They have a very different taste. Almost have to be black in order to eat them. orangeish flesh.

It'll be a while before I get to taste mine, but have to put protection over them in the mean time before the animals do the tasting first.

Finally cut off the Banana bunch. Earlier on I covered it with wire mesh to stop premature harvesting by the local wildlife.

A couple of weeks ago the trunk began to bend.

Then today the bunch reached the ground .


They're very fat bananas but I'll leave them a while before doing the taste test. Found someone who had an opinion on them (my dentist), he grows and prefers Ducasse. I'll wait and see how these turn out.

They still look a tad under ripe... but congratulations. Hopefully they continue to ripen off the plant.

They're pretty close to ripe, the fruits are fully rounded and are turning a reddish colour. I was surprised initially months ago when their immature nearly black started to go green. But recently they started getting a reddish blush. Unfortunately it doesn't show up well in the photo.

I'm going to plant some suckers more out in the sun, these were in too much shade.

I hadn't heard of the Red Dacca before. Are they like a dessert banana or better to cook with? They are very beautiful!

I get them at the store and they're very tasty. Sweeter than regular Cavendish bananas.

A friend told me not to bother with them, that they weren't much good. After trying them I have to agree. It might be a matter of personal taste though.

They are very different tasting then any other banana. It's best used in cooking.

Here is mine from a few days ago

I did the same thing with my dragon fruit this year. I haven't gotten bananas from my banana tree, and this is the second one I've grown at this house. The first one was supposed to be fruiting, but after 6-7 years, no fruit, despite being a very tall tree, and so I replaced it with a dwarf two years ago, but that still has not made fruit. My current one looks a bit like Matt's, and I believe the tag said "musa". The first one said "Cavendish", but it may have been mislabeled.

They need a fairly long warm growing period to fruit. If they get set back (cold) the "odometer" goes back to zero and you start all over again the next season. In a year round warm climate they flower/fruit reasonably fast.

Bananas are Musa species, Cavendish is just one of the varieties. Ensete is a closely related genus similar to Musa but is a lot more cold tolerant. They're used a lot in colder climates.