island cassie

John - you are a star and must be doing something right!! My orinocos are just fruiting now for the first time - but from the fruit I have had passed over the garden fence, unless you want them for tostones or as cooking bananas, they need to be really plump and ripe to the point of starting to go soft before they are good as eating bananas, and then they are gorgeous.

Congratulations Cassie

amaznjohn

Thanks Cassie.

I do have a question for the experts out there. A few of the bananas on the stalk started turning yellow, so I cut the stalk off as I've read to do by most people. My problem is that many of the bananas are still very small and hard. I cut the ones off that were yellow and are going to ripen them in a bag. Is it possible that the very small ones will get larger before they ripen, if I hang them in a cool place?

amaznjohn

I do have another question for anyone with insight. Now, that my plant has fruited and I've cut off the stalk, how long before the plant dies back? I'm asking because I moved it from my house to overwinter it at work and now I'd like to take it back home, if it will live much longer. I have a shoot from it that I'm growing now at home. Another question, if I plant it in the ground at home will it produce any more shoots? Thanks for any help?

Here's a picture of a couple from my first harvest. They tasted great and not with a thick skin either.

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Dean W.

Nice nanners!

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island cassie

John - once you have cut the bunch down, the fruit will not get any bigger. Glad the ones you tried were good - they look nice and fat. Regarding the old plant - I usually leave mine a while until they start to yellow before I cut them down and assume that energy from the old plant will help the mat - are there any more pups visible? As you have a spare plant at home anyway, it might be fun to cut the old one down, and plant it in the ground to see if it sprouts more pups - they are notoriously hard to kill and it could provide you with several new plants. It is a good time of year to try this too. Good luck!

Cassie

amaznjohn

Thanks again Cassie. I believe I'll do as you suggest and cut it down, bury it and see if more pup emerge. I don't see any right now, so we'll see what happens. Maybe I can use this one simply as pup machine.