[Arid_gardener] Fw: Banana Advice

[Dick]

Attn: Steve Sheard: Any mild frost of short duration will kill all the folliage on a banana plant. It is easy to protect the stem by wraping the entire stalk with blankets and the root zone cleaned of mulch that can be reapplied as soon as weather warms to conserve moisture in the root zone. But, while you save the stem, if the roots are bone dry with no mulch during a frost, the banana will recover quickly. I have never added fertilizer in cold soil but,. after it has warmed to above 70 F,  pour the 21-0-0 to it. Never, never flood the root zone of bananas with cold soil unless drainage is perfect and the temp is no lower than 75F. There are few winters when we do not get at least one hard hit with frost. If the fronds are ten feet tall it is close to impossible to protect  them but I have had quite good success by setting up a large oscillating fan if there is a small grove or a one direction fan with one stalk. Direct the wash full-blast into the foliage.  Using this method, plants have suffered minimal damage with fronds largely functional and able to manufacture carbohydrates with rapid recovery in warming weather.

Dick Gross, Master Gardener Volunteer.
U of A Maricopa County Cooprative Extension.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: Dick 
To: Steve Sheard ; CRFG 
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 2:32 PM
Subject: Re: Banana Advice


It requires 15 months in ideal climate for the ribs on green bananas to smooth out and be ready to pick the stalk and hang the stalk, green--of course. In cooler weather where growth is zero below 65 or 70F it may take at least two years before the stalks may be cut and hung to further ripen. In Haiku Valley on Oahu where I spent 18 months in the Marines, banana groves were everywhere but it was rare to find ripe bananas still on the tree.

You cut the stalk when the ribs are smooth, not sharp, and hang it in a warm shaded spot  to get proper ripening.

It is difficult to ripen bananas in the salt river basin but it is difficult to imagine a more lovely tropical plant in ones landscape especially when you see your next door nieghbor pointing them out to their visitors from Toledo. I have eaten a few grown in my own garden but always exalt in the huge red buds that emerge. The buds are a deiicasy to people in the tropics but I have never been tempted to learn how to prepare one.The bud is the last thing to energe from a banana stalk after which it dies and rots back into the soil to become food for the next generation that has already appeared as suckers from the base. After a flower bud appears from the stalk, remove all suckers from the base just above the soil line, carve out the centers and fill the cavities with a teaspoon of  kerosine or stoddard solvent to kill the growing tip to eliminate competition and direct more energy into the new fruit. All banana stems die after fruiting but an offshoot from the base will be the next generation. Never allow more than one sucker to develop unless you want to root them up to start a new patch.

Dick Gross
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Steve Sheard 
  To: CRFG 
  Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2008 7:39 AM
  Subject: Banana Advice


  Dear CRFG,
  I live in Tempe AZ and was reading the article in the May June 2008 issue of Fruit Gardening "Roughing it in Central CA".
  My first Banana plant threw a pod last month and it has a few hands on it. My concern is it only has one leaf. It was hit quite hard from our frost in January and then winds broke off the only other leaf it had.

  What sugestions do you have for my banana plant to get those that have set to ripe enough to eat?

  I attached a picture.
  Regards
  Steve sheard

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