PalmsNorth.com

Here's a pic of my bananas. All of them just seedlings except for the basjoo on the left.



Regards,
Jay

Jay should be interesting to see some photos of them nanners in a couple months from now.
John

Looking good Jay
What varieties of bananas are you growing?
Cheers Ian Mc in wintery Christchurch LOL

John, They should be a good size in a couple of months. I'll post some photos then.

Ian, I have from left to right are m. basjoo, m. "ice cream" java blue, m. sikkimensis, m. yunnan and m. ensete. How's the winter going so far? Hopefully mild one.

Regards,
Jay

Those will look very nice at the end of the season. You have some big growers there! keep us posted.

Thanks Jay
Winter started with a southerly antarctic bomb !!!
Here is a picture of an Echium with snow blanket.

That doesn't look good. Hopefully the rest of winter is milder. I haven't seen that much snow here in many years.

Thanks Ryan. I will post some pics at the end of summer.

Ian, Like Wes said i hope your rest of winter is milder.

Regards,
Jay

Thanks Jay and Wes
Although we do get these occasional cold snaps we mostly have sun warming winter days after frosts which helps the plants to recover.
Cheers:Ian Mc

Are they hard to strat from seed Jay?

Aaron, Some varieties can take forever but most germinate pretty easy. I think the m. Sikkimensis took about 8 months or so to germinate. Musa Ensete has been the easiest to germinate. Some Musa bananas you can usually only get pups from the mother plant. I have some M. Ensete seeds i can send you if you want to try them out? Once they sprout they really take off.

Regards,
Jay

Nice bananas Jay. I see that you don't have any cavendish so when my cavendish pups I will send you one for an ice cream:) I just recieved some orinocos in the mail today so my collection is slowly growing. Keep an eye on your Ensete it will likely be your fastest grower. Keep us posted!

Thanks Ryan. Sounds good. I'll keep you posted when my ice cream send some pups up. I grew Ensete last year from seed and it really took off but it died on me in my garage over winter.

Regards,
Jay

Thanks for the offrer Jay I may take you up on the offer at a later date, I better not start any more plants until I get my green house done.

Ok let me know. I need to build a small greenhouse soon. Are you building a super huge one?

Regards,
Jay

Admin, I'll sure take a few seeds if you can spare. I have three Basjoo and now am a huge banana tree fan.
Also, the Hystrix seeds you gave me, how long do they usually take to pop? Pretty long?

Hi Kansas, If i had more i would send you some. This is my first time germinating needle palm seeds so i'm not sure. I have heard that they can take up to two years to germinate.

Regards,
Jay

Thats what I heard too. I think I read where Banana Joe had some take up to 2 years.
But I read where they were slow growers. What I have found with mine is that in the heat, I feed it "Peter's" every other watering, I water every other day, and it is growing visably every day I water it.

I need to build a small greenhouse soon. Are you building a super huge one?

I wish No...I am just going to build a smaller one? But I plan on building a few of them.

Let those Bananas grow Jay. Never cut them down. Leave them until the following spring & then cut the dead leaves off, they will continue to grow from the center.

Here's a few pics from my crop this past fall.

Laaz, I dug all the bananas up and have them stored in my garage until Spring time. The spot i had them in wasn't the best so this year i will find a better spot and leave them in the ground and protect them over the winter. Those are some nice bananas you have there in the pics.

Have you ever got your basjoo bananas to ripen? Some of those look like they are getting to a good size!

Wes ... the bananas in the above post by Laaz aren't Musa basjoo. (or have I misunderstood your question?)
I'm going to try a clump of Musa itinerans this spring to see how they do. I also have a healthy sized Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii' I'll plant too. It's long since outgrown a 20 gallon pot. I have cut all the leaves off and have it stored in my crawl space at about 50f /10c under 8 hrs of light.
The only draw back to planting these is water. I have rocky sandy soil and not very good for banana cultivation. I'll have to make some amendments and mulch.

Cheers, Barrie.

Wes Barrie is correct. The above are Ice Cream Bananas. Yes they ripened about two months ago. Very good quality fruit.