robguz24

I'd had tried Raja Puri a while ago and have tried to get the plant here for years without luck. They all turned out to be something else. Anyway, a neighbor gave me a dozen fruit last week. Thought I'd share my impressions.

TEXTURE- Chewy, rubbery, a little mealy in the center of the fruit. Much like an inferior Namwah.

FIRMNESS- Very firm, especially for being so ripe.

SWEETNESS-Sweet, but not overly so.

TARTNESS-Very slight. Nowhere near as tart as a Dwarf Brazillian.

RIPENESS- Tasted very ripe, with some black spots on the skin. Flesh under black spots was not rotten.

FLAVOR- Mild, fruity, some vegetal flavor, smells slightly like cantaloupe. Not especially complex or interesting.

OTHER- Several of the fruit seemed to get rotten near the bottom before being overripe. Kind of leaves an unpleasant film in my mouth.

OVERALL RATING-6. Pretty good. I wouldn’t want to have them all the time. But certainly better than a store bought cavendish. I had wanted to grow this variety, but now I think I’m not going to bother.

SUGGESTED USE-Eating out of hand or in dessert. Seem to travel well and maintain firmness when ripe.

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Dalmatiansoap

Thanks for sharing!

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servatusprime

I had hoped that it would taste better than that. Oh well ill still give mine a shot.

Nicolas Naranja

I'll agree with your report, especially the mealyness. It does fill a slot for a dwarf hardy variety. However, for yield and taste I'd rather have Nam Wah.

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EzrieAlan

I wish they had exotic varieties of banana's in store. They had short red ones with pink flesh at a local grocery store that I tried and swore I'd never buy a regular banana again. I gotta say I'm still mesmerized by the idea of the Ice Cream banana, but I'm hearing that it's not all it's cracked up to be. Are there any other "must try" varieties that anyone would suggest?

bananimal

Goldfinger and SH 3640. After 7 years of banana growing these are on my "must keep" list.

Agree with Rob on all counts about the Raja Puri. I discontinued it also.

venturabananas

Interesting. I had Rajapuri and Dwarf Brazilian ripe in my yard at the same time about a month ago and had the opportunity to try them side by side many times. To me, they were nearly indistinguishable in flavor -- both a bit tart with slight pineapple flavor. Very tasty. Both were much better to me than any of the "namwah" varieties that were also ripe, which have no tartness. My only complaint about the Rajapuri was that those fruit tended to have a bit of a core, and they did get kind of fluffy and mealy when they were overripe (which yours were Rob -- at least by my standards).

I do like the fruit of Dwarf Brazilian slightly better than Rajapuri (because of generally better texture), but I like the shorter height of Rajapuri better than the taller Dwarf Brazilian. They are both keepers for me since I have spots in my yard where short varieties work better.

Thanks for starting this thread Rob. It's always interesting to get other folks impressions. The differences among people always make me wonder how much the different impressions are due to differences in taste preferences versus actual differences in the fruit characteristics caused by being grown in different conditions.

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venturabananas

For me, of the varieties not yet mentioned, any of the Mysore varieties top the must try list.

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robguz24

You're right Mark, about them being overripe. I did have them a week earlier and they wren't as mealy, but I didn't get down to writing down my impressions until the last 2 very ripe fruit were still there. Definitely better with no brown on the skin.

As for other "must try" varieites, Chris. Mysore and SH 3640 for sure, with Dwarf Brazilian, Gros Michel, and Namwah being in my top 5.

Ice Cream are not as good as Raja Puri, and I was just talking to some friends today looking for someone to rip out their mat of them because they don't like them, except frozen.

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hydroid

After hearing so much about the RP I happened up on one a few years back and it took a few years for it to take off, maybe it was stunted or something and never pupped until the third year. Now I have finally got a few in different parts of my yard but so far only one bunch of fruit 2 yrs. ago and I was not impressed. But it's fairly easy to winterize in my zone since they are fairly short and hopefully I can get some more fruit to compare again this year. I'm really liking the looks of the Dwarf Namwah and think it might be my "go to" banana.
Bo

Nicolas Naranja

On the topic of Raja Puri, I am going through a bunch of Pisang Raja right now and I swear it is the same as Raja Puri. Different plant all together as Pisang Raja is a tall variety, but I have to wonder if the two are in the same group.

The people that do wine talk a lot about terroir and I have to believe that it does make a difference in bananas as well. Surely a muck grown banana from Florida would be different than a banana grown in San Diego. You guys have a longer time on the tree, less humidity and the ratios of nutrients in your soils are much different.

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Abnshrek

My RP is so choked its fixin' to have a blow out I do believe.

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venturabananas

Yes, I'm no wine snob (I drink a lot of it, but claim no special knowledge), but terroir sure does matter. For example, I tried two different Syrahs one time for which everything was identical -- same grape clone, produced by exactly the same methods, exactly the same people, etc., but the grapes were grown 10 miles apart in very different soils. I would have sworn the wines were made from completely different varieties of grapes. Couldn't believe how different they were.

I agree that you'd have to think the same would be true for bananas.

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Rmplmnz

Ironic as we recently harvested Dwarf Brazilian and Raja Puri, we had several bunches on our kitchen counter and many friends were unable to tell the difference (they liked both very much).

With respect to Pisang Raja I seem to recall an orange tint to the pulp?