Musa Goldfinger

Got this awesome Goldfinger pup in the mail from Abnshrek today:

Here it is tucked in behind a Raja Puri on the left and a Double on the right:

Thanks Michael!

Gros Michel update

Here's the Gros Michel (just left of center, p-stem now about 4'):

SH-3640

Here's the SH-3640 that I just received from Going Bananas:

Musa California Gold

Got this great California Gold in the mail today from Abnshrek (thanks Michael!):

Musa 'Cocos' arrived today!

Aquaponic Banana update

Separating a Super Dwarf Cavendish pup

Separated a small Super Dwarf Cavendish pup and relocated it outside:

First separated pup

Spring Sweet Corn

I irrigate the corn patch with water from my high tunnel aquaponics system.  I arranged things such that when I drain off nutrient-rich water from the system, it flows downhill through the corn furrows.  Here's what the patch looked like 30 days ago:

And here's what it looks like now: 

There are 3 varieties of corn in the patch (all of which are in the "su" category of sugar content, and as such can be planted in close proximity to one another--a practice not recommended for mixed categories):

left = Merit
middle = Bi-Licious Hybrid (smaller because it was planted about 10 days after the others)
right = Honey & Cream

Gros Michel, grow!

Here's a pic of my Gros Michel (pronounced "grow me shell") when it arrived exactly a month ago:

And here it is now:

It's doing well, as are all of the larger bananas that I trimmed back:

Here's what those larger bananas looked like last month:

Chop-proof Aquaponics Bananas

Here's the chopped-down Dwarf Namwah a couple of days later:

You just can't keep a good naner down :)

Banana Aquaponics - first chop

Yesterday I chopped my largest banana plant, the Dwarf Namwa, to keep its size in check. Yes this will push back inflorescence and harvest, but there isn't room for this plant to mature in this tunnel, anyway. Therefore I'll just keep growing the corm while pruning the top until I get a taller greenhouse.  (Note that the plant has already started pushing out a new leaf.)

Here's the first Grand Nain pup:

Here are some of the 2nd-generation fish milling about in one end of their long pool (the light colored ones are dominant males):

One of the papaya plants:

The Dwarf Cavendish just keeps getting more beautiful by the day...

...as does the Dwarf Red (front right, beside a Truly Tiny in the left foreground):

Banana Aquaponics 7

They keep getting bigger:

Banana Aquaponics 6

My two Gros Michel plants arrived this weekend! :)

Awesome plant #1:

Awesome plant #2:

Banana Aquaponics - Pups

A couple of nights ago I noticed that my Super Dwarf Cavendish had launched its first pup! This was my first pup ever, so I was pretty excited.  When I went out with my camera the next day to take a picture, I noticed a 2nd pup coming up on the opposite side of the same plant, as you can see in the pic below (1st pup to left of plant, 2nd to right):

Well, when I loaded that pic up on my computer and looked at it closely, it seemed like there might be a 3rd pup coming up near the 2nd pup (just a couple of inches toward the bottom of the pic from the 2nd). So I went outside and checked, and sure enough there was indeed a 3rd pup!

My plot to cover every square inch of the Earth with bananas will soon be complete!

Overview pic of the plant:

Update: Here they are as of mid-April:

Woo-hoo!

Banana Aquaponics 5

What does an 8 pound bass look like?

Ask my Dad :)

Weight: 8 pounds

Length: 22 1/8 inches

Banana Aquaponics 4

Some new plants came in today from Florida Hill.  I've been trying to build up a collection of the smallest dwarfs to test in my tunnel greenhouse, and FH was the only business I could find that was currently shipping tc's of Zan Moreno and Little Prince (since I'm temporarily constrained on space, I specifically want tc's right now for their smaller starting size and slower initial growth).  And of course I then had to get a Gluay Kai and a pineapple plant, too, to take advantage of their 4-for-1 shipping deal lol.

When I arrived at the post office to pick them up, the postmaster apologized and said that the package had been crushed in transit and looked terrible.  She was right--the package looked like it had been bent in half in multiple directions, and a fairly large hole had been torn in one end (big enough to push a golf ball through). 

I was anticipating some pretty bad plant damage, but they seem to have survived their ordeal.  One of the plants had gotten too cold (it doesn't help when USPS rips big holes in the packaging) and had a blackened leaf that I removed, and another plant had a broken leaf, but all of the p-stems were intact and the plants all seemed to have healthy roots.  The US Postal Service had tried its best to kill them, but the little naners were just too tough :)

Here's a pic to show some perspective on size.  The package was sitting on a blue milk crate which was itself sitting over the top of a 5-gallon bucket.  The four other banana plants in this pic with 16-18" p-stems (30-36" tall overall) arrived from Florida Hill 5 weeks ago with 7" p-stems (about 12" tall overall).  They pushed out about a leaf a week throughout February and seem to be accelerating.  Pretty cool :)

And here are the new additions after being planted in the grow bed.  If we use the Truly Tiny that is in the very center of this pic as our reference point, then the Zan Moreno is at 3 o'clock, the Gluay Khai is at 1 o'clock, and the Little Prince is at 9 o'clock.  [The beautiful plant with wine marks at 10:30 is a Dwarf Cavendish, and the potted plants (along with the little plants in the center of the pic) are Red Lady papaya.  Green beans are at the bottom and left, butternut squash is at the top, and there are a couple of pepper plants in the bottom right.]

Banana Aquaponics 3

My 'Super Dwarf Cavendish' arrived today from Northern Tropics. Check out how huge it is!

This is what it looked like after I washed off the roots and stuck it in the gravel grow bed (it's in the upper right; you can see the Truly Tiny in the bottom left and the Dwarf Cavendish in the upper left that I recently got from Wellspring Gardens):

Ants-eye view of my majestic monster: