I live in Elk Grove California, which is close to Sacramento. I planted a few different varieties of banana plants at different times. My first plant is 2 years old and is starting to flower. While I am very excited as I have been told that you can grow bananas here, it is late October and I am slightly nervous about winter. Last winter I covered my plants in (non LED) Christmas lights. The lights kept my plant from freezing and dying. I will do the same this year, but I am concerned as to why my plant chose late October to bloom. Any words of wisdom are appreciated.
@jujubemulberry
Have you found more information about the philippine senorita?
I have brought five corms from tagaytay in 2015 with me to Switzerland. They were hard to start growing, and becouse in our winters we have a very low light level and I also dont have the right place for them inside the house, there is only one plant left. There is still another plant that I gave to a friend in Italy.
I tasted the fruits in the Philippines and I confirm they are the ones on your picture and taste as you describeing.
My senorita today. Im thinking about splitting them up and give one to a tropical house not so far from where I live. Just to save it.
Btw, this is my first post.
Welcome.
My dwarf Orinico looks like it too is just about to flower. Unfortunately, this is very late to get fruit so I might have another disappointing year.
Wish these silly bananas would flower a month ago
that does look like a true senorita, with the relatively matte leaves and reddish blotches. Plus, the provenance/origin that is tagaytay. More amazing is that you managed to bring it in to switzerland!
yes, i will probably do the same. It is a worthy cultivar to grow out-of-zone due to its relatively quick planting to blooming period. Tagaytay is also relatively cool so the cultivar may also have some cold- tolerance compared to others…
would love to hear updates about your senoritas in your part of the world
That is the place where I tasted the senorita banana in the philippines at the mahagony market in Tagaytay. Its a free gift when you order some food.
As I know my corms came from batangas.
@jujubemulberry
Do you have a picture of an adult senorita plant? Or an idea how tall they will get?
i wish i took pictres when i grew them. When grown in full sun, the trees don’t get tall and you will have a mature bunch at around 6 feet level. Those starved for light will be leggy and may bear 2-3 feet higher than that, but the bunches will be smaller with fewer ‘hands’
bananas that are too tall for their usual bearing size will have smaller bunches and smaller/fewer hands . Conversely, bananas that end up being shorter-- as a result of having their foliage removed as a younger specimen will likewise bear smaller bunches.
you could ‘dwarf’ an already tall banana tree at your whim, simply by chopping it down just right before the blossom emerges, this way the bunches won’t be too small. Only trouble with this is you have to chop it down above the blosom bud which entails guess work.
another way to dwarf a banana tree would be to chop it down way early, but the bunch will be more sparse because missing out on photosynthesis
I just remembered, that the seller of my senorita posted me a short video of a fruiting plant. There it is now on her facebook website.
yep, that’s the one. It is one of the dwarfish bananas that wouldn’t need much space(horizontally and vertically) in a greenhouse as other cultivars. Dwarf cavendish and cohol are two others that i know of which may be smaller.
anyway, those gems are sugar-bombs when fully ripe. I actually like them better when at the cusp of ripeness, being more firm and refreshingly sweet, not overly sweet.
If I can manage to bring a strong plant through winter I want to plant it out in my polytunnel next year.
forgot to say, there are many cultivars of bananas in danger of extinction, and senorita is quite susceptible to bunchy-top. If yours is disease-free, keeping it alive in switzerland and other far away places(sterile, non-tropical areas ) may actually be the ticket to ensuring a source of tissue culture clones in the future.
Ok, I’ll try my best.
Beside that, I dont think that it is much hardier than veinte cohol, what makes it difficult to keep it alive even kept frost free through winter in the polytunnel. Unfortunately it is nit as tough as dwarf namwah, dwarf orinoco or rajapuri. But I will see.
keep us posted here!
Bummer I was hoping to get a senorita plant, grow it in North Cal but I guess not! …
FYI - old folks like to eat the senorita when the banana peel turns black (when it’s at the sweetest) it’s the best Banana I’ve tasted in all of my travels and in the Philippines its often giving after a meal like fortune cookie here in America! though if you’re eating in hotels or any luxury eating places, you have to ask for it
I have growing a 3 yearl old Dwarf Orinnoco that never fruited, but i hve a sikimensis that is 2 years old with a big bunch that started in June.
I am in northern Portugal (9A/9B)
I traveled a lot in the tropics and best banana for me its ladies fingers , the tiny ones with soft skin (there are several different ones) and the best one ive ever had was in Portugal actually…i have a couple of the growing so we will see.
Hello Mark, Have you since found any more cold hardy bananas? I have a friend growing Ice Cream Banana near Sacramento with pretty good success. Sometimes they fruit late and don’t ripen and sometimes they do fine. But his tree is too large I’m trying to find something that shorter preferably the smaller bananas. Our winters here are rough although last winter was not bad temp wise about 10a wind ps were almost 70mph last couple years hence me wanting a dwarf variety. Thanks