sarah613

Hi! I live in Los Angeles and have two huge bunches of Ice Cream Bananas that flowered last September and have finally lost their blue tinge and have fattened up - but still not ripe!

That's almost 8 months - is this normal? Again, I'm a newbie and this is the first time I have gotten my bananas to flower - I planted these a few years ago from someone was thinning his bananas out (lucky me!) and he posted this on Craigslist - and I rushed right over to get them The pups were about 3 feet tall when I planted them.

They are now at least 12 feet tall and it took me awhile before I read that you have to cut the pups out for these to flower. I finally did this last year and two stalks flowered very quickly!

I know I have to wait until the first few at the top ripen before cutting and hanging the stalk. I have the bunches covered with white plastic garbage bags with lots of air holes (to keep squirrels away).

Any advice?

Thanks so much!
D

Figaro

I have yet to have my bananas fruit, and I've heard that Bananas can take up to 10 months to ripen on the tree, depending on the climate, but if you wait for them to ripen on the tree, they all ripen at the same time. As I understand, you can cut some bunches from the tree when they're still green but close to ripe, and put them in a paper bag on your counter or kitchen table (or wherever you want!) and they will ripen quickly that way. Again, don't do them all in the bag or they'll all ripen at the same time, so cut some bunches, ripen them, then cut some more bunches and ripen those, etc.

robguz24

Every Ice Cream banana I've had has gone from blue to yellow, and then they're ripe. It's possible, that like most people you have something other than Ice Cream.

You shouldn't have to cut pups out to get them to flower. They tend to send pups out when they're about to flower, so if you removed them, it would seem like removing them caused flowering, when it would have happened anyway.

6 months is normal in Hawaii so 8 months in LA over winter sounds normal. If they have really filled out, you could always cut off a few or that top hand and see if you can get the to ripen in a bag with an apple.

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srash

Cutting a hand of bananas early is a good idea. I had my first bunches of bananas last year, and left them on the plants until they started to look ripe. I then would suddenly have an entire bunch of ripe bananas that I could not eat fast enough.
You can leave them on - just be ready to share.

venturabananas

Totally normal. Up here, just 60-ish miles north of you, all my bunches that have ripened over winter have taken 7-12 months.

As suggested, if they looked filled out, cut a couple off and see if they ripen well. Good luck.

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pitangadiego

6 months is normal. Generally when the flower in the fall or late summer, they ripen in April when the weather warms up. Cut off the top hand and throw it on the kitchen counter and see what happens. They should ripen in a week or so. If they do, it means they are mature and ready to ripen, given the right conditions, such as a warm counter.

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venturabananas

Don't underestimate how much warmth after harvesting affects ripening rate. They ripen a lot faster in a warm spot than in a cook nook! When I'm impatient, I put them on the heat mat I have for some of my indoor tropical plants.

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