Simply Bananas Updates: mount pleaant

Showing posts with label mount pleaant. Show all posts

Friday, May 30, 2014

All About Pups...The Late-May-/Slash/-Early-June-Summer-Blog-posting!

Lou Ferrigno, as "The Incredible Hulk", Friday nights on CBS...circa 1978.

Oh...How times have changed!--Remember a few weeks ago when those gnarly green nubs that were poking out of last years smelly banana stumps? Now what have we got? Big Green Monsters! The energy from the 2013's big plants is now funneled into explosive growth. We'll continue to see this for another few months if we get decent rainfall. Things will be looking up from the bananas point of view.

Pup-mania-- Calls, emails, random passers-by at the Charleston Farmers Market, etc., all with the same question, "Why are my banana plants pullulating* so much this Spring?" Banana plants don't really 'know' the seasons. All they know is that something, somehow, removed the growing portion of the plant. In the tropics, it could be eaten by an animal or a fallen tree may have broken the banana plant in half. The results are the same: Send out new growth. This could be a replacement stem and/or new growth in the form of pups.

Don't Forget--to Water. May has been pretty dry.

Should the Zombie Apocalypse come to fruition, sooner rather than later, rest assured that your banana plants can be the key to your survival. In addition to the great fruit that you may get, if conditions are right, there are many uses for the banana plant itself. Many of these uses can be seen in this very interesting video:

Pup Chow--If you watched the video above, you may have seen the part about eating the inner core of the stem( at the 9:57 mark). Here is a Thai recipe that looks like a delicious way to use some of those excess pups. Eat those pups! Step by Step recipe.

When you get full of those delicious pups for dinner, consider transplanting some. It is an easy project. Place a shovel between the mother plant and the pup and dig straight down. You should see the pup loosen. Dig around the remaining sides and the pup should pop right up. Trim the leaves in half and transplant in a desired location.

If you have ever wondered how they get those bananas from very tall plants, check out this video. You can see it is a very smooth operation when done by skilled hands.

The How's it Hangin' section: We got nothin'...yet.
When you get a flower or fruit, send some pictures our way and we'll post them up in our very next blog!

*pullulating-definition

Sunday, March 10, 2013

The Pre-Ides of March Update

Banana Plants on Folly Beach!...Just Kidding.(actually the Samoan Islands)

Hello to everyone. This is, of course, the first Simply Banana Update of 2013. I hope that everybody is doing well and had a great LowCountry Winter. It seems that it was a mild Winter so far. We are always prone to a Spring frost, but I'm guessing that we are past the serious danger zone. If this is true, then it looks like we'll have another very good year of fruit production.

Time for Trim?-- Well probably. After studying the weather, I decided to trim the old frozen leaves off(yesterday) and get the plants ready for the warming temperatures. In some cases I found a partially green leaf that had emerged.

Trimmed up it would look something like this:

Also--where I saw no leaf, I cut away all the top 'branches'. Inside I found this:

Two Days later...it looked like this:

Its important not to cut the trunk parallel to the ground so make an angled cut. This is done to reduce constriction on the new leaf.
Remember that the first leaf will be ugly as it will show cold damage and tends to shred easily. As more leaves emerge, shredding eases and classic banana form takes hold. The old leaves/trunks can be used as compost/mulch or dragged to the curb.

While you are waiting--for Spring to get here, enjoy this video about the Fruit Hunters. There is some great banana information in here as well.

Before the freeze in January, we were able to cut some of our undersized green bananas and stored them in the garage.

They are very slowly ripening and taste really good. One thing we learned was that the more dark spots the banana had the sweeter it was.

Eight(8) Years...I was fortunate be invited back to the Charleston Farmer's Market for my eight season. Look for us beginning April 13. I will also be a vendor at the the Mount Pleasant Farmer's Market starting on April 16th.
Come see us!

The How's it Hanging Section--

These Ice Creams probably won't make it. Pretty Sad!

That's it! See you next time!

Keep up with Simply Bananas on Facebook!

Don't forget to leave your comments.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

The Early Fall Update

When will the Bananas be ready?

Have patience...they'll ripen up soon!

October marks the beginning of the end of the growing season for our Banana plants. Leaf production slows down and old leaves begin to yellow and brown. They can certainly be trimmed and discarded, or mulched around the base of the plants. Keep watering on warm days. Don't be surprised as there will be quite a few late bloomers here in the next 6-8 weeks.

Late Bloomin' Raja Puris....Dang it!

OK--Your well supported bunches of fruit may need a little attention. It is probably time to remove the flower pod. You can remove it when there is 16"-18" of space from the last bunch of bananas to the top of the bud. They say this will force energy into the ripening fruits instead of flower production. You intentionally leave that 'tail' beneath the fruit as it tends to protect the lower fruits from drying out.

Dwarf Namwahs with 'tail'.

Close up of 'tail' drying out.

I expect that we'll start hearing of fruit ripening in the next few weeks. You can tell when things are getting close as the bananas will lose that 'angular' shape and begin to plump up and fill out. If they start to yellow 'on the vine', you can eat them right away. One thing about home grown bananas is that they often taste better if the peels brown up a little bit. Unlike Cavendish/grocery store bananas, home grown bananas don't really turn mushy as the peel changes color.

Ripe Raja Puris.

The Raja Puri plant that bloomed in May(see photo above) had some fruit ripening. However...I noticed in late August that the fruits had stopped increasing in size. Further investigation led me to discover that the waterline for that mat of bananas was blocked and the plants were getting very little water. That being said, these tiny bananas are just really, really small. Their taste is outstanding!

In early September, I wrapped up season 7 of Simply Bananas at the Charleston Farmer's Market. It is always fun being down there beside the Wife and talking bananas with so many people. The Truly Tiny, a super dwarf Cavendish type, was especially well received. I'll be anxious to hear of fruit in the coming years from this exciting new cultivar. Thanks to everyone for stopping by we had a lot of fun!

Charleston Farmer's Market ~~rare purple bananas~~ EGGPLANTS!

Bananas in the News--From the almost-too-much-information department, Australia's AussieBum Underwear company, has discontinued its Banana Fiber and Cotton men's underwear. How do I know...Kate tried to get a pair for me for my birthday from them, but had to go the eBay route. Here was their one and only commercial(sfw) from YouTube: