Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Fizzy, you want the bananas to lose their square edges and to round up. I don't know about out of the sun, we mainly hang ours above the dog bed so the possums and birds can't get them

J,
Are you asking me or telling me - {in a south african accent...}
ie the round vs square bananas.

telling you unripe bananas have very angular sides, ripe ones are rounder (in cross-section)

was amazed when we whe were in tahiti, one of the guides there said that there wer over 100 varieties of bananas grown on the island :Shock:

jaymie's right fizzy, make sure those edges are gone before you pick. When the bananas are ready to ripen, they'll lose those edges. It's fine to pick them green as long as they're round. If they're big, as you say, they'll probably be ready as they grow fast to a big size and lose the edges just before they turn yellow. So if they're large, green and round, cut them down and put them in the shade. Hang them up on a hook or tie them so they're hanging.

OK all you banana experts..... do you need to cover them with blue bags???

And why blue????

I don't know about blue bags, maybe cos the colour makes the bunches stick out in the groves. We cover ours with slit feed bags, but that is to protect them from the birds and possums, until we hang them above the dogs, to protect them from the birds and possums

yes, the blue bags protect the bananas from birds, bats and possums. Once you cut the bunch down, you can speed up the ripening a little by putting them in a bag but home growers rarely do that because they like them to ripen a hand at a time, not all at once.

Damn it I misunderstood.
I just chopped a bunch down this morning, but the edges are not round.
Will see what happens but will be more patient with the next bunch.
Thanks for the tips, it is difficult getting stuff out of the net for bananas.

no, Fizzy, it's alright, now you hang them up so they can round up. Don't toss them.....
there's still enough ooomph in the stalk to round them out, it's all fine!

I got about half a dozen bananas from my plant here in the last 6-7 years... One year I had one hand... They were very small, and not very nice, But then I don't have any idea what variety they are.. I have bought a new plant that I'm going to try in a large pot AP style, just as soon as I figure out how I'm going to do it..

If you look at these ones, you can see that they are a while from harvest. They are still very angular and so we must wait. These guys don't get much bigger than this, each banana about 8-10cm long

i wish i could grow bananas here. maybe someday ill get a big greenhouse. here is some stuff waiting to go outside when its a little warmer.
[img][img]http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a63/meancoyote/100_2369.jpg[/img][/img]

Do you get much of a growing season over where you are MC? Excuse my ignorance, but I have no idea what Nevadas temps are like..

depends on where you are , nevada has lots of elevation changes. im at about 4500' on the north facing slope of a 12,000' mountain which is 5 miles away. gets below 0f. in the winter and over 115f in the summer. normally i can plant by now, but we had snow flurries last week. normal growing season is from early to mid may to early to mid october. 40 miles south in las vegas they can grow citrus trees. but it is 2500' lower and faces mostly south. 60 miles west is death valley which is 200 feet below sea level, so you get the idea that it is not flat here. the weather can change in just a few miles of driving.