you sure that it is a D.B.

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harveyc

Gosh, Brian, you're the second person to tell me today that they doubted it was a Dwarf Brazilian. Joe Real gave this pup to me and we dug it from his place and he says his is a Dwarf Brazilian. Joe also tells me that he got his Dwarf Brazilian from Going-Bananas which has a great reputation for being reliable. According to the wiki, Dwarf Brazilian fruits at 7.5 feet to 9 feet (or 6 to 8 feet described in a lower section). See Musa Dwarf Brazilian - Bananas Wiki. Going-bananas says 7-9 feet. But the fruit is more horizontal in the photo Ron posted in the wiki, such as you described. The same photo is on Agristart's web site (probably where Ron got it) and they describe it as 6-8 feet. At pitangadiego's site ENCANTO FARMS, there are different photos from different sources and none of them seem to be horizontal.

Somebody have the DNA sequence for Dwarf Brazilian and want to test it for me???

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