Red Bananas

A small bunch of red bananas, still a month away from harvest. Our favorite banana for serving with yogurt or using in smoothies. The peels are reddish, but not the flesh. The flesh is a deeper or stronger yellow than regular bananas. To us, they taste more banana-y. 

Adam's Bananas

Adam wanted to show off his banana harvest. Today he harvested this bunch of Williams bananas. Not the best eating banana (they are a commercial type), but they sure do produce large clumps! While Adam plans to eat some of these, most will end up being fed to the livestock.

Adam has been watching this particular clump of bananas for weeks and weeks. He's gotten pretty good at judging when to harvest them. He waits for the individual bananas to plump out. Then he watches for signs that the birds or rats are interested. They can tell better than us that the fruits are nearing ripeness. In a matter of days, many of these individual bananas will begin turning yellow. 

We have numerous clumps of Williams bananas on the farm. Since they produce very large bunches, they are worth growing for livestock feed, if nothing else. We usually don't eat them ourselves. But we have used them for trading and selling. I guess not everyone is as fussy about bananas like we are. Adam admits that he's become a banana snob too. 

No More Tall Banana Trees For Me

I decided to eliminate my really tall banana trees. First of all, they are difficult to tend. As the trunk grows taller, removing dead leaves and killing any banana roller caterpillars becomes impossible. Plus harvesting the bananas becomes dangerous for me. The trunks weight a lot, and I'm not always successful in cutting them down gently. One of these days I can see myself getting hurt while trying to harvest a banana bunch.

The problem that tipped my decision was that the coqui frogs were getting into them. With trees that tall, it was impossible for me to spray the frogs. So these tall bananas have to go. 

With chainsaw in hand, I buzzed the trees down. Cutting the trunks into manageable pieces, I carted off the trunks and leaves to the compost bins. I filled 11 bins!!! Needless to say, I didn't do this all in one day. Nope. It took several days of hard work. 

Digging out the mats would be quite an effort. Rather than doing that, I plan to simply harvest the regrowth for the compost bins. Whenever a banana tree gets too tall, I'll cut it up for biomass. If the whole mat eventually dies, well so be it.

This clump is beside the chicken pen. I also cut down the clump on the far side of the pen too. 

Banana patch along the driveway is regrowing.  

Since deciding to eliminate the tall varieties, I've been making an effort to propagate the dwarf ones. So rather than cutting away unwanted keikis, I've been digging them up and starting new banana patches instead. With the coqui frog invasion, I've shifted to short banana varieties. 

Zebra Banana?

Is this something unique? Is it a zebra banana? Have I discovered something new? 

No, no, and no. 

I've seen these little water suckers have blotchy colored leaves before. I suspect that it caused by some sort of a deficiency. Since they have a weak root system, I'm going to venture a guess and say that they are more susceptible to soil and water deficiencies. I've never seen this leaf blotchiness on sword suckers. I don't know what this particular problem is, but I do know how to correct it. 

Very interesting leaf markings. 

First of all, these little water suckers need help if they are to develop into productive, vigorous trees. So I often will transplant them to a better location where I have tilled in a generous amount of compost. I will then pay particular attention to making sure they get adequate moisture and fertilizer for the next several months. This generally means keeping them well mulched with compost, adding more as needed. Given time and attention, they grow into normal trees. 

I have seen these water suckers being sold at farmers markets as Zebra Bananas. The sellers ask high prices. But I've done a little research and found out that these sellers are either mistaken or simply fraudulent. These blotchy marked suckers aren't Zebrina/Zebra/Blood bananas. They're simply a starving water sucker. 

This particular water sucker I've photographed is at the base of a bamboo patch, where it struggles to get nutrients. It came up off of an old banana corm I had dumped there a couple years ago as fill. So I know exactly what the parent plant looked like, and it was a normal green tree. With adequate nutrition, this little guy will become green and thriving. 

Banana Flowering Clusters

Going around the farm looking for banana bunches ready for harvesting, it dawned on me that banana flowering clumps really vary quite a bit from variety to variety. Some are on the small side, others are huge. Some produce small clumps of bananas while others create a monster sized clump with dozens of individual fruits.

Not only is there a size difference, but the shapes can be different too.
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 Short and fat. This is high up in a tall tree, so I couldn't get a good photo. But the top banana to the bottom flower tip is 18". The fat flower on the end of it is 8" long. 

Long and skinny. This flower clump is 24 inches long, but it is skinny. It is just opening so you won't see any baby bananas yet. 

Bananas are really interesting. Having lived most my life on the US east coast, banana trees are still a bit of a novelty. So when I come upon an edible variety new to me, my ears tend to perk up. I used to buy any new one I came upon, collecting a new one even when I didn't have a hole to plant it in. Rather complusive collecting, eh? But after collecting quite a number, I now limit myself to only adding the dwarf types. Those 20'-24' tall ones can be quite intimidating to harvest from. Definitely don't stand under one when you chop that truck........crash- smash! Nothing like having over a 100+ pound banana trunk fall on ya. The older I get, the more appealing those dwarfs get to be.

Not only is harvesting easier and safer from the dwarfs, but tree maintenance is far easier too. As the tree grows, leaves die back. I like to keep those dead leaves trimmed off in order to reduce disease problems and discourage insects and rats. That's really difficult to do on those tall varieties. Yes, give me just dwarfs nowadays.

Of course there are some benefits to growing tall varieties. First, it may produce a banana fruit that you really like. Plus those big boys produce a lot more biomass for turning into compost. When I was chopping and fermenting the trucks for livestock feed, they gave me lots of buckets of trunk chunks. But I'm no longer doing that--- for three reasons. It's time intensive. I have plenty of other feedstock options available. The pigs lost interest in earring it. 

Red Bananas

So far, we've harvested 3 bunches of red bananas. I don't know which variety we have but we like them as a fresh eating banana. At first I had a hard time figuring out what was the best time to eat them. Initially our taste testing was disappointing because we were trying them when they weren't ripe enough. When too firm, they are bland. Now I've got it down pat. I wait until they get yellow skins beneath that reddish coloring and develop dark spots on the peel. The banana itself feels soft. 

When ripe the way that we like them, the peel easily tears away from the stem........

These red bananas have strongly colored yellow flesh. 

They also have a very banana-ish flavor that we like. 

Growing Bananas Organically

Ok, one more post about bananas, then I want to give it a rest....at least for a few days. But you can still send me questions, which I'll eventually get to. 

Many oriole asked, can bananas be grown organically? Simple answer, yes. But to expand on that answer, can they be commercially grown organically? That's a different story because according to what I've read, it can be real difficult if not impossible in some areas. Yes, some farms can do it. Others cannot. The reason basically is fungal diseases and certain insects. Plus the higher cost and more difficult availability of organic fertilizers. To make it more confusing and difficult, some fruit wholesalers and shippers require fungicide treatments or apply and/or fumigate during transit. 

Commercial farms use quite frequent fungicide applications. Some farms also spray insecticides. Without these treatments, getting enough marketable bananas harvested in order to afford to keep the farm financially afloat might be difficult or close to impossible. The few commercial growers in Hawaii that I've talked to say that they can't go organic with their crop. 

Home production is a different story. Around here, just about all homegrown bananas are either fully organic, or are sprayless but using commercial fertilizer. I haven't heard of anyone in my area bothering to use sprays. I guess we are lucky and don't have bad banana insect problems in my particular region. I see leaf fungal problems but they don't seem to severely impact the production for the home grower. The home grower isn't worried about getting the highest production impossible. Another thing, home growers aren't trying to get blemish free, pretty bananas. They don't care about marks on the banana peel. But commercial growers have to stay very aware of the cosmetic condition of their bananas. Disease and insects can cause visual damage, making the bananas not suitable for supermarket sale. Face it, we consumers are snobs about our fresh veggies and fruits. We want them looking perfect. As a result, farmers often turn to chemical treatments to assure a sellable crop at a good price. 

Using commercial fertilizers is another thing that can keep bananas from being sold as organic. On this farm, I don't use commercial fertilizer on bananas. Instead I use two different approaches. A couple clumps of trees grow atop a hugelpit. The pit is filled very deeply with a wide variety of organic debris that slowly decomposes over the years, providing nutrients to the trees. My second method is used on non-hugelpit clumps. I top dress around the base of the trees with a shredded manure compost (about 3 inches), then cover that with grass clippings just enough to cover. This mulching is reapplied as needed to keep the soil covered and weeds controlled. This seems to do ok. Perhaps not as good as closely monitored commercial fertilizer mixes, but my trees produce a good supply of bananas for me. 

Since producing bananas is relatively easy using my methods, I don't opt to use organically approved sprays and fertilizers. So I guess that means that my bananas are "better than organic". 

Banana Tree Waste

"M" asked me what I do with the discarded banana tree. Can it be used for anything? Do I just cart it off to the dump? 

First of all, I try to find a use for everything on this farm. Second, there's very little that I cart off to the dump. So yes, I will use this harvested banana tree. 

This particular tree was growing in a hugelpit. Therefore the leaves and trunk will be incorporated back into the hugelpit itself. The leaves and leaf stems go around the bases of the other trees. The truck gets cut up into manageable pieces, which are also placed around the bases where needed. The material in a hugelpit is constantly and slowly decomposing. Thus new material needs to be added. Recycling the spent banana tree helps maintain the hugelpit. 

Trees from non-hugelpit locations I often use to help fill pallet grow boxes. I'll cut off the leaves and put them into the box. The trunk is cut to appropriate lengths, which are then put in atop the leaves. 

One tree usually adds a single 6"-8" layer to one of the pallet grow boxes. But the tall bananas can make two layers. (I add a thin addition of compost or soil between the two layers to help with the composting process.) So those really tall trees actually do have value over the dwarf trees at times. I know of a lot of people who won't grow the tall varieties. 

While I've never used them in cooking, the trunks can be used in imus (an underground cooking pit) to provide steam for the cooking food. I have several people I know who use the trunks for this. They also use the leaves to wrap food in for cooking. 

My donkey and sheep will eat the leaves, though not the coarse stems. I understand that the zoos feed the entire young trees to the elephants in order to enrich their lives. It gives them something interesting and enjoyable to do. 

Harvesting Bananas

The first time I harvested a clump of bananas, I carefully avoided damaging the tree. I was totally ignorant about banana production and assumed that the tree would recover and bloom again. I was surprised to see the tree die instead. And puzzled. Eventually I asked a neighbor about it, but so as not to reveal my ignorance (I was fairly new to Hawaii and still hung up on the idea retaining a good public image), I offered to help him harvest his bananas. Geez, yikes, oh my god......I was aghast to see him whip out a machete, give the trunk a couple of strong good whacks, dropping the entire trunk to the ground. I thought, egads man, you killed the tree! 

I've since learned a lot more about bananas. Things like -- each stem (trunk) produces just one bunch of bananas, then dies back. The stem, before fruiting and dying, grows a daughter shoot from its base, thus growing its own replacement. It's not uncommon for multiple daughter shoots to grow. Another tidbit -- a bunch of bananas is heavy. Heavier yet is the banana trunk. The trunk is engorged with water, thus seems far heavier than you'd guess. I give you this knowledge based upon personal experience! One more bit of knowledge -- banana sap flows readily from cut off leaves and cut off banana bunch. The sap looks like clear water but don't be fooled. It can be quite sticky, and can stain some fabrics a dark charcoal brown .... primary your best pair of shorts and the new t-shirt that you forgot to change out of. Of course it won't stain your work clothes. Zip. Nada. Not a mark on the work clothes. 

Harvesting the bunch of bananas takes some finesse, otherwise the heavy tree comes crashing down, breaking and crushing most of the ripe bananas. The first bunch I tried to harvest, I cut the tree down with a chainsaw, like it was a normal tree. Crash! Smash. I quickly learned that this wasn't the way to do it. Over time I tried other approaches, once having the trunk land in my shoulder and smash me to the ground. BUT the bananas were saved! Finally a friend showed me how to cut the trunk and slowly lower the tree to the ground. 

My preferred method nowadays is to make two diagonal cuts on the trunk about shoulder height. I use a box cutter with a new three inch blade. For the sake of the photo, I made notches instead of simple slices. That's just so the cuts could be seen in a photo. But in real life, I just make a simple very deep slice, one on the right of the trunk and the other on the left. 

Above, cut number one. 

Above, cut number two. That orange stick is the handle of the box cutter I'm using. I left the blade partially imbedded in the trunk so you could see what's going on. 

I then walk down to the drooping banana leaves, grab one and use it to gently pull the tree down. I can control the fall by pulling or pushing in the leaf stem. 

The tree will slowly come down so that the bananas don't get destroyed.  Pretty nifty way to harvest them intact. 

Planting Bananas & How I Grow Them

I'm really pleased. Looks like three of my newest bananas keiki have taken. I'm still not sure about the fourth one, but I have a gut feeling that it will survive too. So why do I think that the 3 have transplanted successfully? I'm seeing leaf regrowth, plus by gently tugging on the plant, I can feel that it has sent out new anchoring roots. All looks well. No rot, no mold. 

Here's a photo of one of the successful new trees. The truck is about 5 foot tall, topped by a 2 foot long new leaf shoot, still tightly curled up. Yes, it's difficult to see in this lousy photo. 

Here's a close up of the new leaf shoot. It will grow at least another foot before unfurling into a beautiful new banana leaf. 

Here's a photo of another young tree just sending up its new leaf shoot. It's about 6 inches long and still has a week or so of growing before it starts to open as a leaf. 

I've been getting some banana questions lately, so I'd like to take the time to give out more information on how I grow bananas in order to cover everyone's questions. Keep in mind that this is how I do it. I'm sure that there are other ways to be successful too. 

When I plant new bananas, I bury the root base a good 8" deep. By that I mean that the top of the root area is 8 inches below the soil surface. They do just fine being planted this deep. They don't require this depth as they will often grow even if I had just laid them down on the soil surface, but then the tree wouldn't have good support. It would be in danger of blowing over in a brisk wind. Planting deeper gives them the opportunity of sending support roots deeper and under the lava chunks. Planting deep like this means that I don't usually need to support the young tree with stakes. But sometimes if the tradewinds are blowing strongly, I'll brace the tree for the first few weeks until it is solidly rooted. In addition, I usually remove most of the current roots before planting. The plant sends out new roots within a couple days, anchoring the tree within one to two weeks, depending upon the weather and soil moisture. That sounds brutal and bad to be removing the current roots, but the trees do just fine. The old roots die and rot away anyway, so by removing them I'm reducing the amount of rot that will build up around the root base. 

I normally don't do any preparation on the hole before planting the young banana tree. No fertilizer, lime, compost, etc. I think the trees transplant better without the hole being prepped, BUT that's how it works for my own particular soil. Maybe if I were planting into lava rock, I'd do a different approach. After the tree appears to have taken, I will apply a generous layer of compost that includes livestock manures, around the tree, about 6' in circumference around the trunk. Because of my acidic condition, plus the fact that bananas require potassium, I will apply wood ashes. I'll work this in lightly with my tiller. That's about it for the next several months. After a few months I will need to mulch to control weeds, so I use compost (which includes livestock manures) for the mulching job, then top it with a light layer of grass clippings. I'll check the soil pH and add wood ashes as needed. From thence on, I'll just apply compost (with manure) or mulch as need to control weeds, retain moisture, and keep the soil covered. And keep an eye on the pH and wood ash applications. Why do I keep saying compost with manure? Because bananas appear to be big nitrogen feeders. 

Another thing I'll sometimes do is dig a trench about 1-2 foot deep about 6' away from the trunk. If not a trench, then a hole. Why? To fill with organic material such as garbage, waste fruits, coffee waste pulp, dog poop, cat box cleanings, other manures, road kill, and whatever else I need to get rid of that will rot down. This all will eventually provide nutrients to the clump without destabilizing the soil that supports the heavy trucks. And it's a good use for things I don't wish to use in the other food gardens, such as the pet waste. 

For the first few weeks I keep the soil around the newly planted bananas moist but not soaking wet. I take care not to let it dry out. Letting the soil get dry often results in transplanting failure. I'll check the baby trees daily, giving them a gallon of water if I haven't had any rain. From then on, I try to keep my bananas well supplied with moisture. When things get dry, the trees grow very slowly or even stop growing. Their fruit production goes way down. Bananas prefer good soil moisture. They are a good place to divert greywater to, driveway runoff, waste water, etc. My greywater and wash machine discharge never appear to be detrimental to the bananas. The clumps that get this water grow and produce far better than the clumps that don't. 

An experiment I did was planting bananas atop a hugelpit filled with old tree trunks & branches, brush trimmings, cardboard, coarse weeds, and layers of chipped up organic waste. The pit soaks up and retains an amazing amount of water from the driveway run off. As a result, the bananas thrive there, are amazingly productive, and never require irrigation even during a drought year. That hugelpit has been maintaining the bananas for several years so far, although I do add more organic material as needed to maintain the surface level. I'm so impressed with the results that I now plant my bananas on fill areas like that, reserving the open soil areas for other fruit trees. 

Are My Bananas Ready to Harvest?

"P" asked, " How can you tell when your bananas are ready for picking if you don't let them turn yellow?" 

Back in the days when I first started this homestead, I saw that there was a clump of tall banana trees down the hill in the dry river bed area. I was a complete newbie back then, knowing zero about bananas. Yes, I was so incredibly a newbie that I was puzzled when I saw my first banana bunch growing on a tree. I thought that they were growing upside down...for real! I didn't even know that banana fruits pointed up, not down. I think it's funny now, to see how ignorant I was about bananas. Boy did I have a lot to learn! 

Knowing nothing about bananas, first I got discouraged to see the bunch just sitting in that tree for weeks and weeks. Then when I finally checked on them again, they were gone! Nothing but an empty stalk. Sigh. But I assumed that the tree would grow another bunch, so I waited. Again I was surprised several weeks later to find that particular tree dead and drooping. (Bananas "trees" produce one bunch then die. But they also produce new "trees" by growing shoots from the base.) But I would notice another tree developing a bunch, so I'd start watching that one. Again after weeks and weeks, I'd miss the harvest in that one too. This went on for months before I ever caught a bunch actually in the stage of turning yellow. And guess what? I wouldn't get any of those bananas either because the birds and rats got them first, eating the tasty flesh inside the peels. I had let them ripen too much on the tree. Finally I wised up and started asking neighbors about bananas. 

(Above, a bunch ready to harvest. The individual bananas are plump looking and one is starting to yellow out.) 

Leaving bananas on the tree is not the way to go on my farm. Too many rats due to the macnut farm next door. So I have to harvest the bunch just before they ripen. But how to tell? 

1- The bananas fill out. They plump up. While immature, they are angular. The individual bananas, in cross section, are almost squarish or triangular in shape. But as they mature they plump up losing their sharp edges, going almost round. Some varieties actually do round out, but some do not, 

(Above, this green banana is roundish on cross section.)

2- The stem holding the male flower grows really long. When the bunch first starts, the male flower is up close to the baby bananas. Over the weeks, the male flower keeps growing along an elongating stem. Some people cut off this stem, but I don't bother. I haven't see it make any difference if it is there or not. 

3- One or more bananas start to change color. Sometimes this can happen if the banana has been damaged, like if I bumped into the bunch, or if a bird pecked at it. But if the banana is healthy, then it usually means that the entire bunch is getting ready to ripen. 

Once the bunch indicates that it's getting ready to ripen, I'll cut it down off the tree. Many people will hang the entire bunch somewhere where the rats can't get it, and let it ripen. I find that the bunches weigh too much for me to comfortably handle. So I cut off the individual hands and hang them from my railings beside the house. For some reason the rats don't bother them in this location. 

Finding My Ripe Bananas

Keeping track of the ripening banana clumps is not my forte. For weeks on end I'll watch a green clump, then the next thing I know, all the bananas are over ripe, eaten by rats and birds, or have dropped onto the grown below. I'll get nary a banana for myself. Drats, did it again! After doing that for the ump-teenth time, I knew that I needed to develop a system that would get my attention. 

After trying a few things, I've finally hit upon a method that works, at least for me. Bright orange survey tape. I just wrap a piece around the truck of a tree that is blooming. Since from start to finish can take months, I usually spy all the trees that are producing, and mark them. 

Because I have numerous banana clumps, and plenty of other farm work to keep me busy, I don't get around to cleaning up the banana trees more often than every few weeks. Not often enough to remember to check on ripening clumps. But during the week I often go past most of the clumps numerous times. You'd think I'd remember to look up? Naw. I often have something else in my mind. 

For some reason the orange survey tape makes me check. Not every day, that's for sure, but often enough that I'm now catching those bananas before the rats and birds do. Bananas don't have to be yellow before picking. As long as they are plump and full, the green bunch can be cut down and hung in a protected place for ripening. But I usually leave them in the tree until as ripe as possible. As soon as I see one banana changing color or starting to split open, it's time to harvest the clump immediately. 

Red Banana

Checking my banana trees today, I saw that one of my new trees is blooming. And SURPRIZE... it's a red one. This is my very first red banana. Whoppie! 

See, not all bananas are yellow. I really didn't know that until I moved to Hawaii. Yes, I lived a very sheltered life. In fact, I thought all bananas were the same....the supermarket kind. I got a big education when I arrived here.

This tree was given to me. I have no idea what kind of banana it is. But I'm real interested to see what it's like to eat. It will be awhile before they are ripe, but I'll give you a report when that happens. 

This photo below was taken when the sun disappeared. The bananas look purple. Looks pretty cool. It would be fun if they really were that dark a purple, but it looks like they will be reddish in reality. Ha, who says photos don't lie! 

Banana Flowers & Bunches

I never knew what bananas looked like on a tree until I started my farm project. For some odd reason I thought that they grew UP, not down. Don't ask me why I came up with that visual idea....perhaps something from my childhood. 

Of course I knew that bananas grew on a "tree", so I was a bit surprised to find that it's not really a tree. You mean that this "tree" grows for a year to two, produces one clump of bananas, then dies? Whoa. 

I got this neat photo of female banana flowers (below). Usually I never get to see them. Maybe this tree is an oddball, or maybe I'm always too late in looking, but I normally don't see the female blossoms on the ends of the baby bananas. 

So where are the male flowers? They are in that big purplish bulb-thing hanging down under the baby bananas. That bulb opens a layer at a time revealing male flowers underneath the opened stealth covers. 

For edible bananas, those male flowers don't mean a thing. Edible bananas aren't fertilized. There are no developed seeds inside a banana that we eat. 

The above stalk of fruits are well along the way to becoming fully developed. The little bananas start out thin, then gradually grow larger but are very angular in shape. Then finally the fruits plump out, looking like real bananas. Commercially they are harvested green, at this stage. Then they are ripened via chemical treatment. But on my homestead they are ripened naturally. I wait for one banana to start turning yellow before I cut the entire bunch down off the tree. The others then rather quickly ripen. This leaves me with an over abundance of bananas, yes. But they are quite usable for trading and sharing.