permaculturekidd

Is there such a thing ? I can't find the website but it was talking about certain culitivars like Ice Cream, Dwarf Orinoco, and 2 or 3 others being able to fruit in that time span if properly fed and watered.

If this is possible does anyone know others and if not which have the shortest growing season?

Simply Bananas

Viente cohol--check it in the wiki

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Bob

Jeff Earl reported that at least one of his Ca. Gold flowered in 10 months though I believe he implied that was the quickest.

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damaclese

the shortest time I've ever heard of is 18 months how ever i seem to remember a couple of times different members have said that they had varies plants bloom spontaneously at extremely short heights but thats not to say that the plants were young they could have just not grown alto in there life's

the 18months is a pretty firm universally excepted time frame many take much longer for example a Ventricosum take 4 to 5 years to fruit

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TommyMacLuckie

It really depends on location. In Mandeville, Louisiana, due to the winters, it usually takes approx. 15 months for Orinocos to bloom (or none - sometimes they just outright die, which I have yet to understand), by which the fruit is sometimes ready around the end of November or so. I say that as 5 have already bloomed this year (all were destroyed in a recent intense storm we had). And it's not something I keep exact history of. Maybe I'll start.

That is not always the case since they don't really have a 'season' other than barely growing, somewhat growing or just outright growing. Winters are shorter in New Orleans due to the colder times being shorter overall than the Northshore and not as cold to boot. There's usually an 8 degree difference (average) between New Orleans and Mandeville in the winter because of the lake.

Bob

Tommy Mc , I haven't looked. Are you on the other side of ponchetrain? That big a temp difference, very surprising.

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Richard

How true. The Orinoco and Dwarf Orinoco mature quickly in the tropical Orinoco River basin of Venezuela compared to subtropical environs of the continental U.S.

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TommyMacLuckie

Yeahp - north of New Orleans across the lake. On clear days I can see some of the city over the lake! We get hammered with storm surge. It's a lot of fun actually.

permaculturekidd

I was actually wondering about that because I have family who I'd like to send some naners in Sun and thought it was around the same temp. since they're in the same climate zone according to Sunset.

Ohio'sBest

I just checked on Going bananas and there is a waiting list for the Viente cohol.

TommyMacLuckie

I wasn't clear enough - location meaning the longest growing season possible, micro climate included. In the tropics - of course, it's year round. But above the tropics, it's all guess work, even in parts of Southern Florida. Of course, one cold blast down there won't do a whole lot. But location to a body of water, trees to block wind, where the plant is in the ground via location with a house - southeast side, southwest side, middle south, a latitude where the cold can become a factor - all of these contend with the success of a plant, especially banana plants and palm trees.

I've done all kinds of different location plantings, all in the same yard, and have had tremendous different results - due to winter temperatures (including wind chill), irrigation, rain and rain shadows. It's really amazing. It literally can be the difference between a good growing plant and one that never does much, no matter the overnight temperatures and amount of sunlight.

permaculturekidd

The weather there was still amazing; it rained in July out of nowhere in big glob drops (I live in an area where rain in May and even mid-April is just about non-existent not even a drizzle sometimes so rain in July was just crazy).



I just went on the Encanto website I found an hour or so ago and it said the White Iholena would grow in less than a year; anyone to vouch for the reference?

Gabe15

Definetly dependent on location/conditions and variety. In short, its very possible. The 'Dwarf Brazillian' at our farm started flowering at 6-7months. There are lots of varieties that will do this given the right conditions. Some will always be faster or slower than others in the same conditions though.

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Nicolas Naranja

If you had access to a greenhouse or a sunny area inside the house you could get the plant in October-November and then grow it inside during the winter and plant it in the ground after danger of frost you could probably get fruit before winter.

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damaclese

i guess all have to retract my earlier comments i think i was thinking of IC any way but who know I'm old and the old get confused right? LOL sorry if i misled you

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Jack Daw

Have you created a thread where you concluded your results or not yet? I would really be interested in reading your ideas on this topic.

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TommyMacLuckie

No, I haven't. I'm new here. This week.

I can tell you this - I've guinea pigged some potted brugmansia and hibiscus in the winter for freeze/no freeze/windchill location markers under a certain house. It's open in the back to the N and NW winds in the winter and then on the eastern part of the house it's closed off mostly but still open a little bit to the N. There is lattice in some places on the South side in the back and in the front, walls on the N side and lattice in the S side. In one of the SW corners there is a Orinoco growing - and it grows insanely fast. In the previous 3 winters, whatever one is there, none of them have froze. They get quite big and fruit and fall over. They are in such a way that we can put a rope around them to keep them from falling while they hold on to their fruit (it might get 3 hours of sun a day but it's always warmer there than anywhere else at night as far as where a plant is).

5 feet away from outside the roofline of the house, they all froze - bananas, gingers, callas, elephants, etc... So radiant heat being trapped from the ground under some kind of ceiling does make a difference. The hibiscus in the ground that is planted basically on a piling did not freeze at all.

I would imagine, though, that if it pulled something like it did in 1989 (I didn't live in Louisiana then) and got down to 7 degrees for 2 nights in a row or whatever it was (it got down to 11 in New Orleans), I would probably lose everything - as in ALL of my plants except for the Sabal minors.

Temperatures get down, at least as long as I've lived in Mandeville, LA, at worst so far to 26 degrees for a few hours. Generally we get down to 29 or 30. That's a big difference. But for one or two nights between December and February we get down to a crunchy 26. All the bananas out in the open freeze. The dwarf Cavs that are under the big Orinocos or Sabas get a late start on freezing usually - because of the canopy of fronds over them. The second blast get the dwarf Cavs.

Just over half of the dwarfs actually start growing in the spring again and the rest of them just fall over. Pups take over. The ones that start growing grow slower than the pups but eventually they all look the same.

Another factor that people blow out of proportion here is the lake. Lake Pontchartrain is to our South. How this would have an effect on nighttime temperatures in the winter when the wind is out of the N or NW I have yet to understand. It moderates the air for New Orleans on the Southshore, not for anyone on the Northshore. People will say 'Oh my whatever didn't freeze because of how close to the lake we are'. I've seen the same plants not freeze plenty far away from the lake. I've seen bananas right by the lake freeze and some far away from the lake freeze. I tell people "26 degrees is 26 degrees." They will actually argue with me that the lake keeps the temperatures higher! So I'll repeat myself and then point to the burnt plants and say it AGAIN! It's quite visible that it did indeed get down below freezing and even more than below 30. And windchill helps zap the plant as well.

Having bananas and palms under a live oak, like I do - I'm just under a quarter of a mile from the lake, on the south side of the house makes a huge difference. This past winter it was 26 in my back yard (north) and 31 in the my front yard (south). All of my bananas did get zapped, my elephant ears and one palm got zapped.

My White Birds did not nor any of my Majesties. So my proximity to the huge tree plus the house keeping the real cold air away made the difference.

If wind is blowing from one direction and there is water in the opposite direction and it's blowing away from you then that water might as well be a parking lot because it has zero effect on keeping the air warm.

Part of my work is establishing how storm surge can change a garden - or in my case, how it can't. I've designed things to stay in place.So far so good. All of this is done on chance, of course, because get a strong enough hurricane and all bets are off. So far I've had great success - only the mulch disappears. There's a little scouring but the beds stay where they are. I have some of them raised as high as a foot and a half above grade with palms in one and bananas and other plants in another. It's partly for when the surge goes out those plants start to dry out first as well as to see if anything falls over if it takes the entire bed with it or...just falls over itself.

Of course, after the surge is gone it helps to water everything for days on end to get the salt out. But then one time we didn't water to get the salt out, it didn't rain either and...everything was fine. So what do I know!

Nah - eventually some things died. And now I won't plant those in a storm surge zone that stays flooded. My guess for the 3 bananas that died waver on was the salt that did it or...not enough water. Since everything else around those that died are fine, I'm going with the salt.

The funniest thing about that? The two Ensetes and the Musella. All the Musas were and still are fine. The Siams I had gotten right before Gustav came and never got them in the ground. I have a picture somewhere of that potted plant...floating and cruising in the current of the storm surge. I found it but after we got everything cleaned up and ready...Ike hit. The Siam died.

I don't know if anyone here has to contend with storm surge, violent winds and standing water laiden with salt for days followed by endless (it seems) droughts after a hurricane as far as their plants go but I do so it's all become an experiment and it helps to have plenty of cold beer.

Nicolas Naranja

We had a bad freeze this year around lake Okeechobee and pretty much you got frozen out unless you were within 1/4 mile south, east or southeast of the lake. I saw plenty of everything get frozen right next to the lake this year. The research station I work at is only about 6 miles southeast of the lake and it got down to 25 here.

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