Ooo interesting. Yeah i got it online at a tissue culture 3 inch thing lol. Kept it alive for a few years (in zone 6b) now but it’s died back every year. This is the first year in 8b if it is one of those.
It tasted pretty good. No massive seeds or anything. I’ll have to take another photo when it flowers and fruits again. And I’ll cut it open as well. There’s a few people in my family and contacts that grow bananas here in the PNW
i sent your photos to 2 banana experts/collectors here in FL, each have confirmed it is basjoo
i have 3 flowering now.
kokopo/patupi - stem over 10 feet
dwarf namwah - stem is 9 feet
raja puri - stem just above 7 feet
these are all dwarfs but are bigger than normal. i look at them and they say “feed me, seymour!” and i keep telling them that’s not my name and i oblige.
Beautiful. Hopefully they all ripen or at least get far enough along before you get a frost.
dwarf namwah progress pic, it’s a beast!
Dang! My dwarf namwah bunches are always way more sparse than that. I’m going to get serious about thinning the pups next year.
Hello Jamie, i admire all you are doing with your bananas.
Im new to growing bananas as of this year. I bought several varieties, all tissue culture, from various places and they all have done very well (once i figured out a proper soil mix).
After reading your experience i probably wont be using them all but i have planted some in my greenhouse and am trying some outside. Im 7b so will be doing some protection however the outside plants are mobile if necessary.
Ive planted one Orinoko outside and one in the greenhouse to see what happens.
This pick is Orinoko i just transplanted today.
since you’re growing in pots you should only grow 1 stem at a time, it’s easier to separate them in pots, sever each pup from the main corm with a sharp knife or machete (try to make a clean cut if possible), making a circle around the pup with your knife so you get as much roots as possible so the pup can have an easier start, then you can fill that hole back in with soil, you can then pot up each pup and it usually takes them about 1 month to grow new roots and eventually new leaves. if planted in the ground, you need a spade shovel with serrated edges to separate pups, especially larger pups.
I had posted earlier in this thread about thinking my bananas perished over winter. At the start of the month the Raja Puri started to fruit. I can’t say I’m too sure what I need to do with it, but I’ve fertilized and it’s growing very fast.
congrats! those look like cavendish to me. my cavendish are growing very fast. raja puri is not as curved and doesn’t grow as fast as cavendish. when raja puri grows, the leaves get choked, so every so often a new leaf will get stuck in the older leaf before the older leaf fully unfurls, did that happen with yours? see pics of raja puri.
Jamie I really appreciate all of the work you’ve done to identify my banana! I keep pretty good records, but I went and checked the tag as well.
The purchase was from Willis Orchards and I’ve since learned they are notorious for this. I’ve noticed my Muscadine grapes from them are also not what they were sold as. I’ll update my records.
Is there anything specific to be doing for the fruit now? About as much as I know is to fertilize it a lot when it blooms. I assume in cooler weather it would be good to wrap it up to protect from frost? I’m not too clear on how long it takes them to mature and when harvesting if you cut off the whole stalk at when the first ones turn yellow, or cut off all of a group of bananas when one turns yellow.
i water and fertilize my bananas more during the fruiting phase, especially since i want them to develop fast before my first freeze. make sure you have pups because that is how i was able to get my namwahs through winter without leaves - as long as there are pups they can photosynthesize and feed the main fruiting stem and allow the rack to develop. i would try to keep the rack protected from temperatures below 40F as much as possible since extended periods below 40F seem to do damage (from my experience).
here is my raja puri that flowered on August 8th, progress has been very slow.
here are my 3 dwarf cavendish (sold to me as truly tiny but later identified as dwarf cavendish). DC#1 flowered Sept. 1st, DC#2 flowered Sept. 14th, DC#3 flowered Sept. 18th.
here is my dwarf namwah#1:
here is my patupi/kokpo#1:
i have never heard of pineapple banana, i can only guess it is hawaiian apple also know as brazilian, belonging to the AAB group and tasting similarly to raja puri.
progress pics as of today 15th October 2025:
dwarf namwah #1
dwarf namwah #2
dwarf namwah #3
dwarf namwah #4 just starting to flower
dwarf cavendish #1
dwarf cavendish #2
dwarf cavendish #3
kokopo #1 (almost ready to harvest)
kokopo #2
rajapuri
rajapuri was the first to flower in early August and is developing slower than all the other varieties. i don’t have high hopes for this one. i’ve heard that this variety and dwarf brazilian take a very long time from inflorescence to harvest and taste similar to store bought cavendish/grand nain so i most likely will not keep this. it has a pup as large as the mother now which might flower this winter but hopefully not til spring.
i have a dwarf PR plantain that hasn’t flowered yet, it’s at about 35 leaves, i hardly fertilized (only twice since planting in April) and it’s mainly getting rainwater and sprinklers, so it’s kind of like my control banana, i didn’t want to push it this year at all since i want it to flower in the spring of next year. from last year’s experience, it takes about 8-9 months for most varieties (not short cycle types) to flower which means spring plantings can result in early winter flowerings which i don’t want to happen again.
i also got a veinte cohol field dug pup from a collector, and keeping that in a pot til next spring to plant out.
they fruited later than i would have liked because i based my estimations on last years’ banana heights which were all tissue cultures. these are all fruiting at much taller heights than last year. kokopo #1 is about 12 foot (stem) and kokopo #2 is about 11 foot, so definitely not dwarfs. they were 7.5 feet tall last year. they would be dwarfs if you don’t fertilize them or don’t fertilize much. so hopefully next year i will get the timing right so that they flower in the spring and early summer, that would be ideal. this time i am counting leaves and have marked the # of leaves produced on all the pups.
Ice Cream banana, flowering now in northern Florida. I guess it’s too late in the year to get fruit.
well, you can protect it if you’re determined. i got 2 fruiting bananas through winter last year. the rest that were too tall to protect, i cut down and chopped up for mulch. i cut off all the leaves and covered from top to bottom. make sure you have at least 1 pup so that it can still photosynthesize. you cover them up whenever you expect temps. below 40F. uncover during the day if it’s warm enough, over 45F.
by the way of the two that got through winter, one of them flowered in early November, the other around Christmas last year. namwah stems are pretty cold hardy, it’s the fruits that are a challenge to protect.
I guess the only risk to cutting it back for winter is in case the inflorescence has moved past your pruning cut?
tangentially, i have to bring in my container dwarf cavendish for the winter, can i just top it to reduce its height and let it slowly grow back indoors until its put back outside next spring? if possible are there implications im not thinking about? it has two pups. its currently like 7’ off the ground including the pot.
would top at red line or lower:
