mnorell

Just noticed that one of my 'Orinoco' banana plants has thrown a flower, probably emerged about a week ago but I just noticed it today, the stalk/bud is about two feet long and drooping, with the first bracts starting to reflex slightly. The problem is that this is 20 September and I'm in zone 9a/southwestern Mississippi, and we (in the years I've been here) have our first frost here sometime between 23 Nov and 16 Dec. A couple of years ago I had one bloom at Labor Day and was able to cut down the bunch just after the first light frost around the first of December. It sat on the refrigerator and did ripen nicely in January even though the fruit were still somewhat angled. But I'm wondering if I should try putting an open-bottomed plastic bag over the bunch to hasten development. Anybody have any experience with this method, or any other suggestions?

bigdog

Hi Michael, I keep trying to come up with new ways to hasten the maturation process, but nothing has really shown to make much of a difference. They really just need heat, sun, water, and a good source of Potassium (when they are fruiting). I have five plants in different stages of bloom or fruit right now, and only one bunch will make it before frost hits. I have considered erecting temporary greenhouse structures over them, but seems like quite a pain for a few bananas. Here (zone 7a), my bunch sizes are usually between 5-16 bananas, so it's really not worth the trouble. Now, if I had 30 or more fingers on a bunch, then I'd be trying my best to protect it!! I have used a paper bag over the bunch, but I have no idea why I did that, lol. I think it was to avoid sunburn or something. I did try a plastic bag over a few bunches a couple of years ago, thinking that it would at least hold some heat in. It didn't make any difference for me though, because they rest of the plant got scorched by frost. I need a bloom on my Orinocos by the end of July or early August at the latest for the bunch to mature properly.

mnorell

Bigdog—

Thanks for the info. I guess I’ll just cut the rest of the inflorescence (it's on to the male flowers now) and let nature take its course. Last year I had three bunches on the Orinocos, the last bloomed about 1 August, and matured on the tree without a problem. But this doesn’t bode too well considering we have at best about two months until ol’ Jack comes to visit…so I’ll cut them down at that point and try the top-of-the-refrigerator technique. This bunch is a small one, only three hands, so it’s not that much of a loss, but hopefully I can at least get something out of it.

P.S. How do you get fruiting stalks up in 7a Tennessee? I’m assuming you lift and store…I lost most of my mature stalks last winter because, I think, even though the low was only 23 here, it was wet, grey and chilly for about six solid weeks. For some weird reason the “teenaged” stalks survived right next to the big old pseudostems that were rotten to the core!

pitchar

Is the inflorescence the tip of the stem? the flower? My neighbor said to cut the this off to make the bananas grow faster.

thanks

mnorell

Pitchar--

Without the inflorescence, you will never get any fruit! So definitely don't cut off the flowers...bananas grow plenty fast without any assistance! The issue here is that most banana varieties produce female flowers first (and the bananas appear only from these flowers) followed by male flowers, which yield no fruit. You can cut off the tip of the inflorescence-stalk after you see no bananas forming beyond that point, and it will give a little more energy to the plant to ripen the fruit. But you definitely don't want to chop off the "tip" of the plant!