Banana's falling off

16 years ago

I have bananas this year. The first two bunches are big and pretty, the next bunch is small, and all the rest fall off as soon as the bloom comes out. Any help to this!!!.

This is the first year for mine to produce bananas, so I want to know what I did or did not do. PS: I don't know the name but it grows quite big (20 ft first year.

Thanks,

Patsey

Featured Answer

lac1361

16 years ago

When a banana flowers, it produces female and male flowers. The female flowers produce fruit and the male flowers produce what looks like small bananas but fall off. What you're experiencing is the change over from female flowers to male flowers. Your banana is probably in that transition. The fruit you see is all that you're going to get. In your zone, I wouldn't think you would get more than one or two hands of fruit. Actually, you're fortunate to get any fruit. You've done well. Water like crazy and hope that your fruit ripens before the cold weather sets in. It usually takes 3 or 4 months for the fruit to ripen depending on the variety. Good luck

Steve

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Comments (9)

kskerr
16 years ago
Last year my dwarf banana plant produced bananas, surprisingly there were four bunches that developed into bananas and I lost count of how many did exactly what yours did. Steve is right, they take several months to ripen, hope that you can bring your plant indoors before winter! Mine has been indoors for a long time, it is too large and heavy for me to bring it outside. I left the bananas on to ripen, I read that some people cut the stalk off and have it ripen that way but I did not want to try that. When they were ripe they actually fell off the plant, and they seemed to all ripen within a week's time. Right when I got used to hearing bananas falling from behind me they were all done, hehehe.

Best,
Karen
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Patsey Nelson
Original Author
16 years ago
Karen,
Mine is about 20 foot now and the bananas hang about 3 feet from the ground. I will have to cut the stalk off. Last year I cut my tree off three times before I could get in the back hall. It was about seven foot when I put it out this year, started to put out bloom shortly after planting this year.
Is there anything I can do for next year about the bananas falling off.
Thanks,
Patsey
barbados
16 years ago
Don't be afraid to cut off the dead-end of the stalk!
We do that all the time down here in the tropics where our trees grow in the ground
-not in a pot like you guys Up North.

Leave enough stalk length that you can firmly tie a rope around it BEFORE CUTTING the bunch..
so that when you finally do cut the bunch at the very top(in the curve)
you can then hang the whole thing upside down --from a beam somewhere?
so the ripening bananas don't flop themselves off as they ripen
tearing open and peeling as they do so
(Hope my description is making sense here..)

You'll see what I mean about hanging the entire structure upside down
- the bananas then curve doowwwn, rather than up!
Norma Sabat
10 years ago
I came home to find my banana bunch on the ground, I guess the wind blew it off and we've had lots of rain. They were not ready. What do I do? I live in Orlando, FL.
Randell Monaghan
10 years ago
Yeah this happening can be very bothersome i love my bananas hate seeing them rotting on the ground.
freddytere
10 years ago
Need to know how to ripe them
Pooja Singh
8 years ago
I have banana plant this year .The first two bunches are big , the next bunch is small, and all the rest fall off as soon as the bloom comes outs.Plzz help me
Summer Krauthoff
2 years ago
Pooja, I'm looking for the same answer. I have an ice cream banana tree and it finally bloomed. I have bananas that look good but now the rest of them started falling to the ground when the Bloom leaf peels up. Is that normal?