Banana Fruit in Zone 7

[@GardenForaged]

That looks great dude! Nice job 👍

[@VirginiaFruitGrower]

Bees 🐝 are loving it. Hopefully they get past the frost

[@gorillapermacuture]

Usually around 160 + days to ripe. I know of green house growers in much colder climates pulling off bananas. Huli up a keiki and bring it inside in the biggest pot you can move. In spring you might have the advantage and get a mid summer bloom.That Taro/Apee is interesting. Hay bail it like artichoke and it should make it. Also, cut off a small piece of the rhizome and bring it inside like a house plant. I eat a similar kind of taro but only the underground new growth tubers that don't have heads. Xanthosoma, but yours looks like a true colocasia because the leaf is joined at the back. The leafs might make good lau lau. Xanthosoma with glossy leaves are to hot to eat. Aloha!

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

160 days after it sets fruit tell it ripens? That is a long time since I'm in zone 7 so get freezing cold.

[@gorillapermacuture]

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 Yea, probably never gonna happen without some kine serious help. There are some cold climate banana varieties yet they tend to have seeds, and Enset bananas. I think Enset are more cold tolerant and the inside is eaten not the fruit. Aloha!

[@anitnec]

​​@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 the bananas will get more sensitive to the cold enviroment when they will fattening up and will be near to maturity . Considering 120 gg above till the video you will have pass the cold . The Sun will be more intense again . If you are in Alabama i would be a little more hopefull than in Vancouver Area . And i would encourage also a person in Vancouver area that maybe is 8 a - 8 b . I grow Dajiao variety bought via internet in an 8 b zone enviroment without any protection. Past July the 17th i harvested a rack of medium small bananas similar to Burro bananas in every aspect and pretty tasty sweet and aromatic . The bunch open in the beginning of January when the first bracts lift off the Pod . I am at a mediterrean latitude

[@doggiefamily908]

Awesome! What kind of bananas are these?

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

I don't know. I got them from my Mom and she did not know. I do have some kind I do know and are going to try them.

[@sunnyday1639]

Maybe if the banana trees were shorter, you could have put some stakes in the ground & covered with 6 mil clear greenhouse plastic to keep it warm long enough for the fruit to ripen. Oh well, hopefully the frost won't cause too much damage.

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

Yes that would be nice. Might have to try a dwarf kind.

[@CitrusPalmsWithTom]

When they flower, bananas produce female flowers first, then male flowers. So only the first four or five sections of flowers will form fruit. The problem with bananas in a colder zone is that the fruit take far too long to ripen.

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

Thanks for the info, I did not know that. Do you know how long it takes after the fruit is set to ripen?

[@CitrusPalmsWithTom]

@@sweethomealabamahomestead4504 weeks and weeks for standard varieties. I am growing a short season banana called Kokopo that ripens in about six weeks.

[@nilesschoolroad]

My Musa basjoo is on it's third year without blooming. It was covered up until 6 feet last winter but the entire plant even above the mulch survived 20 F except the leaves which resumed growth in the spring.

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

3 years and still no blooms? I hope this coming season it will bloom for you.

[@jeancerenord701]

Where is zone 7?

[@sweethomealabamahomestead4504]

I'm in North AL but the zone goes across the country.

[@jeancerenord701]

Thx a lot, have you tried planting mango up there?

[@jeancerenord701]

You should try a minimum of 2 suckers per tree