I’ve been waiting 3 years for this - a banana flower! I am in zone 9b on the south end of Silicon Valley, not exactly the “banana belt” but not the coldest part of the SF Bay Area either. I first planted bananas 3 years ago, and those original plants (probably Dwarf Namwah) have yet to flower. Last year I got a variety called California Gold and it was pure fireworks from the moment it hit the ground. 14 months later, at a height of 7 feet, the first flower appeared - that’s pretty quick unless you’re in Ecuador or Hawaii!
What’s interesting is that last winter the plants did lose all of their leaves after a few 30F nights, but when warm weather returned it took off growing like a rocket. My Dwarf Namwahs were much slower to bounce back from the damage.
Now that I have a flower, the wait for actual bananas begins. I thought I’d start this thread to post updates as my bananas emerge and fatten up. If they do ripen before the winter slowdown and the fruit tastes good, I’m going to do a big TC order and gift this banana to every local gardener I know.
I’ve heard that before but then it has always been accompanied by some debate, or theories that it’s a mutation. I have some Dwarf Orinoco pups on order and I plant to put them side by side and compare.
All of which were first postulated by the original seller on bananas.org circa 2005. Many amateur side-by-side comparisons and professional phenotype comparisons have been performed since then. But don’t worry. The taste of the fruit might be enough to discourage you.
It’s been called burro banana for centuries for good reason.
I believe dwarf and medium Namwa would work in your area and possibly fruit every 18-24 months on average. It really is an outstanding fruit for our climates. I also suggest you give Pisang Ceylon a try.
As I mentioned above, I have Dwarf Namwah, it’s been in the ground 3 years and has not flowered in that time. Very slow grower relative to Dwarf Calorinoco Gold. I’ll see if I can find Pisang Ceylon.
Congratulations, Joe! Banana flowers are always exciting to see for us who, as you said, don’t exactly live in the banana belt. It sounds like that banana may be a real winner for your area.
Like you, most of the taste reviews I’ve read for dwarf Orinoco have been positive. For instance, this one from a bananas.org wiki: A dwarf cultivar suited for small gardens and indoors. It is wind and cold resistant. This is the banana of choice for making tostones, it originates from the Orinoco-river valley of Venezuela. It will produce heads of fruit as much as 65 pounds. It has a triangular shaped fruit and it is actually half banana and half plantain. When fried it makes a great breakfast treat or serve them fried for dinner with black beans and rice. When ripe it turns gold-yellow and the banana is super sweet, delicious eaten out of hand, when eaten green it is like a vegetable. This is the most versatile banana of the lot
The idea of versatility sounds good to me! I happen to like tostones, and also cooked and mashed plantains served as they were in Puerto Rico, surrounding a savory filling. We also go through several pounds of dessert bananas a week. A variety that can perform double duty depending on stage of ripeness sounds like quite a useful cultivar to me.
that’s a really nice slice of tropicana growing in your yard, as my wandering eyes spotted what appears to be a mango tree as well.
as for banana cultivars being sold in usa, there will always be differences in opinion, since there will always be differences in ‘cultivars’ bearing the same name…
so first things first-- we need to celebrate your banana’s inflorescence, considering that you’re in no. cali!
additionally, quite sure many here would like to see the progress of your banana blossoms in pictures, as it will be quite helpful with identification when the fruits take some shape and color.
in my country to draw orinoco also it is called burro bananas for poor quality.
I have helen hibrid , draw orinoco, Rajapuri and ice cream.
this year I will remove orinoco draw that produces few bananas (about 40 or 60) and bananas are of poor quality, fit only for donkeys eat them.
I will also Rajapuri eliminate having a very slow growth and is very demanding in irrigation and fertilization, it takes more than 2 years to produce fruit in my city and sometimes winter comes and the fruit has not yet matured and rots with rain
helen hybrid will also be eliminated and only I’m staying with ice cream that is best banana produces and more quantity (about 200 bananas)
there are many types of bananas called burro. There are big ones with creamy-white pulp, big ones with yellow/yellow-orange pulp, medium to small ones with yellow-orange pulp, and seedy ones with various hues of white-yellow-orange. The galleon trade introduced certain burros to the tropical americas a long time ago, and possible that some of them have evolved or developed cold-hardiness, but may not be as good-eating as the superior unnamed ones from southeast asia. There are some cold-hardy burros that are excellent too.
to my taste, many burros are pretty good. They are not as sweet as typical desert bananas, but have a creamy, chewy firmness to them that holds even when over-ripe, or when cooked.
here’s a variety of creamy-white, large, seedless burros sold here in vegas, and is good eaten raw or cooked.
Interesting. Well I am now even more anxious to taste my Cal Golds. I remain optimistic they will be worth the time to grow them. Even if they are donkey-level, I can still freeze them for smoothies, which I do with 50% of the bananas I buy anyway.
genetic studies are expensive, plus clerical mistakes in plant labels occur all the time. All those on top of endless debates and arguments re banana identification, so there is always a chance your cal golds might not even be cal gold. And if it is not, there’s always a chance it might be better-tasting.
but none of those uncertainties detract from the bigger picture. You managed to get your specimen to blossom in north cali(and outdoors), which many folks will find quite encouraging and exciting a feat by itself.
am sure already did, it is just that one can’t be so sure about what anybody claims it to being the ‘real deal’.
it is like the RT series of jujubes from TVA, there are just too many of them that are vaguely similar, but also vaguely different.
have grown innumerable varieties of bananas and plantains in the tropics, and even the experts there can’t get their act together. It all boils down to matter of taste, which is of course, subjective. Also boils down to cold-hardiness, which is all too often the limiting factor when growing them here.
