harveyc

Joe Real gave me a Dwarf Brazilian pup last summer and I was hoping for it to flower early this year. We didn't get below 28-30F or so this past winter and some leaves retained green throughout the winter ....much nicer than when we got down to 20F the prior winter and everything got killed down to the corms! Growth on my Dwarf Brazilian seemed kind of slow this year and the leaves were spaced close together. A pup that started last year has almost caught up to the mother plant. Anyways, the leaves were packed so closely together and a neighboring Raja Puri is leaning into it that I did not even notice the flat. I checked it out more closely, moving a Raja Puri leaf out of the way and saw it had a flower!

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natedogg1026

Congrats Harvey!

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Banana's are a safe addiction. Right?Maybe I need classes.

mskitty38583

wahoo! congrats on the bloom!. now i knw what to look forward too! great job!

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WELCOME TO THE GATOR NATION

Richard

Congratulations!

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Greenie

good job!

dablo93

congrats with your flower

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bencelest

Wow! Harvey. Very nice!!!
I still have to see mine from Joe's Brazilian.

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Banana Nut

island cassie

Harvey - that's beautiful!

Cassie

Dean W.

Looks great!

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Taylor

Great job, Harvey. Looks like you had a nice winter!

harveyc

I should mention that the pseudostem is only a little over five feet tall. Maybe it was just because of the timing when the banana went dormant over the winter. Joe Real reports it usually fruits at something around 6-7 feet, as I recall. Joe Also mentions that this Dwarf Brazilian fruits for him more reliably here in USDA zone 9 than even California Gold and that the fruits taste better. I don't have a California Gold that is at fruiting stage right now but may have a chance to compare them both side-by-side next year, though my Dwarf Brazilian pup is further ahead right now than either of my two California Gold pups.

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harveyc

Okay, here's an update. I measured it and it bloomed at only 54 inches!

Another pup also emerged after the first photo. Here's an updated photo taken today, one week later.

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harveyc

I should also point out that the one leaf on the left doesn't look great, but I'm proud of it as it made it through our winter. I think our low this winter only got down to somewhere like 28F-30F. We had a lot of days in the upper 30s, however, and chill hours (counted for temperate fruits) was above normal.

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Chironex

Harvey, I am happy for you. Please tell us more about the "chill hours" and how it works. That is interesting.
Thanks for the nice pic's too. Congrat's, looking forward to hearing about your taste test.

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Scot

harveyc

Thanks, Scot.

Chill hours are counted as the number of hours during the winter season where the temperature was below 45F. Many fruits require 300, 500, or more chill hours to get the proper dormant resting period needed. If the chill hours are lower than required, bloom will often be staggered over a longer period of time and fruits will sometimes abort. Sometimes blooming is just reduced. This year my pluots had the best crop they've had in the 13 or so years I've had them. I thought I just needed different pollenators but it seems that the high chill hours this winter helped a great deal.

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magicgreen

Good going Harvey! Thanks for the photo.
Iam with Chironex concerning your weather.
Harvey how long does it stay that cold there? (28*-30*)
I know nothing of CA weather. Are those temps at night only, and warms up during the day?
I thought California and Florida stayed hot all the time till I got on this site and learned otherwise. Yea Yea I know......Iam an old dog that still needs to learn! LOL

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

Richard

ROFLOL! The southern-most location in California is north of Savannah GA. The ocean waters off California are cold, while Florida is under the influence of the warm Gulf.

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magicgreen

Thanks Richard!
Iam going to get a map and learn some more. Guess some things I just didnt learn or didnt care to learn.........who knows

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

harveyc

And we all drive convertibles unless we have a surfboard that won't fit in the back seat!

Those lows that I mentioned are just reached in the early morning. In January 2007 we had about a week where we had lows down into the lower 20s where I am at and it probably never got warmer than the mid 30s or so. Pretty miserable for what we're used to. I think most years we get lows around 26F to 28F but we do get some nice days mixed in the winter also. We also have many days of fog, though not this past year when we didn't get much rain.

California is often the hottest (Death Valley) and coldest (Truckee) spot in the USA on a particular day, so any generalization of California weather is going to be a great disservice.

In my area of the Sacramento Valley almonds begin to bloom in early February and some plants start leaving out shortly after that. Soil rarely freezes in my area (January 2007 was a rare event). Even if we have a normal winter the pseudostem of the hardier bananas will be fine and growth will start in April. This past winter was a bit warmer than normal and my California Gold bananas were ripening in January until 60mph winds with a strong rainstorm snapped my psedostem in half! And that was even though it didn't have that many leaves on it. They still did eventually ripen and tasted okay.

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Raules

Congratulations! beautiful bloom!

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Tropical agriculturist