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.
No comments:
Post a Comment