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["Stephen Sadler" <Docshiva@Docshiva.org>]

Title: Message

We don’t have summer humidity, but we do have many days over 100.  I do see bananas fruiting here and there, but most people grow them for the foliage.  I still do keep my one banana tree by a white wall on the southern end of the house.   Today the leaves and stalks are cold-damaged, but there’s still quite a bit of green.   It does often die down – it shrinks in height – in the winter, but pops right back up (or a new ‘pup’ comes up) as soon as the weather warms.  The shorter fruiting time of Raja Puri should help me be more successful with fruit production.  I think the Ice Cream banana needs 10 months – we have the conditions for that long in some years, not so much in others.

 

Warm and sunny today,

 

Stephen Sadler, Ph.D.

USDA 9, AHS heat zone 8,

Sacramento CA - Mediterranean climate

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From: nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org [mailto:nafex-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Doreen Howard
Sent: Sunday, February 05, 2006 11:43 AM
To: North American Fruit Explorers
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Good tasting banana for a container

 

I had Raji Puri in the ground in Zone 9.  One winter we got down to 25F one night, and all the bananas died back to the ground.  However more pups sprouted from their extensive root systems.  Raji Puri always fruited for me in other years, though, and it did it in one season--from 2-foot offshoot to fruit in about 7 months.  That said, I lived in a very hot, humid climate where there was plenty of heat, day and night--something bananas love.  My suggestion in your Pacific climate is to plant on the south side of a reflective surface, like a white stucco house or fence.  The southeast corner of a building is the ideal location for gathering heat and sheltering the plant from wind.

 

I experimented with Orinoco, which grows like a weed on the Gulf Coast.  Grows fast, is tough and fruits.  But...the fruits are starchy and seedy.  Mysore is supposed to be tasty. 

Doreen Howard