Backyard Banana Joe

I haven’t really even seen any pictures of this variety flowering, so I took some pics as well as stats. This is my first bunch of these so I am excited to try!


I got this plant from Ty as a tissue culture in the fall of 2019 and planted spring 2020. Pic is from December 2019:





Planted March 2020!





June 2020:






July 2020:





October 2020:









She sent up a flag 13 months after planting at around 9 1/2 feet tall, but subsequent pups will definitely get much taller, probably between 12 and 15 feet tall before flowering. This variety is tall and skinny, so it needs support and would definitely benefit from a location sheltered from wind, i.e., in between two houses (as long as it gets sun), or surrounded by stronger banana varieties to help block wind. The leaves have an erect habit, as well as a pinkish, reddish hue to the petioles and midrib. The color is most pronounced in young pups. The bottoms of the leaves on young pups also have a rust colored hue.











I will be updating this thread showing the progress of the bunch as well as any other things I notice about this variety. If you grow this variety and have tips or pictures of it, feel free to post them here!

75north

Looks awesome, congrats on the flower! The Mysore types really are beautiful plants.

I also got a TC Pisang Ceylon, from sddarkman in April 2020




Planted it in the ground in August:




And here it is today:




Currently at around 10.5' at the crown. I'm hoping it will flower here in the next couple months!

As you said, the stalk is quite thin for its height. I tried to plant it in a spot where it was sheltered from the normal winds that come off of the lake to the West. However, the past 10 days or so the wind has been consistently coming out of the East with daily gusts up to ~25 mph, so its leaves have gotten pretty well shredded. I had to tie it up this week to keep it from leaning too much, and I've got further plans for propping when it fruits.

I'll likewise post an update when mine fruits!

Backyard Banana Joe

Wow, yours looks awesome! I saw one of pitangadeigo's posts where he said they taste very, very good, and in a different post how it's definitely a keeper. Here's a video I found on them:


https://youtu.be/HKww4KJ25-w

75north

Thanks! Everyone seems to have great things to say about the taste of these guys.

It seems really cold hardy too. We had a fairly mild winter but the Pisang Ceylon looked completely unfazed and still put out 3 leaves from December to February, meanwhile some of my other varieties essentially completely stop growing until March. Really the only drawback as far as I can tell is the need for support/lack of wind resistance.

Backyard Banana Joe

Here's a couple threads I found:


Pisang Ceylon Height?



Josh's Pisang Ceylon

Backyard Banana Joe

Pisang Ceylon came through and made a rather impressive 12 hands bunch!


I did a finger count, but forgot what it was. I’ll have to count again tomorrow. One things for sure though, these aren’t “lady finger” sized bananas, these are “baby finger” sized bananas

zfallon84

This is my second favorite banana to look at after my reds.

Greenie

Backyard Banana Joe

Tytaylor77

I love mysore! I really wish they would do better here. We are just a tiny bit too cold. The years they do make it my whole family gets excited! Amazing tropical almost berry like flavor to me. You will love them!

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75north

Noticed a flag leaf on the Pisang Ceylon today. Earlier than I was expecting!

Backyard Banana Joe

Congratulations! Keep us updated on that! You should be looking at a nice sized bunch!

Backyard Banana Joe

Sounds good! I got the plant from you fall of 2019 as a tissue culture. It needs propped though!! Lol

75north

Just a little update:

My Pisang Ceylon made quite a small flower



Yet somehow it made a nice 12 hand bunch. I'm very pleased!




Now I wait!

smeash

Congrats to you both! I have a pisang keling which I believe is the same as pisang ceylon? I also have a pisang Klotek.. cant wait to fruit one of these.. Ive heard great things about the fruit!

75north

Thanks! I've heard that Keling and Ceylon are the same but can't confirm it myself. Will be very interesting to hear your thoughts on the taste of Keling vs Klotek once they fruit!

Backyard Banana Joe

That is a very impressive bunch there..... Congrats! That thing is healthy!

Backyard Banana Joe

Bunch is filling pretty quickly and I am excited to try them hopefully soon!

My plant does have BSV, and from 75’s second picture, it looks like that plant does as well, but it isn’t affecting the growth or productivity of the plant as far as I can tell.




The bees and wasps adore the male flowers of this variety, and the male flowers are always full of bees (some wasps but mostly bees) and when the flowers have fallen to the ground, the bees are still climbing all over them sucking the nectar! Watch your step!

And when there aren’t any male flowers open, there is usually some wasp or bee on the bud waiting for another bract to lift to reveal more male flowers! You can see the wasp waiting on the male bud lol

sirdoofus

That is a fine looking bunch.

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75north

Can't believe how quickly yours are filling in - definitely faster than mine. At any rate it's good to know these things won't take 6 or 8 months to ripen up!

And regarding BSV, it looks symptomatic in the pic from when I planted it in the ground last year but looking at the plant now it looks perfectly healthy and none of the leaves look like any of the pictures of symptomatic leaves. I'm not exactly experienced at identifying this disease though, so who knows...