Bananas

Fantastic!
Pity it's not yours.

How long before they go yellow?

I wish, Tommymoo.

A banana plant takes about 9 months to grow up and produce a bunch of bananas. Then the mother plant dies. But around the base of it are many suckers, little baby plants.
After about six months, depending on the weather,
flower emerges. As the purple flower petals curl back and drop off they reveal a "hand" of bananas under each .There are female and male "fingers" The male fingers just dry and drop off. Some people break off the purple flower petals below the last female hand to make them bigger. Then probably 2 months later you can pick them. Once the bunch is picked the rest of the plant will die quickly.
There are banana plantations few hundered miles south from here with funny blue plastic bags around each bunch.

That's a great bunch of bananas! I have one about this size which should be ripening soon.

Klahanie, it depends on what variety you are growing how long it takes to ripen. My Mysore bananas usually only take 5 months. My larger Ice Cream bananas ripen in 6 - 7 months. In the tropics many varieties can ripen in 5 to 7 months, usually no faster than this time frame, though.

It's also a good idea to cut off the male flowers. They take energy from the bananas.

Thank you for all this info. I'm afraid I thought that bananas were produced on permanent trees,like apples, I didn't know that they produced fruit & then died, & that you have to keep growing fresh plants from the suckers. The bananas I've seen in glasshouses all seem to be such big trees,but perhaps they grow big quickly.

Feverfew:

Bananas are extremely fast growing in subtropical (like San Diego, CA., where I live) and tropical climates.

My bananas produce one leaf a week from early spring - through fall. The plants can grow from 3ft (1m) to 12ft (3.7m) in just a few months (depending on variety).

Wow. I'm going to be thinking of all this as I eat my breakfast banana each morning. My very favourite type of b. is very, very little, with a waxy type of flesh(3 -4ins). Unfortunately we get them in the stores only very rarely. No idea where they come from or why the short supply.

Feverfew:

It sounds like ladyfinger bananas. Most of the varieties I grow are ladyfinger varieties i.e., Mysore, Ice Cream, Super Dwarf, and Golden Fingers. Most ladyfinger bananas tend to be from 4 to 7 inches long. They are very, very sweet and so good-tasting! :>)

Most likely you don't have a big supply of ladyfinger bananas in stores there, is because they don't store very well.

Thank you for your reply D. I didn't know about the poor storage of ladyfinger bananas. You are lucky to be able to grow them. Will have to move to California( I wish)!

You're welcome.

I'll post a photo of my banana bunch when they just start to ripen. It should be in a few weeks, with luck. It's kind of a pain cutting the bunch down because they're very heavy, most likely weighing more than 60 lbs (27 kg).

In Singapore , years ago when we lived there , the branches were cut with a machete , but great care was taken with the ensuing sap because this could release "evil spirits".
I seem to remember some with orange flesh .
Delonix , are plantains just unripe bananas ?

As far as I know Driad, plantains are a member of the banana family. They are very low in sugar and "starchy" and must be cooked before serving as they are unsuitable to eat raw.

Yes , Klahanie , they are sliced across in chunks and boiled . I used to work with a lovely girl from Trinidad , and she used to cook them , when we were on night-duty .
I wondered if they were just unripe or a different thing altogether .

Driad:

Like Klahanie says: Plantains are bananas which are high in starch and low in sugar. They definitely need to be cooked or they taste absolutely horrible!

Many plantains grow here. The plants are typically very tall plants and the plantains bananas are much larger than sweet desert bananas.

They are popular fried as well. I have seen them caramelized (sweet) here or salty with chorizo

I can imagine how popular they are...in Latin America plantains are super popular fried or boiled.

I know as a kid we used to have to eat the boiled or fried bananas with ensalada de bacalao. I never liked the boiled bananas; however, loved the bacalao salad.

My wife sticks Plantains in the microwave. They taste like yams to me.