winter update - namwah #1 (flowered Nov. 4th) is not doing so hot, it looked okay (surprisingly) after the week of deep freezes in January, and i had about 3 weeks of springtime temps. in February, where it was in the 70s and even low 80s during the daytime. but the fungus is spreading and many bananas are getting what looks like cigar end rot, besides the black spots and wet/brown spots.
i am not sure what to do. should i cut off the rotting ones and wait or do i cut the whole rack, dispose of the blackened ones and hope the normal ones ripen on the counter? i am afraid if i wait, then the whole rack is going to rot, since the fungus is traveling up the rachis and peduncle. this is from tissue culture and supposedly tissue culture is disease free. i guess not.
namwah #2 (flowered December 19th) looks okay so far. how it will develop with no leaves, i don’t know.
I’ve ripened two bunches of Namwah that flowered the end of July. Very unimpressive so far. The fruits bruise if you look at them. Ripens mushy. Taste is below commercial banana.
My late rack is about where yours is at. It flowered the end of October. Plant does have some leaves left so somewhat better than your setup.
i’ve only had commercially grown namwah and they take a long time to ripen, i let them get some black on them, and they are very dense and chewy, more acidic and sweeter than regular bananas and last longer on the counter than store bought cavendish/grand nain bananas. overall i think the taste is better than a regular banana. i keep hearing about how it’s the best tasting variety but i don’t think so. i like the taste of morado better and kokopo/patupi so far has been the best. i recently tried hua moa and that’s good, better than store bought. worst banana i’ve ever had is orinoco. i recently acquired a raja puri so i am looking forward to trying that.
this is rack #2, my christmas bananas, still hanging on. they haven’t fully filled out/plumped up due cold stress from the winter but they fared better than the first rack, and don’t have black spots on them. they’ve been on for almost 6 months, so i’ll give them til the 6 month mark and cut them down to ripen indoors. the first rack i harvested in April because they were turning black and i brought indoors to ripen and they were only slightly sweet, didn’t taste that good. i’m hoping this second rack tastes better.
