GATrops

I am a new member (came over from GardenWeb). I live in southeast coastal GA and grow about 60 different varieties (a mix of ornamental/flowering types and eating bananas & plantains).

Nice site with lots of familiar names (faces).

MediaHound

Welcome aboard, Georgia Tropicals (that right?)

Anyone ever tell you that's a lot of varieties?

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

sean

definitely welcome! what are you growing specifically...are you trading/selling any?

GATrops

Yes, Georgia Tropicals is right. Everyone tells me that is a lot of varieties (my wife, the neighbors, the dogs, etc, etc.)

I posted a list of what I believe to be all the varieites I currently have growing. The list can be found at http://home.comcast.net/~rhwaww2/Bananalist8-05.htm I am interested in trading.

tlturbo

Interested in trading for WHAT??? You have it all. HA HA

Welcome aboard.

Terry
S FL

Casa Del Gatos

GATrops -

I am interested in how your Dwarf Namwah Pearls are doing. How old, how big, where are they planted and what do you feed them?

A number of us just bought some on eBay from a gal in Ocala, FL and it would be nice to know what to expect.

GATrops

Casa Del Gatos- I got mine (3 plants) about 3 weeks ago and so far they are doing okay. They have between 7 and 9 leaves on each of the plants. I potted mine into 1 gallon conatiners and am giving them the standard (9-3-19) slow release I use on all the other bananas. The one thing I have noticed so far is that they seem to be a little slower growing than most of the other varieties. They are not very big plants yet and that may explain it. I am also interested how they do when they get a little bigger.

Bananavilla

Ga Trops - how many of those varieties have you successfully fruited? I just can't see how anyone that isn't retired and living on the south tip of Florida can realistically farm all those plants with any success.
Just curious,
Mike

GATrops

Mike- Last year I managed to get fruit from 8 or 9 of the 15 or so (desert bananas) I had planted in the ground. I have been able to get fruit from almost all of the ornamentals except a few varieties that I just got a few weeks ago. (I am very interested in cross-pollinating the ornamentals in an attempt to develop new varieties and in the last few weeks have harvested several hundred seeds (no kidding) from the crosses I made earlier in the spring.)

I have added the majority of the desert plants to my list since last fall. I have about 30 varieties in the ground at my house (with the rest at another location) with hopes of fruiting them this year. (We'll see how it goes. I'm still working out the details of what works best to get them to fruit in our climate.) Most of my plants are grown in one of my greenhouses during the winter and planted in the ground in mid-April. If they bloom by mid-September I can get the fruit to ripen by trimming a few of the hands and bagging the fruit. This is a pic of a Goldfinger bunch from last fall that started blooming on September 20. The bunch weighed ~55 lbs when I cut it in early December. http://hometown.aol.com/rhwaww/image...ingerfruit.jpg

I am not retired but have a very understanding wife (and neighbors too). I am a univeristy professor and the bananas are also a part of several of the research projects I am working on. I don't have the kind of sucess people in south FL do but I don't think I do bad for growing bananas in south GA.

tropicalkid

GaTrops:
I forgot to thank you for your guidance in how to artificially pollinate some ornamental bananas.
Thanks a lot!!!
tropicalkid

bananalover

Hi,
I am way up here in N. East Georia but am hoping to get some to fruit here anyway. I too am no limited to fruiting varieties but am just learning and found your post on how to pollinate ornamental bananas very informative. Thanks!

Bananavilla

GaTrops, did those Goldfingers end up ripening for you? They look like they were pretty plump and filled.

How large of a greenhouse do you have? I believe you purchased a California Gold from me last season?

I hope to one day move to a coastal climate and just have a Huge greenhouse for all of my bananas and other cool sensative plants.

Mike

GATrops

Tropicalkid and Bananalover-Glad you found the pollination post helpful. I have been wanting to put it together for sometime now. I love digital cameras. If I take enough pictures 1 or 2 are bound to come out. I am realy excited about the crosses I've been able to do this year. We'll see if anything useful comes out of them.

Mike-The Goldfingers did ripen and were really good. Not as fat as the fruit I get from Going Bananas but still filled out enough for banana pudding and eating fresh. I was a little concerned when the bloom came so late in September but they did fill out pretty well. (It was the last of my plants to bloom other than a Double Mahoi that shot in late October.) I think cutting some of the hands (as hard as that was to do) and bagging them made a world of difference in how fast they matured. I did that with everything that bloomed after Labor Day and will try it again this year as I'm sure some of mine will not shoot before then. I am also exploring banana bloom recipes for those really late bloomers. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I meant to mention in my earlier post about the CA Gold I got from you last year. Thanks for parting with it. It has just over 6 feet of beautiful pseudostem and leaves. The trunk on it is huge. It has not bloomed yet but I am guessing it is not far from it. I planted it in a place that does not get full sun all day but it is a place where I can build a temporary heated structure around it come November if necessary. (It's right beside one of the greenhouses.) That way I can carry it through the winter with fruit if necessary. It has also produced 5 really nice pups this year and I will be trying some different things with them this winter coming up.

I have 2 "permanent" greenhouses. One is 14x22 with an 8 foot ceiling and the other is 16x20 with a 9.5 foot ceiling. I keep the minimum temp in these at 63-65 degrees during the winter. I am building a temporary cooler greenhouse house for this winter around some of the bananas I have in the ground. It will be ~20x40 and I will try to keep it at a minimum of ~50 degrees. I am going to test the idea of keeping the pups alive in the ground (still attached to the corm) but not vigorously growing over the winter. Growing them through the winter in the greenhouse in large containers (using the hydroponic fertilizer you recommended, Thanks for the tip) works well but I want to explore leaving the pup attached to the corm so it does not spend so much energy in the spring growing a new root system when it is planted in the ground.

If I was just strating out building greenhouses, I would build one large one instead of several smaller ones. There is so much equipment you have to duplicate when you have more than one house (exhaust fans, circulation fans, electical wiring, etc.).

My wife has asked several times how much would it cost to just cover the whole backyard with polyethylene and heat it in the winter. I think she is kidding but I am thinking about it.

tropicalkid

GATrops:
On the artificial pollination, got another question.Can you put pollen from let's say a "velutina" in a "thai gold" in order to get fruit,seeds, and a beautiful variegated hybrid?, Is it doable by this technique, or is it a more involved genetical issue?
Thanks,
tropicalkid

GATrops

Tropicalkid-The only part that I can answer for sure is that a velutina x. thai gold will certainly produce fruit and seeds. (I harvested a couple hundred seeds over the weekend from that very cross.) What I cannot answer for certain is what the offspring will look like. (Ask me this time next year and I should have an answer.) I think it is unpredicatble what they will look like. My guess is they will be all over the place in terms of color, height, etc. I would guess some will look like mama and some will look like daddy and hopefully some will look very different from either. I have my first set of about 30 seedlings from an ornata "magenta" x. velutina cross. They are about 18 inches high at present. At this point nothing stands out as being different among them but the real question is what will the bloom look like. I hope I can let you know before the cold gets here in November.

tropicalkid

Ok. that's what I needed to know, so it's kind of doable by this technique.I will plant to start the procedure next year too(I'm moving to North Carolina, so a more banana-friendly climate).If you do get variegation of the thai gold x velutina, it should be gorgeous.Picture yourself a bunch of pink or green bananas mixed with a yellow/pink flower.
tropicalkid

GATrops

If I close my eyes a little, I can almost see it myself. Seriously, I am really interested to see how the seedlings come out. I'll keep you posted.

Chironex

Have you posted these on another site? This link no longer works.

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Scot

natedogg1026

GA, Welcome aboard. Sounds like you know quite a bit about nana's. Hopefully you can share some of your knowledge with us. Oh yea. The DNP's. I think everyones died. Weak TC I was told.

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

Bananaman88

Nate,

Those posts from GATrops were from 2005. I haven't seen him/her post here for some time now.