The June Update 

 

June--This month consists of the longest days of the year.  That is great news for our banana plants.  Sunshine of course, is what creates broad leaves and healthy fruit.  Last week, I saw dawns first rays hitting our Saba's leaves at 6:38 am and the sun finally was off of them sometime well after 8pm.  That is nearly 14 hours of sunlight.  
So for every week, we actually get an extra day's worth of sunlight!  This reason alone explains the banana plants rapid growth for us during this time a year.  Enjoy!


May--What the heck, was was up with that?  Not one, but two Tropical Storms!!  That north east wind pretty much cut the banana leaves to shreds, but they powered through.  May also brought record rainfall on the night of the 17th.  Nearly 6 inches of rain fell in places on James Island in just a few hours. May was an incredible month for weather.


Community Gardens--If you'd like to get involved in community gardens, a very active one is the Chicora Place Community Garden on Spruill Ave.  They are doing a great job up there!


News Flash--You may have seen the recent article on Bananas 
 and some other fruits in the Charleston paper:

If not, here is the link: Banana Boy Speaks.  Its a subscription service, but you can trick it.  The story left out a few items.  Bananas actually take months and not weeks to ripen.  These are the 60 Raja Puri bananas, which are no where near ripe and wont be until the fall.  

The photographer held his camera over his head and clicked that 'great' shot of me counting the bananas after my 14 hour work day.

More Blooms-- We have had 2 more blooms here at the Simply Bananas Banana Plantation on James Island.  Our enormous Dwarf Namwah finally spit out a huge bloom.

Also, our diminutive (20 inches) ornamental banana put out a beautiful magenta bloom.

This is the same type of ornamental banana that normally grows to 14 or 15 feet tall in Central America.  Here is a shot of this plant under ideal conditions at Paradise Tropical Garden in Costa Rica.

If you have a bloom send us the pictures.


The Farmer's Market--Has been great this spring.  We have sent bananas down south to Florida as well as a planter-only variety all the way up north to Philadelphia!  There have been many stories, even news of an Ice Cream banana that was able to fruit in a planter here in Charleston. Kudos to them!  Come on by one Saturday for some great local food, produce and Art!

See Y'all in a few weeks!

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