Very nice Jofus!

Your enthusiasm is contagious,lol. I promise I am cleaning my bananas tomorrow and take all the ugly browns.

This article will make a nice reading for you, maybe you can go in the banana business.:)

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/gros-michel-bananas

SMC : Thanks for the comment, yes I think we are both right !

sonni1 : Thanks for the thumbs up !

Silvia : Good luck with your refurbishing job., and thanks so much for that website, am so looking forward,...love historical stuff like that, especially when NYC is featured ! : )

Just yesterday I said " I fully expect four flag leaf's by April 1st ! " Feeling later that I may have been a tad overconfident, I strolled out to my plantation early this morning as I usually do. ( Once read that the best care a plant can receive is to have the shadow of it's owner pass over it once a day ! )

Where was I ? Oh yeah,..so I am looking around like an osprey and lo and behold, what do I see ??? A foot long, slightly red & green, firm like a billy club, VIBRANT NEW FLAG LEAF popping straight up out of one of my 10' tall Apple banana trunks !!!

YIKES ! immediately felt like a " one-eyed dog in a sausage factory !!! " : )

Haven't seen one of these guys in awhile !

The Mama plant is the tallest gal in the middle,...reaching skyward ! LOL

As to Sylvia's info on the Gros Michel banana, I was very intrigued after reading the website she provided, so I looked at another site, - and was further impressed. Still wondering if I had any chance of perhaps growing 1 or 2 of these, I checked 'em out to see if they're for sale online and lo and behold, there is an Amazon ad for these pups,..at $17.97 each, with free shipping !!

Still undecided, I look at the top of my computer and there sits an Amazon gift card for $50 that I received at my birthday party in late December. Is someone up there trying to tell me something ??? LOL

That did it, I will slightly expand my banana bed by adding one more RR tie, then have enough space to easily plant 2 new GM's from Amazon, as well as 3 small pups from them later on. There is just enough room back there to do this. Nothing in future will go in that 70 sq ft bed but the GM's.

A bit fascinated by the whole project,..being a history buff, it will be neat just thinking of me munching on a ripe GM someday,..the same banana my 8 yr old Dad surely munched on in the teeming, hot streets of the Manhattan he grew up in, - way back in 1909 !!

Looking forward, thanks again Silvia !

Congrats Jofus! Happy news for your dedication and I am very intrigued by your new banana purchase, you have to let us know how they do for you. It is very tempting to add that banana to my garden.

I really liked the info on the article and love old photos, especially from NY since I also lived there for about more than 10 years.

As a child I was familiar with so many bananas, and the one that sells here was new to me. My favorites were a tiny one, like 2 bites and the other one that was sold at the streets cooked in fire something like the chestnuts in NY....

And today I cleaned the bananas and the Fairchild mango next to it.

Silvia

Worked very hard today reconditioning this old bee hive. Just need bees now. I think it would have been easier to build from scratch.

hoping for happy friends I'm the garden soon. Jofus hope you enjoy your new banana big Mike is good. Silva looking go as always.

Silvia : Your yard lookin' great,..as usual ! : )

Glenn : Your bee hive looks neat ! You get much honey from the bee's ?

I forgot that old nickname " Big Mike ",...sounds like you've had experience with them ? Recently ? You liked the taste ? This will make a total of five ( 5 ) different varieties of banana's in our raised bed,,..enough I think !!! LOL

Today I drove up tp Northport and purchased one 8 1/2 foot long RR tie !! Heeaaavvvvyyyy,..was so glad to get it home, out of the PU truck and in place on the lawn out back ! Also got 30 bags of manure/compost/top soil mix from Home Depot. Will order two Big Mike pups from Amazon.com tomorrow and hope to be able to post here how this project works out in another 2 week's or so !

Work all night on a drink a rum,

daylight come and me wanna go home..

Just realized yesterday, hey, if you're gonna get a fat, crimson & green flag leaf on your 10 ft tall Apple banana tree,...hey man,.. what better time of the year could it come out ?

They say that spring is the best time,...got's all summer then to watch and nurture it, then harvest a 6 ft bunch ( hopefully ) by mid Sept or thereabouts ! BUT TO HAVE THAT FAT FLAG LEAF SLIDE OUT ON MARCH 1st ????? ARE YOU KIDDING ME ?? It just don't get any better than that !!! AN IDEAL "COMING-OUT " time, right ?

Can't believe how lucky I am. So now I'm out in my plantation extra early each day, scanning the other 6 ft + tall mama's, patting them, fertilizing a tad, ( don't want to over do it ! ), watering every 3 - 4 days,....silently urging them on. I have at this time no less than seven potential mama's !!!

A beautiful bunch of ripe banana!

(daylight come and me wanna go home)

Come Mister Tally man, tally me banana !

Oh wow! Those look so great! I'm about to chop down my ice creams to about 4 feet because they are way too tall, and still growing! I'm done with them! I want a dwarf banana whose fruit I can reach.

The three future Big Mike banana plants new home !

Just when I thought my banana plantation was maxed out, some noteworthy contributor ( initials are Silvia ) notifies me of an interesting new banana variety I never heard of before, - one that very few people were growing in Florida, and one that I just might be intrigued by ! Then another noteworthy contributor ( initials are Glenn ) reaffirms # 1's good vibe's, then a vibrant thumb's up from a third savvy contributor, ( initial's are Deb ),...were all I needed to plunge ahead despite my adamant decision NOT to expand my plantation !!! ( Somehow there always seems to be room for one more ! )

Sooo, despite warning's from both Del Monte and Chiquita that they might cancel our future contracts, LOL ,..on Tuesday I ordered not two, but THREE Gros Michel banana pups from the Florida Hill Nursery, up near Orlando !!!!

That was the easy part,...now for the back breaking part I was trying not to think of !
My banana plantation is in a raised bed of enriched soil & compost within 5 ( at present ) huge ( & heeaaavvvvyyyyyy ) 8 1/2' x 7 1/2 " x 9 " railroad ties THAT WEIGH A TON !!! Educated guesses from a few farmers hereabouts say each will weigh 150 to 200 lbs !!! Those initial five were hauled in off my PU truck and set up 9 years ago by myself and a male friend, both of us in our mid 60's ! To be brief, that is not the case now, plus there's no " guy pal ", - just me ( healthy but no way as strong ) and my tough as nails 59 yo wife Rhonda. So we procrastinated a bit, knowing we were way overmatched !

Also, instead of only buying one RR tie, we decided to leave the old one on the end as it was well sunk into the soil and looked like lt'd need 3 linebackers from the Gator's football team to move it ! Sooo, we bought TWO new ( really quite old ) RR ties from the big pile at Lowe's in Northport. Digging our hole deeper for sure.

Long story short, - I gently sliced up ( very shallow slices ) the entire grassy area inside the new bed ! Then came Tuesday, the day we couldn't put off any longer, - so in desperation I hijacked my 70 yo neighbor Tom, and somehow the 3 of us were able to get those TWO huge, heavy ties off the truck and in place on the grass. Then we lined the sides of the new ties with plastic and then Rhonda and I poured in 38 bags of compost & cow manure.

Getting tired again just thinking of all this, so will just add a few pics, then sit and have a cold one on the lanai ! Enjoying the marvelous weather and experiencing what the Eagles surely must have meant when they sang about that " Peaceful Easy Feeling ! " LOL

Get tired just lookin' at this pic. Gettin' both home was a hassle, but nowhere near the struggle we had getting them from the truck to their proper place on the lawn !!!

New home of the 3 Big Mike's is to the far right !

All done !!! Time to relax,..where's that Sea Breeze ? : ) Expecting the 3 Big Mike's to arrive within the next 4 days. Planting them will be so easy, compared to gettin' their future home squared away !!! LOL

That was a lot of work nice job. Just can't go wrong with bananas. Hope you enjoy. It a pretty good banana better then Cavendish and way better if you get to pic them off your own tree. Bananas are all ways better picked at the right time off your own tree. Big Mike is the last banana on my list for this house. My father had it when I was growing up in Orlando. It is his favorite. When that patch of bananas was producing he would rush to check on them every day when he came home from work. Not check on his wife or kids but rush down to the pond to check on his big Mike. He would say when he came in I had to check on big Mike. Lol.

That was a lot of work Jofus! Just thinking about it makes me tired.:) Wish you and your new bride Rhonda a lot of tasty bananas in the future...

When I was in elementary school, I had to make a presentation for a lot of people about what else but banana varieties and the uses of all the plant in other industries, I remember I had posters and fruit to sample, too bad I don't remember what I talked about it but it was very successful and everyone congratulated me.

When I harvest my bunch of bananas here at home, the first thing that I do is make banana bread for friends and goes to the freezer and for me I dry them till they are still soft, that is the way I like them best.

Silvia

Glenn : I think your Dad and I would have gotten along great ! ( smile )

Silvia : Rhonda says she intends to do exactly what you did, - make lots of banana bread and freeze it for later use as gifts and some home use ! Assuming of course, - we get a large amount of bananas at harvest time ! No guarantee's with these guys, but we're sure giving it our best effort ! However, we're also keeping our fingers crossed just the same ! LOL

Jofus,

Looking good! Looks like a labor of love. Wifey says banana trees bring bugs, tried to no avail that this just wasn't true. Too this day no banana trees on my lot.

Hoping yours do better.

Craig

Hi Craig,

I must respectfully disagree with your " wifey " ! : )
I have had a raised bed of banana's here now for almost nine ( 9 ) years and have not had to deal with any bugs,..none !! I think Glenn and Silvia can attest to that !

And if it's the raised bed of railroad tie's that is of concern, they are not bug-ridden either !!! Also, all my ties are lined with plastic on the inside, the side that comes up against the soil in the raised bed ! This was suggested by the University of Florida, as well as a couple of others,...just as " a good idea ",...not an adamant MUST DO !! LOL The RR tie's, even though they're over 50 yrs old now, are supposed to last, in a garden setting, another 30 yrs or so, especially if they have the plastic liner !

Yes, you are correct, - it is a " labor of love ", but hopefully one with big benefits down the road ! That means that, above all, I must be patient 'cause nothing happens overnight with these guys !

However, despite the long " in between's ", - I decided to plunge ahead only recently because I began thinking,... I most likely ( unless I start travelling south of the border again ), will never experience the exquisite taste of some of these fantastically delicious tropical banana's,..and instead just mindlessly keep eating the same-oh, same-oh Cavendish's,..the bland 'nana's sold in all our supermarkets. Then missing out on all the neat banana varieties like Apple, Ice Cream, Goldfinger, Jamaica Red, Gros Michel, Siam Ruby, Dwarf Namwa, etc, etc !!!

Initially I'll admit I non-chalanted my exotic banana growing venture,..fertilized whenever I thought of it, but seldom when it was required ; let the weeds run rampant then apply week-killer (Arrggghhhh !!! ) ; watered whenever I thought of it, not when it was required, etc, etc ! Finally I got serious,,..went back and followed my old axiom whenever at a dead end, " As a Last Resort Read the Instructions " !!!

Started googling again, ..now the hard work is done,...time to just watch like an osprey, and lastly,...do the right things when THEY NEED TO BE DONE !

Guess what ? It work's, - am seeing results already,...two ( 2 ) flag leaf's have popped out within the last two week's. Can't remember the last time I had two simultaneously ! LOL

I have to agree with Jofus, I've never had a bug problem with bananas. The worst offender in my gardens are the Roses. I just can't keep bug off of them no matter what. I've always had bananas and have never had any problems. Here in Florida we don't have a lot of pest problems with bananas and I hope it stays that way. The same can not be said about other places.

She thinks bananas bring Palmetto bugs. I don't think the entire Florida forum group could change her mind on this. I lead a very peaceful life by not planting any banana trees anymore...

Glenn, my Belinda's Dream rose bush is bug & disease free. Been in the ground about 10 years now.

Craig

Craig sometimes it just not worth the fight I understand. I want to have a full on food forest and of course my wife wants a lawn that I have to mow. So or compromise is I have 32 fruit tree 2 veggie beds and 3 flower beds. And 1 succulent bed. She gets her lawn and I get to Garden. I've given up on the bugs on my roses they are disease free and grow and bloom but they are buggy.

Mine was newly planted a few months before Irma and made me so happy. Irma ruined it but it was recovering and then repeated hard freezes.. I never expected to see any signs of life ever again. Because of our warm February, tiny little leaves began to emerge. I now have hope.

Hi Jofus, The garden looks great!

I just moved to Englewood and unfortunately the yard has no Banana plants. My knowledge of growing bananas consists of three hour tour of a banana plantation, hours of reading and YouTube...LOL. I need some advice and the best way to start in my opinion is over a cup of coffee. Let me know if you are free some morning. Thanks, Scott doctari820@gmail.com

Hi Carol, am sure it's not easy growing bananas in zone 9b, but am hoping this warmer weather will save your crop. Good luck !

Hi Scott, thanks for the post. Unfortunately my computer just started acting up, - have not been able to get thru to AOL, where I send/receive my emails ! For 3 days now, even my computer genius wifey has been unable to break through ! Maybe we can communicate " offline " on Houzz ?

In the meantime will try to update what's happenin' here with my bananas.

Awhile ago I said I'd most likely have 4 flag leafs by April 1st. Well I only have 3, but am not complaining. As I learned many years ago, PATIENCE is the name of the game with bananas ! A few pics !

The 2 x 4 prop I nailed together 2 days ago as the Mama plant looked like it was getting ready to crash down due to the increasing weight of my latest flag leaf, which only emerged 6 days ago,..when my osprey eyes first got a narrow glimpse of it. It's an Ice Cream, and it has me quivering with excitement, - never grew an Ice Cream stalk to maturity. I expect the stunning pale silvery/blue hands will start to appear soon !

Thar she blows !!!

These are the newest addition, the 3 Gros Michel's I have been waiting for,..like forever !!!!! They only arrived 3 weeks ago and were promptly planted in our new extension to the raised bed,..a 9' x 9' plot that will be strictly reserved for these guys and their offspring ! :)

An ideal spot for these babies. The shade is only about 40 % in the early AM, ( pic taken at 8:30 AM today ) ..will be only like 10 % by noon !

Muchas gracias again to Silvia for putting me onto these guys !

Another view ! ( click on pic for more definition )

We also added a UF BEST peach tree at the other end of our yard, it had sixty ( 60 ) smallish peaches on it when planted, I immediately pruned off 51, leaving 9 that were picked by wifey an hour ago ! Dark red, soft and the one slice I ate was absolutely scrumptious !!! Reminded me of the old days up in NW New Jersey and my Elberta orchard !!! LOL

But that will definitely be the last item I plant on our ever-burgeoning property,..no doubt,..the very last tree/shrub,..NO MORE !!!

Hi Jofus

Your banana plantation looks great! Make sure that after you sample all the bananas gives a review on the taste.

I am enjoying the peaches from my tree, they are delicious! I just had a salad with grilled peaches for lunch. The UF series are very good, my neighbor has two UF different kinds and they are both good. I have the UF Beauty and does very well for me.

Silvia

Joe, my ice cream bananas didn't bear last year, but they are so tall now, I'm thinking they'll either bear or get blown over this year. I was going to cut them back, but never did, and am afraid now it's too late. They're about 12-13 feet tall and still putting out leaves. My hands weren't too blueish, actually. Maybe because of the pH of the soil, or maybe because they don't get full sun, but mine were just barely blue. They tasted great, but I like a firmer banana, so I'm hoping someone has a Raja Puri they will exchange for this whole clump.

Sylvia : Yes, will surely report on the taste of any new bananas that ripen. Nice to hear that you and your neighbor also have Florida peach tree(s). Tell me, do you or they have a problem with critters ( birds, squirrels, etc ) that also like the peaches ? I covered this new, small tree with netting as I recalled the problems I had 6 yrs ago,..just hoping things will be different now.

Deb : Sorry your Ice Cream's didn't pan out. Have no personal experience with the Raja Puri's but have heard only good things about them ! Good luck getting some pups planted !

Scott, are you related to my deceased neighbors, Don and Joan Wizniewski?

Jofus. when I go to the window upstairs, I can see my neighbor's yard and the entertainment he created for the squirrels, they are playing in the bird seed, the water and they called their friends too, anything in his yard is okay to eat. Few years ago, I told him that I saw them and he thought that was amusing and that he had a video with some kind of native mouse or rat, I don't remember. For sure I did not want to see it, or invite unwanted pests to my yard.

For the squirrels I have my 3 little dogs that are the guardians of the garden and when they are sleeping, I have 2 small traps from Lowes for the native pest, a dog or a cat cannot get to that so it is safe.

I also pick any vegetable or fruit that is ready, especially the star fruits that any critter loves.

D, I had the Raja Puri and Ice Cream bananas in Phoenix, the Raja could stand a freeze there and it was shorter than the other ones but the taste was little bit on the acidic side for me, here it might be different, different places different results. For you, it might work a really dwarf banana with a great taste, they are extremely easy to grow them. When I was a child, my father got gifted some corms from Africa that were the most delicious bananas that I ever ate in my life and he distributed the corms to everybody in the family. It was a thick stalk banana, maybe 2 or 3 ft.

Silvia

Jofus, how is big Mike doing?

Hi Glenn : The Big Mikes ( Gros Micheles ) are doing fine, thanks for asking.

All 3 of these guys arrived quite small,..barely 7 inches tall above ground as I recall. Now, after being planted only 7 1/2 weeks ago, and receiving a little TLC, plus the huge torrential downpours over that time,..the biggest plant is a robust 36 inch's tall, - & the other 2 only an inch or so smaller !

The most prevalent word when growing bananas is PATIENCE, ( as you well know ) ! That said, I am hoping to be tasting some by this time next year ! What do you think ?

A few pics, taken today,..between rain squalls !

The beer can is there only for a size reference !! :o)

They are looking so good. It took my dad almost 5 years before his first fruit set. I thought he was going to kill me when I cut 1 down. Luck for me it put up 3 pups and that made him happy. I am glad to see yours doing so well.also the pups grew and produced faster than the first ones he put in.

I have been following this thread with great interest. The stories and photos are wonderful! Silvia, thanks for that link to the yesteryear banana story. Jofus, your new bed and plants look GREAT! You do A+ work.

Carol in Jacksonville

Thanks Carol,..being retired leaves me plenty of time to prep the bananas in the way they like ! :o)

First off I'd like to keep my promise to Sylvia
that I'd post a short note on how some of my five varieties of bananas
taste, as I sample them ! I just harvested my 1st stalk of Ice Creams a
week ago, hung 'em in a shed till they softened and ripened a bit more.
Had the 1st one 2 days ago and the taste was an eye opener ! Like its name suggests, it is sweet with undeniable hints of vanilla and its skin even appears frosted, starting out as a bluish-green color before it ripens. Its texture was fluffier and creamier than the typical banana and it practically melted in my mouth. Bottom line ; I am sold !! My very first Ice Cream and it was exquisite !! Only about half the size of the Cavendish's that Wally's sell, but taste wise ? NO COMPARISON ! These guys may be sloowwww to develop, but well worth the wait,..IMHO ! Now
will be watching the others ( Goldfinger, Jamaica Reds, Apple & the
Big Mikes ) to put out a robust stalk ! Have already tasted the
Goldfingers & Apples,..on a scale of 0 - 10, they were 9.0's :o) !!
The Ice Cream ? ..a 9.0 also ! Have a feeling the Jamaica Reds and
the Big Mikes will step up to the plate in like fashion ! I enjoy
the Cavendishes also, when nothing else is available,..rate 'em around a
6.5 in comparison ! Not putting them down really,..I love nanas of all
types,..but the home grown guys are special !

Must mention in closing, the gorgeous foot wide
white blossoms on my 22+ ft tall Edith Bogue southern magnolia tree on
the front lawn ! Must be 18 - 20, STILL blooming !!! I find it
especially scintillating when I detect the heavenly fragrance from afar,
before I see the white blossoms ! Must be my Edith is putting on
a special show to impress her doubting, cynical Yankee caretaker !! :o)

This is Joey, my little Egret who has made his home under Edith. He does a good job of protecting her from any critters !

Carol, I am glad that you enjoyed the stories. I remember as a child my father used to take me to the banana plantations but the ones that I remember the most are the sugar cane plantations. We spent a lot of time in the rainforest too, I learned a lot about medicinal plants there and I got scared too sometimes.:)

Jofus, thank you for your new review on your banana varieties. You are going to be very popular with all those bunches! And I can smell your magnificent magnolias all the way here!:)

Since I only have one set of bananas, I am still waiting to get a flower, I hope soon before the summer is over. In the meantime this morning I saw some figs getting ripe and soon the avocados will be ready but I am really waiting for the persimmons to sun dry them when they are ripe.

Silvia

Hi Joe, just curious about the growth of your gros michel banana

Hi Glenn,
Yeah the three Gros Michels are doing fine. I'll add a few pics that I
took earlier today using my ol' trusty can of beer to give an idea of
their relative size. Am a bit surprised in the different sizes of each, -
one is quite tall at 6 1/2 ft, the 2nd is 4 1/2 ft tall and the smallest guy is a midget at only 3 1/2 ft tall !

They all have distinctive light brown markings on
their wide leaves, unlike the other bananas I've grown which have a
solid green color !

Looks like it'll be another 8, 9 months before I see
a flag leaf, but considering these guys were only planted 3 1/2 months
ago, I think they've grown fast, especially the tallest two, - so maybe it'll be sooner !

This whole banana plantation has grown very fast and thick in the last 4
months ! The most dense I've ever seen it since I planted the first guy 9 yrs ago !! There's an RV park over that 6' tall wooden fence behind the
'nana's, - we used to clearly see the tops of a few RV's and many small
homes back there, but no more. Reminds me of an old Tarzan movie
set,..half expect to see Cheeta come hopping out ! :o)

Wow, that's beautiful! It has filled in quite fast. Your new trees look strong, too. I just love it!

Hey, you do like bananas, Jofus?

Joe they all look happy. Bananas from tissue culture are notorious for being very slow. Many times the pups will out grow and even produce before the mother plant. I'm curious if that will with yours.

Yes Carol, I do like bananas. But I realize that even one full stalk of
bananas is too much for one, or even two people to eat because they will
ripen too fast ! So I give almost half of mine away to neighbors and
friends ! A demented Yankee from NYC who grew up thinking he would
never be able to grow fresh fruits and veggies. Little did that skinny
young kid know that he would one day wind up retired in SW Florida with
nothing else to do but entertain his childhood fantasy ! :o)

I do love experimenting with new banana types
though,..so many out there, and so far have not tasted a 'nana that I
didn't like ! According to one website that influenced me early on,.. " The high content of potassium in bananas makes it a super fruit ! " A long time fan of Superman, so the rest is inevitable I guess ! LOL

Glenn, - I have to agree with you ! I have indeed witnessed more than a few pups that produced a fat flag leaf before it's parent plant did ! Part of my fascination with growing these guys ! :o)