Welcome Back, Welcome Back....Welcome Baaaack! May 2016

2016 Will be the Summer of Bananas!

We are well on our way...

The mild Winter and warm Spring have us running a full month and a half  ahead of where we are normally during the growing season(and that's a good thing).  Those that took our advice and trimmed the banana plants up high have been rewarded with 4-5 full sized leaves on their tallest plants.  With the bulk of the Summer a head of us good things are certainly in store.  In fact, we recently and confidently proclaimed on SIMPLY BANANAS FACEBOOK PAGE(Link), that in the year 2016 the Charleston and LowCountry area will produce more Bananas than any other year in the history of Earth!  Think about that for a moment... this a true landmark episode in our relatively short past.
The Chinese were right...
With 2016 being the year of the Monkey...it only follows that it will also be the year of Bananas.

Keep an eye on the weather...

Unfazed by the rain, these Banana Plants are out for a swim during the 1000 Year Rainstorm in October 2015.

Despite underground water tables being 2 feet above historic levels(according to the town of James Island), keep an eye out for dry summertime conditions.  Combat dry weather by watering heavily.  Remember that  healthy leaves lend themselves to healthy flowers and fruits. Banana leaves are wide and long and transpire a lot of water up from the roots.  Mulch keeps weeds from stealing water and nutrients, while holding moisture.  The mulch eventually decomposes and becomes the plant's food.  Mulch early, often, and heavily.  Grass clippings are our favorite.  Many times, you will get the benefit of someone else's lawn fertilizer in your free bag of mulch!

Naked Blooms

Sometimes one of the first items out of the stalk after the winter is a bloom.  While exciting, one must remember that banana fruits need food to grow and mature.  This food needs to come from the not just the roots, but the leaves.  Naked blooms have few or no leaves.  While it is not completely impossible for the fruits to survive and mature, a naked bloom has very little chance for success.  Just enjoy the process and hope the timing is a little better next season.

Banana Harvest Videos

We, Simply Bananas, have a YouTube Channel with different banana related videos.  Many of them are harvest videos showing successful and unsuccessful ways to get the bananas from the stem for eating.  Check it out sometime.

 

10 Years Strong! 

Way back in the infant years of Simply Bananas.

Yes--that is right.  Ten years ago I had an idea to introduce others to the fun of growing bananas here in coastal South Carolina.  It really is something special for all of us to have undertaken together.  You see, in the tropics, bananas literally grow like weeds, therefore very few folks seem to care.  However, in our zone, banana plants are not all that common, so we take a bit more pride in growing them and growing them well.  When we get a flower and eventually some fruit, we have accomplished something that is a bit on the rare and exotic side.  We have accumulated an enormous amount of friends who have taken this journey with us, helping us learn throughout the way.  Therefore, I'd like to say thanks to the feedback and cheers to our success.

The Wildly Popular "How's it Hangin'" Section

Will return very soon when have some enticing dangley bits to show.  If you are not familiar with this section, we publish photos of your bananas hanging off the plant.  Send your pictures to us here SimplyBananas1@gmail.com or add them to the Simply Bananas Facebook Social Media Page.

Some of you may recall our wildlife camera trap project we have going on in Costa Rica.  You can get updated from this link: Camera Trap/Trail Camera Update

See y'all next time! (if I don't get arrested for using the Washington Posts flood image and/or the stunning Ehrinn Cummings 2002 Sports Illustrated  image)

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

Those Long Summer Days- June Update

The Long Days of June--The Summer Solstice arrives at week's end.  These long warm days are what enables us to have tropical banana plants in our less than tropical location.  We have about 2 more hours of daylight than do the tropics this time of year and it translates into extra growth.  Spend a late afternoon or early evening wandering around your banana plants.  Check around the leaves and trunk, because you'll never know what you will find...

A Squirrel Tree Frog resting in a unopened Banana leaf!

Our Conservation Efforts--My wife, Kate, and I have kicked off a project to survey the animals on the property that we own in Costa Rica.  The information that we gather will enable us to help keep the forest as healthy as possible.   We've chosen a great crowd funding site called IndieGoGo to help us.  Crowd-funding enables individuals to make small contributions to a project.  The site accepts credit cards or PayPal easily and safely.  To find out more information about our campaign, please click on the link:
Animal and Plant Conservation in Costa Rica!
We have less than two weeks left!
Animal and Plant Conservation in Costa Rica 

Patience Pays Off--This past Saturday, I was notified a minimum of 3 times about fruiting bananas.  The mild winter seems to finally be yielding the expected results.  Barring any unforeseen storm damages, we can expect to be eating homegrown bananas 4 months from the time the plants bloomed.  You may cut the flower pod off when it is 12"-18" from the last hand of bananas.  Google a recipe on how to prepare the flowers to eat!

Leave it Be--While I do not advocate this practice all the time, I will sometimes snip a leaf off of a non-fruiting banana plant and use it in cooking.  The first step is to soften the leaf over heat.  This makes it pliable.  You then cut it into sections to wrap food or use like parchment or foil.   Here is one of our favorite recipes involving fresh Grouper.

The How's It Hangin' Section--Showing off your Bananas!

Kathy's Dwarf Namwahs from Summerville

Nicole's Nutty Goodness's Ice Cream  Bananas-- More about Nutty Goodness

Eloise's Bananas from Sullivan's Island

Ryan's Ice Creams

Ryan's Postcard-Perfect other bunch of Ice Creams

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May Day! May Day! Is it really May or Novembrrrrr? The May 2013 Update.

Well, it could be worse!

We don't have any snow...yet!--However, stranger things have happened.  Who could have guessed that our amazingly mild winter would linger into one of the Coldest Springs in history.  Not me.  We left just days after the release of the Pre-Ides of March Update for a few weeks in Costa Rica.  When we returned, I expected multiple new leaves and pups.  In reality, I had single leaves that had been heavily shredded or broken.  The cause, you ask?  Slow growth from cold temperatures and strong Spring turbulent winds.   I cannot imagine that this will last much longer than the next week or two.  Onward!  Thanks to Judy at www.bellewood-gardens.com for her awesome photo above of her thriving Basjoo Bananas......... in New Jersey!

Mucha Agua--In addition to the cold April, it seems as if it was really wet too.  Normal rainfall for April is 2.53 inches.  April 2013 has us at... 5.98 inches.  Seeing that I'm an optimist, this comes as good news because South Carolina is officially drought free.  Yip!  This is a good way to start off our growing season.

Farmers Marketssssss---Yes, thats marketsssss.  For now, I am appearing at The Mount Pleasant Farmer's Market on some Tuesdays and the Charleston Farmers Market(Marion Square) on Saturdays.  Come and get whats in season locally and whats in season in other parts of the globe(watermelons...yes) as well.  Shrimp season starts soon.

Moving Bananas--I saw this tweet the other day:

Of course it is fake(APtweets).   Nonetheless, if your banana plants languished last summer in their current location,  just dig them up and give them to a new home.  Soil/shade/sun/rain/magnetism, etc could be affecting the growth rate.  This bizarre combination is unlikely occur again on your plot of land.  @SimplyBananas1 is on Twitter. 



Cool things I seen on the internets---I saw this garden using spent banana plant trunks:

I planted basil in one old trunk and it's beginning to come up.  I'll be interested to see how it does as the Spring goes along. 


Season *8--This is the eighth year of Simply Bananas.  As a zone-buster from way back, I deeply appreciate all whom have helped us.  Its you who provide feedback to what works and what doesn't so that I can hone in on providing the best banana plants that we can grow given our circumstances.  Thanks!

The How's It Hanging Section--While nobody has sent us any pictures YET(by the way...send them to SimplyBananas1@gmail.com).  I have heard of a Basjoo(fiber banana) with the yellow flower from the folks downtown as well as a mysterious blooming edible banana deep in the forests of Snee Farms.  The best I can offer is this skinny mutant Ice Cream bud.  There is only one real leaf and may not make it.
 

Sad, I know, but don't weep. 

See ya soon--Maybe in June!
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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!

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Merry Christmas-Early Winter -No Apocolypse Edition!

Bananas roasting on an open fire.....

Wow--Its been a great year for Bananas.-- We are certainly in the final days of the 2012 season.  We first saw traces of green back in March...that was a long time ago.  The plants are looking shaggy--like a boy after a long summer at the beach--sun-bleached unkempt hair and all.  Big plants, many leaves, lots of flowers and fruit....Man what a year!

I mentioned--back in May, that I thought that this would be the best season for bananas EVER in the LowCountry.  Last month, USA TODAY, reported that the weather-on average- was warmer than normal for the past 16 months.  October broke the streak.  Read the story here: click this link!

 

This and That about fruit--Banana fruits that are 2-3 months old will often times ripen and become edible.  If we have to cut some before they have plumped and start to yellow, allow them to hang for a few weeks inside and its likey you will be able to eat them!  For those with fruits already, remember that the ripe bananas flavor changes dramatically every few days.  Often times we make the mistake of eating homegrown bananas too soon.  Later we find out that as the skin thins and darkens, the flavor is the best.  Be patient. 

Frost Alert--While we don't really know when the first killer frost will be the historical record indicates that it will be in the next 30 days or so.  There is not much that you can do for the leaves.  However, if light frosts are indicated in your area--it is possible protect the fruits with a burlap bag or some type of fabric wrapped around them.  If the frost is certain--go ahead and cut the fruit from the plant.  Now is the time to be especially vigilant. 

 The Mayan calendar ended the other day.  We did not.  With 2013 around the corner, we, as banana growers, cannot help but speculate on the remaining winter weather.  Will we repeat the bounty of 2012, spurred by an early growing season or will we return to a nasty 2011-like winter with multiple sub freezing days?  I don't know... I cannot help but speculate that out tropical plants are in very good shape heading into the remainder of winter.  Thick trunks can really protect the delicate center core longer against the cold.  Remember--there is no rush to cut your plants.  When you do cut them--cut them high on the stem. 

 

Whats Santa Clause bringing you??

 

The How's it Hanging Section

 From Daniel Island

Winter Fox and his West Ashley Ice Creams

Dwarf Namwahs from Simply Bananas on James Island

Downtown Bananas...in 1972!

 See you in 2013----Stay Warm!!!

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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:

I figured this would fit in nicely near the How's it Hangin' section!

 

the How's it Hangin' Section

Photos of LowCountry Bananas!

Doc's Ice Cream Bananas from Daniel Island

 

 

 

From Mark in Mount Pleasant

Well supported Orinocos from Folly Beach

More from Folly Beach

Even more from Folly Beach

More from Folly 'Banana' Beach

Belle Bananas from Simply Bananas-James Island

One last Orinoco bunch from Folly 'Banana Beach', SC.

Send your pictures to me,   SimplyBananas1@gmail.com

See you in a few weeks--Enjoy your plants....time is running out!

 

Keep updated even more by clicking this FaceBook Link

 

 

The Late August Update

Hello!--

This past week, the Charleston Horticultural Society, came by for an educational Banana Tour.  We had 20 plus folks traipsing around our mosquito-infested, fired-anted yard to view the 23 varieties of banana plants.  We met many nice folks and had a fine evening.

Nathalie Dupree penned an article on her 4 banana plants with fruit for the Post and Courier.   The story centers on the plethora of fruiting banana plants in Charleston this summer. 
You can access Nathalie's story here:  Low Country Bananas.

Some of Nathalie's recipes call for banana leaves.  You should have plenty.  First soften the leaves in hot water, or over an open flame.  Like this guy!

Tropical Weather--One grower observed that every time his bananas fruit, "it means a hurricane is coming".  Likely a barb that the high winds will blow down the vulnerable plants and he will lose the fruit.  Maybe.  I thought about it a bit, then realized that this is a logical statement.  Warm winters= Bananas in Charleston.   
Also
Warm winters=Warmer Ocean Waters=Low Country Hurricane potential.
Keep an eye on what's rolling up from down south.

Support your Plants--It's always a good idea to support the fruits especially on already leaning plants.  Heavy racks of bananas can often pull over exhausted fruit-bearing trunks.  The easiest method is to lash it to another structure or banana plant with a bungie cord(watch your eye) or rope.  Another way is with a PVC pole with Y connector on the end.  Just prop up the bunch.  The pole can be painted dark green to soothe the eyes. 

In other Banana news:
Reports that regular water and bananas can be better for you than gatorade!  Here's the Linky.
Also:
Are you tired of your bananas rotting before you have eaten them?  A new Spray Gel made from shrimp peels can keep them fresh for days longer.  Perfect for the Lowcountry.  Give it a try!

 
Why not--have a teak table and a banana umbrella?

Another Video--We spent the first weeks of August down in Costa Rica.  Once again we had the pleasure of spending some time at the Paradise Botanical Gardens.

Robert Beatham let me cut down and have a nice bunch of the best Red Bananas! He also sold me the Gros Michele Banana plant(Banana Grande) for the finca.  Gros Michele was what people ate before Panama Disease and Sigatoka forced the big fruit companies to switch to Cavendish types of bananas.  Enjoy the video.

Hows it Hangin'? 
A lot is hangin'.  See for Yourself:

Ice Cream #1 from the Fox banana plantation.  West Ashley.

Ice Cream #2 from the Fox banana plantation.  West Ashley.

 Ben's Bananas--Smith st., Downtown.

 From Billy, way out on James Island

Another from Billy, way out on James Island.

From Joan Perry, Percy St, Downtown. 

From King St.


Another Ice Cream Bunch from Michael, on James Island.

From our house, James Island.  Ornamental Bordelons!
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See you Next Month!