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):