Fig pics

Here are some pics from early October of the 2nd-year figs I'm growing. They didn't start going dormant until the outside temps dropped to near-zero recently.

LSU Purple

Green Ischia

Black Mission

Another Dwarf Cavendish Inflorescence

Here's a DC blooming at just 3.5' of pstem. It doesn't have many leaves because they kept getting fried from too much light/heat and not enough water.

Here's an updated pic of the Williams Hybrid bunch:

Bananas in the Mist

Freezing rain has been pelting down outside all day. In the greenhouse, where the air is about 20F warmer, a misty haze hangs in the air.

Fruiting Progress in the Semi-Pit Tunnel Greenhouse

The Williams Hybrid is fruiting:

The Dwarf Cavendish just sent up a flag leaf (this DC is a pup of the DC that fruited earlier):

The Double is loaded with 16 leaves and should be sending up a flag leaf at any time:

The Fake Ice Cream (actually a Namwah) also looks like it's about to burst:

The Dwarf Namwah, Raja Puri, and Dwarf Orinoco all seem like they could throw up a flag at any time, too.

Banana Pit in the Banana Pit

The weather had been getting too cold for the six bananas that I planted outside this summer, but they were too big to go back into the semi-pit greenhouse, so I decided to dig a pit in the pit.

Once more the trusty shovel and wheelbarrow were called into action, along with a hand saw to remove some of the larger roots.

Gros Michel on the move:

All tucked in:

Left side, front to back:  Williams Hybrid, Gros Michel, Kluay Khai
Right side, front to back:  SH-3640, Grand Nain, Dwarf Brazilian

Musa 'Williams Hybrid' is blooming

9/24

9/29

10/1

10/4

10/5

10/6

10/17

First Banana Harvest

Woo-hoo, first bunch!

Dwarf Cavendish
30 fingers
5 lbs

Pic update

Updated Dwarf Cavendish pics

I think this Dwarf Cavendish bunch needs another 4-6 weeks or so to ripen, but the little bananas are coming along nicely:

Dwarf Cavendish Flower

Dwarf Cavendish inflorescence--

First Flag Leaf - Dwarf Cavendish

P-stem is currently about 3' (it was around 4' when I trimmed it back last month).

4/27

4/28

4/29

I received this DC in the mail on 1/28/2012 as a 2" tall tissue culture plant from Wellspring Gardens. Here's a pic of it then (from left to right: Gran Nain, Dwarf Red, Dwarf Cavendish, and Truly Tiny)--

Here it is right after I planted it:

Here it is in October after a good summer of growth (very center of 1st pic, hiding in the background just left of the Dwarf Red in the 2nd pic):

Unfortunately all of the bananas stopped growing at that point. By January the leaves were all half yellow and by March they were all dead/yellow. I recently cut all the pstems back till I found green, and they all began to leaf back out. Unfortunately, the DC only managed to push out 4 leaves before sending up the flag, so I'll probably trim off half the hands in order to get the remaining hands to fill out. If the bananas hadn't all stopped growing in October, I think the plant would have flowered sometime in November with a dozen or so big green leaves to power it. The bananas grew fine through their first winter (when they first arrived as tiny tc's), but I nearly killed them in October when I had to shut down the system's circulation for a couple of days. I had some aeration going, but it wasn't good enough and the plants basically almost all drowned (all growth immediately stopped and didn't resume till I cut them back about a month ago). Furthermore, whereas the 1st winter I was bouncing a lot of extra sunlight into the greenhouse (keeping it both warmer and brighter), this past winter the plants had to make due with less light and heat because I built a structure just south of it (only place I could put it) last summer that unfortunately blocks a lot of that 'extra' light.