Growing Bananas

[Frankie Stapleton]

Re: you need to cut the slightly yellow tinted bunch and leave the others until they are likewise showing yellow tinting. Sometimes just one banana will go bright yellow. I always cut mine at that stage.

You'll need a sharp sickle or machete to cut the stem that the bananas are growing on. It wouldn't hurt to have a wheelbarrow close at hand because those bunches can be quite heavy. You cut the stem above the entire bunch, including the curve of the stem so you can hang them up. So you'd be cutting as close to where the leaves attach to the tree's trunk. Then hang the entire bunch outside your kitchen door or in your carport or other likely place. That way you can trim off the hands of bananas as needed or as they ripen.

You'll want to avoid the sap from the banana tree as it stains clothes permanently. good luck

[Carey]

Most of the wisdom I have heard is to cut psuedo-stem, trunk, stalk (thing below the leaves) below the leaf level in a V pattern with a machete, ease the upper part with the banana bunches down, then cut loose the bunch stem from the plant, after cutting the bananas - chop up the stems into little sections for mulch... also keep only a few plants per culm (most advise 4, fruiting mother, future mother, child and baby per culm)

ETA: we need to thin our apple bananas & can part with a couple of sword keiki if there is anyone who wants


Here is the UH-CTHAR &USDA video series on Growing Bananas in Hawaii, excellent ref. videos (esp the spider web stick ;~)

Growing Bananas; intro to bananas & propagation video #1 link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBlu8A68_Pc

Growing Bananas; planting, pests & fruit care video #2 link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nv-LhU5mAg&feature=related

Growing Bananas; diseases, fruit, pruning & nutrient analysis video #3 link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=Ekg4E68ox-Y&NR=1

Growing Bananas; fertilizer selection, weed competition, HARVESTING video #4 link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&v=lW5qXYNbbxE&NR=1

[robguz]

Kelena, yep cut 'em down when any start to yellow or they'll soon start to fall off and/or attract rats. I always use a hand saw, far easier than a machete for both cutting off the bunch and for cutting down the bloomed out stalk. I have heard to cut the stalk a foot above the ground, but usually I just cut it off as close to the ground as I can. You can also harvest when they seem full size, the angular parts have rounded out on the bananas, and just let them ripen somewhere for however long it takes.

Da Banana Boys haven't been doing the markets lately and may again in the spring, but just SPACE and not Maku'u.

[carmel123]

Kelena:

Thank you for bringing this forward again. We are not local yet, but are paying attention to everything and we would want to plant bananas for our own use and the information you brought forward is very useful!

[taropatch]

Why do some people wrap a plastic bag around the fruit bunch while it is still on the tree?

[Kelena]

taropatch, I think they do that to keep fruit flights and other pests from getting to the fruit.

Mahalo nui everyone -robguz, carey and Frankie Stapleton. I took another look and I don't think the yellow tinting is quite enough to get out the saw yet. Still pretty green Also, a friend of mine advised me to cut them back to just five hands of bananas (there are about eight) to make them bigger and more flavorful. You also cut off that big thing below the bananas (that might be the flower -- the thing the bananas emerge from), he says. He did that on one tree, so we will see if they get bigger. I like the small bananas, but he says they won't be flavorful if I don't cut the number of hands back. This is fun. I love bananas, especially island bananas.

[Radiopeg]

quote:

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Originally posted by Frankie Stapleton

You'll want to avoid the sap from the banana tree as it stains clothes permanently. good luck

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Thank you for that Frankie. I keep acquiring so many work shirts because of mystery stains, and I am the one who hauls the cut leaves off to the compost pile. Peggy

Life goes on, with you or without you.

[robguz]

I've never cut back the hands and they all taste the same. I do cut off the flower, but I don't know that it really matters.. Check out bananas.org for all things banana and an excellent banana wiki.

[Kelena]

Okay, bananas have been harvested and hung up on a string on the patio. They are beautiful and immediately started yellowing up. I will probably try my first one tomorrow. Very exciting! Thanks everyone.

UPDATED: The bananas were delicious. Getting back to the "get rid of the little ones and they will make bigger ones" theory, it didn't really work out that way. In fact, those bananas are coming in a little smaller than the bananas on my other plant, where I just let them all grow and then harvested them.

So, the moral of the story is harvest them all, taste and not size is what matters to me and size and taste both seem to be specific to the plant and its growing conditions. If are delicious and smaller than supermarket bananas, I just eat two!

And I am waiting to harvest them until I see at least a smidgin of yellow shading. You have to check frequently as this can occur overnight.

Just my experience.