saturn13

I have some banana plants from FHN. The oldest are 6 months. 6 Cavendish, 4 Grain Nain. I am surprised at the different growth rates. Double,Dwarf Brazilian All are doing well except X and Zebrina are slow growing.Rhino Horn barely growing. Margarita died as did 2 Siam Ruby. Truly Tiny and Little Prince are growing,but I do not know hpw well since they are so small.Viente Cohol is a good grower.I have kept it in a small pot and it is growing out the bottom. Too tall for the greenhouse,I will plant it out in March and hope for this rapid growth,they say and make before next Winter.No way.The container plants have kept growing.I have recently got another Siam and it did not come root-bound like Pisang Raja and Gold Finger. It looks bad and might die. I did not ask for replacement since I may have done something wrong. 1 Cavendish from Burgess is growing great.Texas Star,Lady Finger,Cal. Gold,Pineapple from Green Earth look good.Apple wilted.Trunk is good.I have removed the dead leaves from the stalk and I hope Sun light will bring it back.I see that Cal. Gold is a dwarf Orinco.I did want 1 of those,but did not expect that.Suppose to be cold tolerant,but they look like my Horse and they are not.Texas Star sounds good.Going to set them outdoors and see how they do even though they are dwarfs and could cover them.
I have been growing bananas here for 60 years. I have had trouble with freezes and wind blowing over the tall bananas. I have gone to dwarfs. I made a temporary greenhouse for my new bananas.PVC and common 1 mil. plastic drop sheeting.They had stopped growing. In the greenhouse they are growing again. The plastic is opaque, but does not hurt except they are lighter in color. UV has not hurt the plastic in 4 mo. I used contact cement to attach to the frame.It does come unglued after awhile. It gets into the 90s with direct sunlight, but is ambient when the Sun is gone. I have not had a freeze and only 1 month to go.Don't look like I will need it,but it did keep them growing.I hope next winter I will have fruit and I will rebuild the greenhouse. I will remove the plastic when it gets too hot. I did not give enough clearance on the Brazil and it is hitting the top. Good grower.
6-27-13. It has been a year and no miracles. No blooms. The Brazil's at 5', so it might make this year. Cavendish,Grain Nain are 3' so probably will not fruit. From FHN I got a Pisang Raja, Gross Michel,Dwarf Red,FHIA 1,3. I set out everything except Dwarf Red. All are growing very well in a new spot I tried. The Rhino Horn died and I replaced it with some I found at Walmart. 4 plants in one pot. They are growing strong. The Burgess Cavendish is not growing super in the ground. It is ok. The Viente Cohal was doing great in a pot, but set out with all the rest, it is not growing well. The Pisang Raja, Ladyfinger, Cal. Gold., Gros Michel, Dwarf Rajapuri, Apple,FHIA-1,3 are great growers. The new spot may be the reason though. I fertilize every 2 weeks in good growing conditions.
11-16-13 The reason may be because there are signs of earth worms. They may have caused the earth to be soft and I had some blow over. I staked them and now they are well anchored with there own roots. The Gros Michel is a strong grower. It grew 1' a month. About like the Mysore. The Mysore has small heads and small bananas. The Gros Michel has large heads and large bananas,nice. The Gros Michel surprised me by making 5 new plants at once, all evenly arranged around the plant. It makes its own props. They are not growing fast like the Brazil though. 7' now so it might make fruit next year the way it is growing, if the cold does not hurt it. The FHIA-3 is growing well, but not as good as the Gros Michel. I know I was going to grow dwarfs, but I had to try these tall ones.

timmko

pictures please..thanks

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2woodensticks

over here in indian rocks beach..growing it all..really hoping for my praying hand to bloom this year..

chipboy44

Hello there, Just a touch on your message. As soon asthe night temps get down below 55 the baanas stop growing. It is the night temps that stop all of the growth, As far as your rhino horn goes it is a very cold sensitive. I am in Daytona Beach and have lost all of mine to a frost. Although we have had some temps well below freezing and I totally lost them my plantains, and french horns. Thay all seem to be very sensitive to the cold. Actually this is the first time for that fact that I have ever anaged to keep my plantains alive at all. I have a super and a regular plantain and they are giants. I too am holding my breath for the next 4 weeks. Several years ago I tried to get a UK TC coimpoany to reproduce the Tapo for me. They declined because they could not gaurantee follow thru variegation. Many years later the Siam Ruby we released. I got a tray of them from the Lab and even in the greenhouse and fertilizing them constant ALL of them seemed to decline. I had several of them inthe yard also well taken care of but after awhile of growing they to all succombed and just disappeared. I also found that the mahoi's were slow growers and in fact none of them ever produced but a single cone their first year but usually after their second generation. If you are serious about making your greenhouse again next year and you have made it out of 1/2 PVC then I found some of the bigger greenhouse suppliers have pvc clips that are about 4 inches long and clip[ the plastic tight against the frame. Simply unclip them and put them away and fold up youur plastic for next year. Thanks for listening to me talk and I hope I have given a little light. Have a great day.
Salute'
rick

venturabananas

This is not true, the keep growing, but slowly. I don't think we've had night temperatures above 55 in months, but the bananas are all growing... slowly!

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wolfyhound

Would love to see pictures of your pvc greenhouse!

saturn13

Thanks Chip.Looks like I will give up on Siam.Grain Nain X Zebrina has some nice red on the back of the leaves.It is doing good.Any other reds that grow well?They put a new highway(301)on the rear of a nursery and they one with red on the back.Maybe I can get X to look like that.I have never lost one completely to freeze.Even the Great freeze of 1962.They come back from the roots.I have lost some to what I think is herbicide.I had a Mysore head on the line and it turned black except for 1 banana.The ground was sprayed also.Don't plant near the line,leave room for leaning or falling.After that I moved to a new spot and had to try everything again.
I used 9'x10' sheets($2.00) on the greenhouse.I do not think I can trust them,because of UV.I can always change them though.They were attached on the bottom and splices at 2' up with contact cement.The only attach points.It has withstood 20-40 mph.It has arcs of 1".6' in the middle.Just enough to clear the 3' plants.I also used some Sabal palm stalks.I used wire to tie PVC crosses.I drove PVC 1' inthe ground with 6" stubs out.Slipped the 1" on and bent over to the other side.An arch.Cross arches were added.The rounded structure takes the wind well,unlike square. I will have to make a much larger one next Fall.I have read that the Brazil might get to 8'.I might exclude it.Would like to see the fruit though.Maybe a Tepee.
The ones that get only 1 hour of sunlight a day have slowed way down.The ones in pots kept growing.Maybe the Sunshine on the back pots,heat them up.The ones in the ground that get 3 hours are growing well.
I will check on how to upload pictures and show some.
Bookmark.I will update.

saturn13

My greenhouse.Picture did not show up.Go to members gallery Saturn13 to view.
More and better quality images are there now.

saturn13

Just had a freeze.The greenhouse worked.Hardly any burning.Outside leaves were burned bad.The stalks were not hurt.I used 2 90W bulbs and the temp. said 40 deg.I will increase the draw and max the amount I can use from that circuit.A Williams ought to put on a head soon.Also a FHIA that I remember as Spirit,but I can not find a mention of now.I have had them for 10 years,but freezes and wind have stopped them.I am thinking of propping them up to stop blow over.
I will remove the plastic in March.The PVC I will put in the shade.If the PVC frame is left up,I will paint it with Aluminum paint.That will keep UV from making it brittle.

saturn13

The only banana I had no problems is Brazil dwarf. It just keeps growing. I removed 2 pups and another came out. Nice. I recently got 2 more from FHN and they are really growing. Pisang Raja.Ladyfinger and Pineapple(dwarf Rajapuri) are growing great so far. I would like to have Cavendish and Grain Nain do the best, but I am having some problems with them. I may have to make do with ones that grow the best.
6/29/13. One of the pups died.The other is growing ok. In fact 2 more came out.I set those out. I went from 6" to 12". See how that works. A week later and another strong one has come up. I wonder how many I can get before it fruits. Be careful when cutting pups. If the sprout comes from underneath, you might cut it off above the roots and kill it. Dig around it and check for roots first. Maybe I can set a record. Got to check it is well anchored. Don't want to cut too many roots. Must be what Going-Bananas does. The Ladyfinger types pups come up large. Cavendish are very small and do not grow fast. I like the taste of Cavendish much more.
10/10/13 The Brazil is blooming. So 15 months from FHN to bloom. It will have enough time to fill out before any freeze. So looks good.

Zacarias

Saturn, glad to hear the Dwarf Brazilian is doing well for you. The bananas from FHN and Wellspring are cheap but SO SO small that they grow slowly initially. I ordered from GreenEarth a long time ago and their bananas tend to be bigger and take off faster.

Z

saturn13

The ones from Green Earth were taller but I did not see a faster start. The Apple died back to the ground. It did come up from the roots and is a strong grower. Texas Star came out strong but died and has never come back. Cal. Gold and Ladyfinger are also strong. The best is Pineapple.