Banana Trees of The Dinosaur House Plantation

This Feb 05 picture shows our first new sproutling beginning in the foreground.

By April 05 we have a large tree
(notice how big the papaya tree is also!)

May 05

June 05 and the tree is huge. Even it's first "pup" is quite large right next to it; and there are a couple more little sprout-pups beginning also.  And the papaya is flowering!

One day (July 17) we looked up and WOW!
Look at the size of the bud hanging down!

By July 22 we have baby bananas growing!

July 24  It is so interesting to see how each layer of the "bud" opens to begin a new banana bunch, starting from the top and opening down the bud.

By July 29th we can almost smell the banana bread baking :)

July 31 This is how each hand begins, as small flowers under each "leaf" as it opens.

Still July 31 and these are the tiny beginnings of the bananas with the dying flowers on the end of each banana.

July 31 Nice crop, and still growing!

 

It was clear early on that we would need to clear a larger area for our banana "plantation" so here I go out into the bush with my electric saw. I cleared quite a large section, but as of yet have not had luck in transplanting the "babies" from the big tree. Their "root" just seems to keep going and going straight down in the earth, and I ended up just cutting it off and planting it anyway. It has yet to show signs of continued life. I believe we will end up buying a new banana tree to begin the new plantation in this cleared area.

August 12    Bananas
Happy Birthday Winn!

Well, on Oct 4th, the banana tree was falling over...
We had propped it up 2 days ago with a piece of wood and a pillow against the trunk
but the wood must have bit into the trunk in such a way as to cause it to collapse. oops.
So we put it out of its misery by chopping it down and hung the stalk in hopes it might still ripen.
I believe they are too young to survive edibly, but time will tell.