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.

Semi-pit tunnel greenhouse project

I dug out this semi-pit greenhouse by hand last fall/winter using my trusty garden shovel and wheelbarrow. It was a ton of work, so if you're thinking about one of your own, I would recommend using a faster/easier method if circumstances allow.  It's about 55' x 14' x 7.5' and was built using 20' lengths of 1.5" PVC.  It's about 2' deep and is covered with two layers of greenhouse plastic (inflated).  I spent $1,500 or so total and put in around a million hours of labor.

The lone banana in the pic above is a Dwarf Orinoco that I transplanted there during the winter to provide some size perspective and to see if it would survive.  It was already yellowed and dormant when I moved it in, and it stayed that way until March or so, when it started growing again.  In the meantime I grew greens:

The coldest it ever got at ground level was 36F (outside temps were around 0F), which was great since it was entirely unheated.  Next winter I'm hoping to keep the minimum temp around 45F by adding several thousand gallons of water (in tanks) to catch and radiate warmth.


As it became too hot for growing greens in the tunnel in early spring, I started moving some bananas in:

Then in early May I added some more:  

Here they are at the end of May (left side, front to back, goes Raja Puri, Gros Michel, Double, Williams Hybrid, Dwarf Orinoco, Dwarf Cavendish; right side, front to back, goes Grand Nain, Kluay Khai, Dwarf Namwah, Misi Luki, Dwarf Brazilian, SH-3640):

6/13

6/21

7/20

I'm hoping to have the money to put up a much taller greenhouse (12-15') this fall to house most of these; if not, I'll whack 'em back and overwinter them in there, then move them outside first thing next spring.


Hope you enjoyed the tour :)

Winter Banana pics

Late October:

Early January:

Fresh tilapia fillets + a frydaddy frier = mmmmm!