Our first bunch of bananas appeared a few months ago. Since then I've given it some potash, cut the 'bell' (male flowers) off and put a bunch bag over it to stop pests and keep the sun off it. The picture below shows the female (higher up and bigger) and male fruit/flowers.
Here is a pic of the bunch covered with the bag, silver side to the North to reflect sunlight.
We've waited patiently as the fruit have grown and in the end we got a bit impatient and harvested some bananas. Unfortunately it must have been too early because they haven't ripened off the plant. We've never done this before so I guess we'll learn as we go. You can tree ripen the fruit and the taste will be the best, but eating 120 bananas in a week or so could be a bit tricky so we'll try to ripen a hand at a time when the time is right.
The other plant has just started to flower too, so there should be a gap of about 4 months in between them. That's worked out well as we won't be flooded with fruit all at the same time.
The male flowers or bell need to be removed (emasculated?) since they serve no purpose and take energy from the bunch, so I chopped it off.
Here is a pic of the bunch covered with the bag, silver side to the North to reflect sunlight.
We've waited patiently as the fruit have grown and in the end we got a bit impatient and harvested some bananas. Unfortunately it must have been too early because they haven't ripened off the plant. We've never done this before so I guess we'll learn as we go. You can tree ripen the fruit and the taste will be the best, but eating 120 bananas in a week or so could be a bit tricky so we'll try to ripen a hand at a time when the time is right.
The other plant has just started to flower too, so there should be a gap of about 4 months in between them. That's worked out well as we won't be flooded with fruit all at the same time.
You can freeze the bananas you don't eat, they work perfect in a smoothy, just add some fresh berries or whatever other fruit you have in the garden, add one of two frozen bananas en put in the blender.
ReplyDeletePeel them before you put them in the freezer by the way.