BackyardBananaCA

Hi All,

I just wanted to share some of my experiences with the various banana varieties I've been growing for the past two years here in San Ramon, CA (zone 9). First of all, most of my plants were planted in early spring, so they had a head start going into winter; some had 4-6 feet of trunk. Here's how they did:

First to start growing (late winter early spring):

Basjoo
Red Ensente

First to start growing (early spring):

Raja
Belle
Mysore
Misi Luki
D. Namwah
T. Orinoco

First to start growing (mid spring):

Nino
Ice Cream
D. Brazilian
CA Gold
D. Cavendish (protected 2' plants with bag and survived the winter)

Taking it's time coming out of dormancy:

Gold Finger

Died to the ground but signs of pups growing from corm:

Saba
Pelipeta
D. Orinoco (very odd. 4' trunk planted next to fence, maybe lack of winter sun killed it. Same thing happened to one of my Rajas last year. It was a nice mega pup I got from Mike in Antioc .)

Bloomed early May:

Raja @ 7ft

New varieties to hit the ground from 5 gallon buckets:

FHIA 3
FHIA 18
Cardaba
Praying hands
Green Ensente

I'm looking forward to watching the Raja bananas develop, and the possibility of a few others to bloom.

devildog805

Do you have any pics you can share.

BackyardBananaCA

I'll was planning on taking some current pictures in the next couple of weeks. Here are some pictures taken back in the fall:

http://groups.msn.com/BananaVillaIma...anaplants.msnw

Keep in mind there are 3 pages of pictures on the Bananavilla site. Also, I wish the red ensente was mine, but instead a great pic I found online.

devildog805

Thanks for the link. This is my first year growing bananas and all I have is small pups. I can't wait to get my first bloom.