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From www.floridata.com: Banana (Musa) Culture Light: Bananas do best in full sun. Moisture: Bananas require a constantly moist, but not flooded, soil, rich in humus and composted organic matter. The pH should be 5.5-6.5. Hardiness: USDA Zones 8-11. Bananas require 10 to 15 months of frost free weather to produce a flower stalk, and then another 4 to 8 months to ripen fruit. Temperatures below freezing will kill the foliage to the ground. The rhizomes, hardy to 22°F (-5.5°C or lower, will send up new shoots when the weather warms again. If cold weather threatens, a banana plant can be protected by covering it with a blanket or tarp and burning a light bulb inside the tent.
* * * * The Write Stuff Plants: 80 | From: South Florida Zone 10 | Registered: Jun 2006
| Seeded: 66.240.90.180
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Thanks, Rite ! I have another question-do your own bananas taste like the store ones, or better and different? Do they ripen on the tree and you just go out and pick one and eat it?
* * * * Plants: 1772 | From: Southern California, USA | Registered: Feb 2006
| Seeded: 207.200.116.7
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It depends on the variety of banana you are growing, but the Cavendish are comparable in taste to what you would get at the supermarket....sometimes they are sweeter...depends on rainfall and fertilization... Bananas grow on the plant on that huge stalk....each stalk can have maybe 5 or 6 or more hands, which are the bunches of bananas that you get at the store...Most people cut off a hand when they are green, but about to turn yellow...if they are ripe and ready to pick, you can end up with an entire stalk, which can be 30 to 50 bananas, which get ripe and then turn brown quickly...that's a lot of banana bread to make! smile Hope that helps... Rite
P.S. After the fruit ripens, the banana plant falls over and dies and its pup then grows up and starts the fruit production cycle all over again.
* * * * The Write Stuff Plants: 80 | From: South Florida Zone 10 | Registered: Jun 2006
| Seeded: 65.10.147.173
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Rita I have pinks. Frosty pink Unknown pink Seedling pink And Dr suess I might have other cuts of knightti& cypress gardens& jamicia yellow.I've not heard back from all on my list.
The bannana I tasted...It was sweeter than store bought.It was very good.I just have the cold hardy type.it looks good,grows good.I bet the one I ate was watered good...at least this month.
* * * * I will age ungracefully until I become an old woman in a small garden..doing whatever the Hell I want!
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Deborah, fyi...Many people grow bananas in pots, especially the decorative kind...if you want fruit (as opposed to just the beautiful tropical foliage), the plant will need heat and sun for an extended period...otherwise, it will not fruit. and it definitely does not like frost...
* * * * The Write Stuff Plants: 80 | From: South Florida Zone 10 | Registered: Jun 2006
| Seeded: 65.10.147.173
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