Looking through my pictures, I came across one of a very strange formation that appeared on my red bananas: there is the normal hand of bananas, then a stretch of empty stem. All this is as expected. But then came the unexpected: a tight mass of stunted bananas, forming a ball. I asked my
local friend about it, and he said that it means that something must have physically damaged the stem at that point, so that not
enough sap flowed to the end. He further advised me that normally, the way people there manage bananas, they would cut off the flower as soon as they see the empty stretch of stem; that way, the plant will put its
energy into enlarging the bananas that are there, instead of growing more flowers.
I really hate food waste, so I kept the strange mass. Sure enough, in time, they all ripened, and tasted the same as regular red bananas, albeit one bite each.
When Hurricane Irma came through a few years ago, it wind threw the red banana plants. But, not one to give up easily, I found that by cutting off all but the top most leaf, I could get them to a light enough weight for me to lift them manually back upright. They recovered nicely -- and as an added bonus, when Hurricane Maria came along a week later, their lack of large leaves permitted them to avoid being wind thrown again.
I prefer the red bananas because they are sweeter than the yellow, and so I have preferentially propagated them more, but I do also have the yellow ones, and also plantains, each kind in its own grove. It's a good thing I'm so bananas for bananas, because on my 1/8 acre, they take up a substantial amount of space.
.png)
3
