MSmith

Ive noticed lately that my DB flower stopped growing and shedding those red covers and drying. So today I decided to peek under some of those red covers and I notice mold, that white powdery type and the bananas under there are no good, so i pulled off the red covers that easily came off but the ones near the bottom wont come off without alot of force, Im wondering if those could be ok?
I took some pictures here. What should I do?

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

[IMG][/IMG]

__________________

LilRaverBoi

The small bananas at the bottom are male flowers and won't develop into fruit anyway. Watch the bunch management section of this video (starts at 7:05) for a method to remove male flowers and remaining bud. Basically you can just cut the male flowers off with a sharp knife and remove the bud leaving approximately 6" of stem after the last hand of bananas.

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Abnshrek

To cut or not to cut.. either way its all good.. :^)

__________________


I'm a Nannerhead :^)

MSmith

ok I cut off all those dead ones and the bud as in the video, but how do you tell the difference between male and female, and what is the purpose of removing the flowers from the fingers.
I'm going to make an insecticidal soap to spray on the whole bunch to keep the bees and birds away, that was a big sticky mess.
Since I cut the bud off is there anything to do with the exposed end of the cut stem or should it heal on its own?
Thanks

__________________

LilRaverBoi

Male flowers are at the bottom of the bunch and look essentially like female flowers, but do not develop into fruit. The cut should heal on its own.

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

sunfish

Deflowering I believe helps keep away possible mold,bugs and so on.Plus it looks better

brod

Cutting the bell or flowerhead helps divert energy to the developing bananas

MSmith

heres an update of the fruit, I'm wondering if the bunch is ready to cut? you can see where the male flowers used to be its all withered now.
[IMG][/IMG]

__________________

sunfish

Nice bunch must be one of my pups

MSmith

theres a siamese twin on that bunch on the right hand side in the photo

__________________

robguz24

It's the main banana I grow. I wouldn't harvest them yet, mostly because they can stand to wait until there is some yellowing and those ones at the top of the bunch look too angular to be ready. Mine usually take 5-6 months from flower to harvest, but no idea about elsewhere. Also seeing how undeveloped they were in late Aug, I'd say you have a while to go.

__________________
My micro-farm

Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage

venturabananas

Like Rob says, I'd wait until you see some yellow. Momoese (Mitchel) would be the best person to tell you how long that takes in your climate, because he's close to you and grows DB.

They will ripen if you cut them prematurely (as long as they are not too premature). If you want to experiment, you can cut one or two fingers off, put them in a paper bag with an apple, a ripe banana, avocado, etc. in a warm spot in your house. Depending on how mature they are, they will ripen in anywhere from a couple of days to a few weeks.

__________________

MSmith

Thanks, so I'm probably looking at a February harvest

__________________