venturabananas

For a couple of weeks, I've been eating fruit from the first bunch of Monthan from a plant I got from Jon (Pitangadiego). It's got a lot going for it. Pretty fast to produce, large bunches of very large fruit, pretty good ripe and raw, very good ripe and cooked, not ridiculously tall (10' for the first fruiting p-stem), and handles cool weather well.

These are the biggest bananas I've grown, averaging around 275 g up to 340 g on this bunch. These aren't the monster ARH that PR-Giants grows, but for perspective, an average supermarket Cavendish is around 150 g. Jon is right, it's hard to eat more than one at a time because they are so big.

For my tastes, they need to be very ripe to be at their best either raw or cooked -- no green at all and lots of black. They are good at that stage raw, similar to Orinoco but with better texture, though still a bit fluffy. They are very good cooked -- quite tart, so much so that my wife commented that they'd make a good "apple" pie.

Overall, I view them as similar to Orinoco but better in several ways -- speed of production, bunch size, flavor, and texture. Not my favorite banana, but definitely has earned a long-term spot in my yard.

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shannondicorse

Ventura,

If at all possible can you post pics of your plants on this thread: habit; inflorescence etc. I just need to get certain things clear about Monthan in my mind.

Thanks,

shannon

shannon.di.corse@gmail.com

venturabananas

Looks like I haven't taken a ton of pictures of this one. Here are a couple of photos of the female flowers and inflorescence. In growth habit, it looks very similar to Orinoco to me: fairly tall, slender, prone to leaning after blooming, closed petioles, narrow bud, etc. The leaves are noticeably darker green than most bananas I'm growing, and the leaves on sword pups are sort of lobed rather than strongly pointed like a sword. (Note the the p-stems and leaves in the background in the photos below are Rose, not Monthan. I've planted with very little spacing between mats, especially with a leaner like Monthan.) I'll take some more pictures.

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shannondicorse

Thanks Ventura,

You see,I have two varieties of what I'm told might be Monthan... but I'm not really certain.

Are the bracts persistent? Are the petiole channels closed -as in, say,Orinoco??


shannon

shannon.di.corse@gmail.com

venturabananas

I added a couple more photos that I had on my computer to the post above.

The petiole canals are every bit as closed as in Orinoco and the bracts are NOT persistent.

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venturabananas

Also, all the photos on Jon's website for Monthan that he took (i.e., with the number 910 next to them) are accurate for this variety. I got mine from him, and it appears to be correctly identified.

ENCANTO FARMS

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venturabananas

If you don't already have this guide, it has decent photos of accurately identified bananas of many varieties including Monthan.

http://aciar.gov.au/files/node/2126/mn33_pdf_26949.pdf

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shannondicorse

Thanks Ventura,

I'm collecting the remnants of wild & cultivar bananas here on Trinidad. I have 5-10 possibly distinct triploids that would clock in as "ABB/BBB". Some plants are quite young yet so I can't look at inflorescence or fruit. Hopefully, the real Monthan is among them!!

EXPANSION: I'm planning to use them as male parents (mostly) to eventually get multiple lineages of diploid parthenocarpic female-sterile balbisiana that are suited as multipurpose feedstock for humans & animals; are tolerant of harsh biotic & abiotic conditions; and require low labour inputs.

The natural crossing of cultivars via fertile pollen with wild bananas seems very commonplace wherever such populations coexist. I've seen this for myself on Trinidad, which (for a neotropical island) is fortunate to have feral acuminata and balbisiana.

This interaction must have happened many times in India, Philippines and Thailand to produce the so-called "BBB" type ABBs that look almost like what you'd expect a large fruited parthenocarpic triploid "true" BBB to be. Monthan is one such...Saba, Pelipita, Namwa,Tiparot and Cardaba are others.

Hence, these extant vars are ready-made shortcuts... even my good friend, Orinoco can be a great parent in this scheme!


shannon

shannon.dicorse@gmail.com

likesplantains

I came upon this post looking up Monthan variety. This link no longer works, but I found the pdf on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20171014..._pdf_26949.pdf