Illia

Hey there, I've been "lurking" these forums daily for over a year now, and today finally decided to post. A little on me -

Although I live in an area you can't grow much in when it comes to bananas (besides ornamental Basjoos) I found out that especially with my greenhouse, I could. I've always been a huge fan of homegrown food, even moreso of tropical foods that I love. So, last year we bought a Dwarf "Mahoi" (Double, I know they're not the true Mahoi) and three Ice Creams. It was my first time ever with bananas. Well, it was fun growing them, loved them dearly and even had several pups from the Double, one which I was able to sell to some people, but when winter struck, my greenhouse didn't stay as warm as I hoped, and sadly with not enough reading on overwintering bananas, I thought they died. The temps went down to 32 degrees inside the greenhouse and I gave up. I had them mulched but never though I'd need to do much more protection. Well, I feel ridiculous and a bit depressed to know now that I could have done a lot of things to save them, and I'm pretty sure the Ice Creams survived the freeze anyway. I could have dug them up, wrapped and covered them better, etc.

But anyway, I'm starting over after learning a LOT from this forum over the year it's been since I bought my first pups. I just recently bought two Velutinas, two Ice Creams, a Rajapuri, a Dwarf Orinoco, and a Thousand Fingers. Wanted a Praying Hands too but didn't find any. Yeah, I went overboard, but now I'm prepped for winter!

Anyway, hope that wasn't too long of an intro. A little more background, I live in Washington state where the summers are cool, and the winters are cold but thankfully not too cold to do drastic things to grow stuff like bananas. I'm actually a tad new to gardening and all, personally (the family has always been into it but now I do it all for the family instead, kinda reverse really) and aside from the bananas have been turning this whole property very slowly (or quickly) into a living forest of food.

I hope to learn much more from now on, and certainly hope to make some great friends along the way, and especially, would love to get some pups from people in the future I've already just recently come across a cultivar mentioned in a topic that has my interest and attention greatly. Let's see if my greenhouse can handle even more stuffed in it.

Which by the way, I just gotta quickly ask, anyone here know the actual "cool weather" tolerance of the Ice Cream banana? I'd like to think at least one of my varieties I would be able to grow outside during the spring/summer instead of in the greenhouse, maybe on the south side of a building, and actually get quality fruit. I hear Ice Cream is cool summer tolerant? I hear Rajapuri is too, but, I also hear that its fruit if in a cool climate will be very poor in quality.

Starwanderer

I started reading here in December 2008 and joined in March 2009. I made my first post 11 days ago.

Welcome. As you know, this place is just a wealth of information and truly some of the nicest people I've ever "met" anywhere online. While I have learned a lot just by reading, I'm glad I finally started posting. I'm sure you will be too.