My Tree Has a New Bunch of Bananas

Just take them off and they'll ripen on their own. Damn, I wish I had a banana tree. Phoenix has a grapefruit tree and I want one of those too. Anyone have a seedless sunkist orange tree?

Montana- A grapefruit tree isn't bad......the fruit is usable from about January-July. I can't imagine what I would do with hundreds of bananas ripening at the same time!

Edgar, I envy your being able even grow a banana plant. Just like Montana, living in the north, I am limited in planting any kind of tropical plants in my garden. It would be nice to pick a banana, grapefruit…or even a pineapple, just outside my door.

The bananas I grow so far have never been longer than about three or four inches in length.

edgar, you sound just like my parents. They have this "apple" tree. I don't know what kind, but they only grow the size of a golf ball. They're so proud of them though. This one tree makes them official farmers in their eyes (at least in a sense that they feel it's a morning duty to "tend" to them). haha

What's worse is they taste like crap. By crap, I mean there is no taste. They still always force them down our mouths when we come over.

Mom: "Oh you HAVE to try these. Oh yum. Here.. Here. Joahaeyo, seriously ...have some."

Mine never get mature enough to eat.

Edgar
Is it because it's a young tree?

Phoenix
Yeah, I would imagine you'd be bummin if those grapefruit were banana's, lol.

I think that by the time the tree recovers from winter, it has to make up lost ground in growing and maturing time to produce fruit. It is about three years old. The last tree of mine that had a bunch folded near the trunk and fell over. It was in the back yard. Since, I have moved them to the front.

Joahayeo, that sounds like a tree grown from an apple seed. You can't count on seed-grown trees to produce edible fruit; if they do, it's a fluke.

All apple trees that produce the kind of fruit we see in stores are grown from scions grafted to root stock...

The bananas don't have a long enough growing season. I have only seen them ripen in Houstone one time - They were growing in a courtyard of some apartments. Something about that made them produce.

Here's the low-down:



Banana culture

Bananas grow here in northern CA too. Kinda weird to see 'em. Typically the fruit is smallish - finger sized, but quite plentiful. I doubt it ever ripens here either.

Mr. Stillwater's link provides some good information. I would also add that if you wait until the last possible minute to cut them off the tree, they will be as big as they will get for you. If the fruit soesn't ripen, I would suggest making patele with them (puerto rican food with pork and cooked green banana... if you are interested, I'll ask some friends for their recipe...)

I don't think I want cooked green banana. Thanks anyway.