My fruit won't ripen??
 

I have a Brazilian that produced fruit in late September. I left the fruit on the plant and the fuit never ripened. I just cut the fruit off. Why did the fruit not ripen? The fruit is in the house now. Any thoughts are greatly appreciated. I know the fruit was on the plant a really long time. I got lazy and left it there.

Thanks,

Andrew

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

Really no idea. Were there plenty of leaves when it fruited? Did a lot of the leaves brown out when it was colder this winter? Perhaps there was simply insufficient energy in the plant to ripen the fruit.

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

The mother plant was a normal looking plant. Nothing changed. The picture below is of the stalk. Before anyone says anything -- I removed the net! I had humming birds go to town on the flower. I removed it and a few more bananas emerged. My stalk today looks the same. Same color of fruit, same size and same hardness.


This is a picture of the mat. Other than it being not a great picture the plants were very healthy. That has since changed. 7 of the plants have fallen over after the leaves have turned yellow. I thought it was gophers but can't find any. I'm down to a few plants in that mat. It really sucks. I'm thinking of removing all the plants potting them and then wait to see what happens.

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

I've heard from someone in south Florida that this takes 6 months to mature there, slow enough to make him not want to waste time growing it. I'm sure it would be slower in Santa Barbara.

I harvested a bunch of bananas off of a supposed Dwarf Brazilian in late December as well as an even younger bunch from an unknown variety. The unknown variety was only about 3 months old but ripened up in about 25 days to become nice-tasting fruit. The supposed DB took 2 months to ripen and did not taste very good and I think it's at least partially because they were not mature when harvested.

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

The bunch looks very small, which could mean its not getting fed enough, which in turn can lead to fruit that can't develop properly. Brazilian in the most common banana variety here, and often you seem them along roadsides and in vacant fields where they do not get irrigated or fertilized and they will fruit, but the plants are stunted and the fruit takes a long time to develop and never really becomes much of anything.

On another note, its kinda hard to tell since the bunch is so underdeveloped, but it actually looks more like Ice Cream than Brazilian. Im not saying it is for sure, but maybe if you post some more detailed photos we can know for sure.

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

Thanks Harvey. Nice to hear from you. I hope all is well. My trip to Hawaii did not bring me to the fountian of AeAe. I did run into a guy selling bananas on the big Island who siad he knew you. I bought a Big Island bananas poster from him. Small world. The plants came from Stokes many yeras ago. The mat was large. The bananas did not get any bigger. This is the second time that happened. My new problem is that something is no killing the mat. The leaves turn yellow and then the plant falls over.



Thanks for your input Gabe. This picture is of the base of one of the mature plants.


This is a picture of what is left. Again, this is a two part question; fruit did not ripen and something is killing the plants. Any suggestions?? I do have gophers but do not see any activity in that area and the entire space is lined with wire.

Re: My fruit won't rippen??
 

Wow, sorry to hear of the disease/pest problem, Andrew. I hope you can get that beat!