Tim Hurn

New member question - Why are my green banana skins splitting?

sunfish

Bob3

As Sunfish pointed out, that's more or less normal for many varieties (some more than others).

Dwarf Orinoco in particular are one of the bananas that can get away with ripening on the plant, if you can keep your hands off them long enough (great for tostones green or yellow).

__________________
Recipes & links for Cajun, Creole, & other goodies.

pitangadiego

Could also be inconsistent watering and weather change.

__________________
Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

LAFarmer

I live outside of Los Angeles, have 3 very productive banana trees and have to deal with the banana peels splitting while the bananas are still green on the tree all the time. Often a single banana will split in the middle of the bunch causing it and those around it to ripen rapidly. I have done some investigating with agriculture universities but have not found a solution. It seems that the issue is related to the local environment (temperature/humidity) which I can't control. The only suggestion I received was to wrap the bananas in a "blue bag" which is a plastic bag used in the banana industry. I tried using a regular translucent white plastic bag (as suggested) and it was inconclusive, although the bananas appear to ripen faster and the bag keeps dirt and insects off the fruit. The splitting causes me to harvest sooner than I'd like to and reduces the yield by 20-25%.
If anyone knows of a watering or fertilizing regime that might help, please let me know.