75north

Hi all,

This is one of my first banana purchases that I got from a local nursery (before I knew better). It was labeled as Manzano. It's really a beautiful plant but some of its features don't match descriptions that I've seen of proper Manzanos.

Description:

• flowering at 12.5 feet (first time around it was at only 8.5')
• blotchy pseudostem
• open petiole margins
• relatively long/thin flower
• bracts curl up one at a time

Cold tolerance seems to be only slightly better than my Dwarf Cavendishes. The pathetically small bunch I got last year barely made it thru a mild winter and never filled out properly. When they ripened they tasted pretty darn close to a grocery store banana with only the faintest hit of acid. Nothing anywhere near to even a store-bought Manzano.

The built-in photo uploader gave me some problems so a google photo album will have to suffice: https://photos.app.goo.gl/1hFpQt7mz4AQejxe9

I realize it may be too early to identify it with the flower having just emerged a couple weeks ago. I'm definitely leaning towards some sort of Cavendish type. What say you?

Thanks!

75north

Update:



This thing made a weird looking bunch. The fingers in the top hand are all quite thin and fairly straight, while the ones closer to the bottom are fatter and significantly curved. Several of them are sort of bulbous in one way or another.



I can't for the life of me get this picture to upload without rotating sideways and the in-site rotation tool isn't working for me, but this should give you an idea of the overall inflorescence.


In the Sulcata Grove video about the Ebun Musak, their description of the fruit matches mine pretty closely, but they don't show any footage of the plant. However, this supposed Ebun Musak from a random imgur album I found on Google looks a lot like mine: https://imgur.com/a/Z76ii

I'd find it a little strange that a pretty unknown/uncommon banana like this would end up in a tissue culture operation and get distributed to nurseries, but it's definitely the closest match I've come across. Any thoughts?

Backyard Banana Joe

I know not helpful at all, but it looks like a mystery banana I have. But the fruit tastes like Raja Puri so who knows.

I see a very nice Pisang Ceylon bunch in the background!

75north

Nice! I'd be very happy if it tasted like a Raja Puri, unfortunately the first bunch I got tasted like 98% the same as a slightly underripe grocery store banana. It had that same pastiness and sweetness but with just a tiny bit of acid. However I will definitely concede that I really haven't given this one a fair shake because the winter really messed with it last year and the fruit didn't develop properly.

And yes, the Ceylon is coming along nicely! I'm probably looking at getting fruit by the end of October. Yours must be about ready to harvest?

Backyard Banana Joe

It's yellowing up and needs to be harvested. Looks like its stopped raining so I'll try to go out before it gets really dark. The squirrels are having a ball in the meantime.

Gabe15

It's 'Brazilian', aka 'Pome' or 'Prata'. In Hawaii they are called 'Apple', but "Apple" elsewhere typically refers to 'Silk'/'Manzano', which is not this plant.

__________________
Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

75north

Interesting, thanks! Don't know why that one never crossed my mind. And yeah, it was labeled "Manzano" not "Apple," but it's clearly not a Manzano.

The only thing that is confusing is that I had a Dwarf Brazilian growing 15 feet away from this plant last winter. At a measured low of 35 degrees the dwarf took zero damage, whereas this one was pretty heavily affected (it got hit as hard as my Dwarf Cavendishes.) I know this is just anecdotal but it's strange I think nonetheless.

AaronTT

That is very disappointing to me, as I also have a similar banana. I thought the Brazilian would be better tasting than a typical store banana.

75north

Knowing now that it's a Brazilian I don't think much can really be gleaned from that first bunch.

It flowered at the very end of November last year and the first night after all the hands emerged we got down to 44 degrees, with nights of 39 and 42 in the following week. Two of the four hands never filled out at all and had to be removed. Even the ones I eventually tasted were nowhere near ideally filled out by the time the weakened pseudostem finally collapsed in a storm at the end of May.

Yeah, they ripened up, but under really poor conditions. Looking back, that bunch never had a chance emerging when it did.

Akula

My sentiment exactly! Just added a Dwarf Brazilian this year! Dang it! Haha.

smeash

That bunch looks similar to my mystery plant.. the fingers sort of pinwheel towards the lower hands.. my plant had the very distinct long, narrow leaves however, which your does not appear to.

75north

I had to use my phone's wide angle camera to capture the full-plant pic in the Google Photos album, and as a result it's sort of distorted. It's hard to depict the "presence" this thing has in person, the leaves form a big canopy that just doesn't come across in pics for some reason. The top several leaves are massive, probably 12-13 feet long, so they are actually longer and skinnier than they appear in that pic.

Also, here's a pic from Sept. 2020. The pups definitely have those long, narrow leaves (though maybe not quite as extreme as the ones on yours). Wouldn't be surprised if they're very closely related.

smeash

My plants mature leaves are insanely long as well, and quite prone to breaking. Could definitely be closely related plants.

tinkusur

I see a very nice Pisang Ceylon bunch in the background