Banana finally fruiting!

[Ben in Norcal]

Hard to see/get a good pic, but I finally have a banana fruiting after 3 years or so!  With the flower/fruit happening so early in the year (last week or so), what are the changes of these fully developing into decent fruit?  Big-time banana newbie here - at least in terms of fruit!

[NorCalKing]

I'm pretty new to bananas too, but from what I understand they need about 4 months from flower to ripe eating, so I think you're good.

I have a dwarf cavendish that is about 9 months old myself, that I hope to get fruit one day!

Congrats :)

[Josh-O]

Sweeeeeet!!

because that's how they will taste  

[dalmatiansoap]

Great timing, they have whole Spring & whole Summer! What are they?

[tropicbreeze]

You have very little there in the way of leaves to feed the bunch and since the bunch has started there won't be any more leaves growing. So a bit of a 'Catch 22' situation. You'd be better off cutting the flowering part now and go with the few hands you already have. The plant will be flat out trying to support and develop those, let alone a whole lot more fruits. Bananas really need to flower while they've still got a lot of leaves.

[Bennz]

Hi Ben,

 

Commercial growers say the fruit quality is largely dependent on the number of active leaves left on the fruiting pseudostem. At flowering there should be 10 or so leaves, at harvest there may be half that number. When I worked on a subtropical banana plantation in Australia the rule was any bunch with 4 or less active leaves got harvested regardless of how full the fruit was.

Your plant appears to unfortunately have no active leaves on the fruiting pseudostem. So realistically the chances of getting any kind of fruit quality are not great. 

[Ben in Norcal]

Well now that is a bummer!  So I should just give up and cut the stem down?

It's an ice cream banana.  I have 3 or 4 other similar size stems in the same stand, so I guess the hope would be that some of them flower with more leaves.

[dalmatiansoap]

Your not commercial grower so I would be relaxed and just let them grow. Don't trim them and leave as many pups as you can. Few extra fists of fert makes miracles :)

[Monòver]

This is my bananas today. One dwarf cavendish and one unknow banana.

I hope yours will be like mine in a few months.

 

[tropicbreeze]

Ben in Norcal, I wouldn't cut the whole stem down. Just cut off the flowering part below the few fruit formed already and that will concentrate the plant on developing those fruit with what ever resources it does have. If you have any green there that's what will be powering your plant. if there's no green then it will be operating on it's stored reserves and they'll run out quick.  You have to remember fertiliser is a supplement to aid processes in a plant. The plant feeds itself through photosysthesis. Without the leaf area to allow for photosynthesis the plant is starved regardless of how much fertiliser you put on it. Much the same as if you filled yourself with vitamin pills but didn't eat any food.

[Ben in Norcal]

2 hours ago, tropicbreeze said:

Ben in Norcal, I wouldn't cut the whole stem down. Just cut off the flowering part below the few fruit formed already and that will concentrate the plant on developing those fruit with what ever resources it does have. If you have any green there that's what will be powering your plant. if there's no green then it will be operating on it's stored reserves and they'll run out quick.  You have to remember fertiliser is a supplement to aid processes in a plant. The plant feeds itself through photosysthesis. Without the leaf area to allow for photosynthesis the plant is starved regardless of how much fertiliser you put on it. Much the same as if you filled yourself with vitamin pills but didn't eat any food.

So why wouldn't I just cut down if there's little chance of the fruit developing?  Thanks for helping a noob learn!

[Bennz]

Ben, Zig is saying cut off the lower part of the bunch to minimise the amount of feeding going into the forming bunch, so that all remaining growth goes exclusively into the favoured fruit.

Bunch pruning is commonly practiced in some parts of banana industry. When we had Cavendish bananas in NSW  we cut the bunch in half, which usually leaving about 7-8 hands (say 120-150 bananas). Cutting half the bunch off sounds drastic, but research shows 50% hand reduction results in about 80% potential bunch weight. Large bananas are worth  more than twice the price of small ones, so a 50% pruned bunch producing 80% of the weight at 200%+ value = 160%+ of unpruned value to the grower. This is all irrelevant to the home grower except for the simple fact that you can prune 25-50% of your bunch off with minimal loss of eventual bananas weight, ending in better quality, larger fruit that ripen more quickly. In my NZ climate this makes a huge difference, faster maturation = better quality. I cut one healthy misi luki bunch down to one hand once as an experiment, produced huge fruit so fat that I literally could not get it between my teeth without slicing it along its length first!

[Ben in Norcal]

Thanks.  So if I do that, even though there are no active green leaves, do I have a chance of getting edible fruit?  That's my question - is edible fruit possible without actively photosynthesizing leaves?

[Bennz]

16 minutes ago, Ben in Norcal said:

Thanks.  So if I do that, even though there are no active green leaves, do I have a chance of getting edible fruit?  That's my question - is edible fruit possible without actively photosynthesizing leaves?

There is certainly a chance,.... but disappointment is VERY likely. If it was me in that situation (and it often is!), I would cut it down and wait for the next fruiting pseudostem. Heaps of water, fert and mulch over summer and when you get the first good bunch it will not disappoint!

 

 

[Ben in Norcal]

11 hours ago, Bennz said:

There is certainly a chance,.... but disappointment is VERY likely. If it was me in that situation (and it often is!), I would cut it down and wait for the next fruiting pseudostem. Heaps of water, fert and mulch over summer and when you get the first good bunch it will not disappoint!

 

 

Thanks Ben.  Have you fruited bananas in your heat-starved climate?

[Bennz]

3 hours ago, Ben in Norcal said:

Thanks Ben.  Have you fruited bananas in your heat-starved climate?

Yes, hundreds of times. Secret is water in summer, and warmest most wind-protected spot possible, but also make sure the sun can get in. There is a balancing point between sun on the soil for warm soil temps and mulch for summer moisture retention and healthy soil. Also heaps of feeding. Despite all this, fruit that ripen over the winter are not very good; ok for home garden enthusiast but not great for someone who has done it commercially. 

[Ben in Norcal]

53 minutes ago, Bennz said:

Yes, hundreds of times. Secret is water in summer, and warmest most wind-protected spot possible, but also make sure the sun can get in. There is a balancing point between sun on the soil for warm soil temps and mulch for summer moisture retention and healthy soil. Also heaps of feeding. Despite all this, fruit that ripen over the winter are not very good; ok for home garden enthusiast but not great for someone who has done it commercially. 

OK!  That gives me hope then.  I am likely a lot hotter than you.  Probably just cut this stalk down then...

[Cikas]

On 02.03.2016. 15:51:50, Ben in Norcal said:

Well now that is a bummer!  So I should just give up and cut the stem down?

It's an ice cream banana.  I have 3 or 4 other similar size stems in the same stand, so I guess the hope would be that some of them flower with more leaves.

Do not cut them !!!

They will ripe If your weather continues to be warm. All bananas are connected via rhizomes/corm. Soo if you have multiple pseudostems on one huge rhizome, leaves of other pseudostems will feed fruit via same rhizome.

Also other part of the plants ( not just leaves ) perform photosynthesis.

 

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Cikas

[Bennz]

Cikas, yes it's true the pseudostems are all connected underground, the problem is the sapflow is all 'outwards', so this mature pseudostem cannot be fed by the rest of the clump. Proof for this is the fact that it is possible to treat young suckers with herbicide (if you are that way inclined!) and the mature pseudostems will be unaffected. In Australia it was common practice to inject a small amount of kerosene into unwanted suckers to kill them.  Must have been hard on the soil, but did not impact mature stems directly.

The fact that sapflow is all 'outward' is also the reason commercial growers remove all unwanted suckers. I forget the figures but it was something along the lines that every unwanted sucker that reached 1 foot tall delayed crop cycle by a month and potential yield by 10%. Huge difference anyway.

Ben, Cikas is still probably right, but I would suggest for the wrong reason. The rest of the clump will not feed the developing fruit, but the fruited pseudostem is still capable of feeding the new pseudostems and improving the next crop. I would remove it for looks, but for fruit next crop leaving it is a better bet. 

 

Yes you have a much warmer climate than me so assuming you do not get killing frost growing bananas will be easier there than here!

[Cikas]

47 minutes ago, Bennz said:

Cikas, yes it's true the pseudostems are all connected underground, the problem is the sapflow is all 'outwards', so this mature pseudostem cannot be fed by the rest of the clump. Proof for this is the fact that it is possible to treat young suckers with herbicide (if you are that way inclined!) and the mature pseudostems will be unaffected. In Australia it was common practice to inject a small amount of kerosene into unwanted suckers to kill them.  Must have been hard on the soil, but did not impact mature stems directly.

The fact that sapflow is all 'outward' is also the reason commercial growers remove all unwanted suckers. I forget the figures but it was something along the lines that every unwanted sucker that reached 1 foot tall delayed crop cycle by a month and potential yield by 10%. Huge difference anyway.

Ben, Cikas is still probably right, but I would suggest for the wrong reason. The rest of the clump will not feed the developing fruit, but the fruited pseudostem is still capable of feeding the new pseudostems and improving the next crop. I would remove it for looks, but for fruit next crop leaving it is a better bet. 

 

Yes you have a much warmer climate than me so assuming you do not get killing frost growing bananas will be easier there than here!

I disagree.

Sapflow is never only 'outward' ( plants would not have corm and they would die in that way, they have corm because they store energy. ).

Rhizomes/corm are parts of the plants where energy is stored. The plants create energy through photosynthesis. That energy is stored in rhizome, tuber or bulb ( if plants have them ).

Connected rhizomes/corm means that all pseudostems store energy on the same place. When one pseudostem needs energy, it will use stored energy from the corm.

Soo yes other pseudostems will feed the fruiting one.

For example albino Musa AE AE pseudostem will survive only if it is connected together with at least one other pseudostem that is variegated or green to corm.

 

Edited March 3, 2016 by Cikas

[Cikas]

Whole banana clump are actualy one plant. Huge corm with multiple pseudostems. Pseudostems are not separate plants. Pseudostems become separate plant when they are separated from the main corm.

Not only that fruit can ripe on bananas without leaves, it is already done many times in colder climates.

Edited March 3, 2016 by Cikas

[The Silent Seed]

Hey guys - when you say you cut off part of the hand - are you cutting the lower part, in its entirety or are you removing the fruits on the upper parts, leaving the lower part? 

I am growing a Dwarf Red and a Truly Tiny inside with the intention of getting fruit. 

I use NO chemicals at all - No fertilizers, etc - obviously this will slow down things - but does this mean no fruit? 

[Ben in Norcal]

So confused 

[Bennz]

7 hours ago, Cikas said:

I disagree.

Sapflow is never only 'outward' ( plants would not have corm and they would die in that way, they have corm because they store energy. ).

Rhizomes/corm are parts of the plants where energy is stored. The plants create energy through photosynthesis. That energy is stored in rhizome, tuber or bulb ( if plants have them ).

Connected rhizomes/corm means that all pseudostems store energy on the same place. When one pseudostem needs energy, it will use stored energy from the corm.

Soo yes other pseudostems will feed the fruiting one.

For example albino Musa AE AE pseudostem will survive only if it is connected together with at least one other pseudostem that is variegated or green to corm.

 

Hi Cikas,

 

 

I'm not going to argue with you bro, I only had a couple years working around the commercial banana industry and as it was over 20 years ago perhaps I remember it wrong. Everything I recall about chemical de-suckering would be impossible if you are correct, but that's the way it goes I guess.

 

 

 

[Bennz]

5 hours ago, santoury said:

Hey guys - when you say you cut off part of the hand - are you cutting the lower part, in its entirety or are you removing the fruits on the upper parts, leaving the lower part? 

I am growing a Dwarf Red and a Truly Tiny inside with the intention of getting fruit. 

I use NO chemicals at all - No fertilizers, etc - obviously this will slow down things - but does this mean no fruit? 

Organics is the way to go alright, my place has been certified organic for nearly a decade. I didn't enjoy high chemical inputs in bananas. I've had a break from tending bananas for a few years but my current plants are looking better under pure organic management than they ever did using soluble fertilizer. Too young to get fruit yet. I saw one organic banana farm in Australia, yields were slightly down on best performing conventional, but not enough to get stressed about. Fruit was fantastic. Snakes in the mulch, not so good.

 

With bunch pruning the upper hands are left and the lower ones removed. This is achieved by cutting off the entire lower part of the stem under your past remaining hand. How much you leave depends on what size fruit you want. Also, removing a large part of the bunch can be a huge help if you have a short period of time left to get ripe fruit, say heading into winter frost season for example. 

[The Silent Seed]

Fascinating stuff - thanks for sharing! I'll of course keep you guys updated on the two I've decided to grow out for myself. (They are of course in pots, kept inside when cold.) It's my first attempt at a long-term banana growing. (As opposed to just for a season for enjoyment.) 

[Cikas]

On 04.03.2016. 03:11:10, Ben in Norcal said:

So confused 

Do not be.

Here you can find out everything about bananas in general.

http://www.bananas.org/

[Cikas]

On 04.03.2016. 06:39:36, Bennz said:

Hi Cikas,

 

 

I'm not going to argue with you bro, I only had a couple years working around the commercial banana industry and as it was over 20 years ago perhaps I remember it wrong. Everything I recall about chemical de-suckering would be impossible if you are correct, but that's the way it goes I guess.

 

 

 

Yes I'am correct. Rhizomes, bulbs and tubers are there with a purpose. And that purpose is to store energy.

Commercial banana industry is one thing, home growing is other thing.

Musa cavendish ( one of the most sensitive cultivar of bananas ) and other banana cultivars not grown commercialy are two different things.

 

 

 

Edited March 6, 2016 by Cikas