El futuro looks promising,....!!!
Just thought I'd share a little bit of the enthusiasm and anticipation that spring bestows on us,...some years more than others, but for me, this spring looks particularly promising ! No sprawling plantation here like some of us have, - just a small 1/4 acre-shy rectangular lot. However, not complaining because over the last 10 yrs I have carefully planted just the right number of fruit trees to keep me moderately busy ! :) Am lucky tho, of all the 55 + mobile parks hereabouts, our's has the largest lots of them all !
This year's good vibes come mainly from my 12' x 36' raised bed banana plantation ! :)
A few pics will explain better than words :
The above pics show the situation right after Irma and the hard freeze we had for two nights in late January !
And now, after laboriously cutting off all the dead, brown leafs, etc,...and digging up ALL THE WEEDS by hand,...and adding lot's of fertilizer/manure/compost,... and lastly, just a few days ago, poured in a ton of fresh red mulch !!
These guys now are all bright & shiny, standing straight up like a Marine platoon at attention !! Just reaching towards the sky with gusto ! I swear, am seeing new growth on a daily basis,...well, almost !!!
Am hoping for at least four ( 4 ) vibrant flag leafs by April 1st !
Hey, Mother Nature, you are now warned ! No more storms, insane winds or overnight freezes till the late fall!!!
YOU HEAR ? Pleaseee ? :)
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6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoJust yesterday I said " I fully expect four flag leaf's by April 1st ! " Feeling later that I may have been a tad overconfident, I strolled out to my plantation early this morning as I usually do. ( Once read that the best care a plant can receive is to have the shadow of it's owner pass over it once a day ! )
Where was I ? Oh yeah,..so I am looking around like an osprey and lo and behold, what do I see ??? A foot long, slightly red & green, firm like a billy club, VIBRANT NEW FLAG LEAF popping straight up out of one of my 10' tall Apple banana trunks !!!
YIKES ! immediately felt like a " one-eyed dog in a sausage factory !!! " : )
Haven't seen one of these guys in awhile !
The Mama plant is the tallest gal in the middle,...reaching skyward ! LOL
As to Sylvia's info on the Gros Michel banana, I was very intrigued after reading the website she provided, so I looked at another site, - and was further impressed. Still wondering if I had any chance of perhaps growing 1 or 2 of these, I checked 'em out to see if they're for sale online and lo and behold, there is an Amazon ad for these pups,..at $17.97 each, with free shipping !!
Still undecided, I look at the top of my computer and there sits an Amazon gift card for $50 that I received at my birthday party in late December. Is someone up there trying to tell me something ??? LOL
That did it, I will slightly expand my banana bed by adding one more RR tie, then have enough space to easily plant 2 new GM's from Amazon, as well as 3 small pups from them later on. There is just enough room back there to do this. Nothing in future will go in that 70 sq ft bed but the GM's.
A bit fascinated by the whole project,..being a history buff, it will be neat just thinking of me munching on a ripe GM someday,..the same banana my 8 yr old Dad surely munched on in the teeming, hot streets of the Manhattan he grew up in, - way back in 1909 !!
Looking forward, thanks again Silvia !
whgille
6 years agoCongrats Jofus! Happy news for your dedication and I am very intrigued by your new banana purchase, you have to let us know how they do for you. It is very tempting to add that banana to my garden.
I really liked the info on the article and love old photos, especially from NY since I also lived there for about more than 10 years.
As a child I was familiar with so many bananas, and the one that sells here was new to me. My favorites were a tiny one, like 2 bites and the other one that was sold at the streets cooked in fire something like the chestnuts in NY....
And today I cleaned the bananas and the Fairchild mango next to it.
Silvia
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked whgille
Glenn Jones(9b)
6 years agoWorked very hard today reconditioning this old bee hive. Just need bees now. I think it would have been easier to build from scratch.
hoping for happy friends I'm the garden soon. Jofus hope you enjoy your new banana big Mike is good. Silva looking go as always.
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked Glenn Jones(9b)jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoThe three future Big Mike banana plants new home !
Just when I thought my banana plantation was maxed out, some noteworthy contributor ( initials are Silvia ) notifies me of an interesting new banana variety I never heard of before, - one that very few people were growing in Florida, and one that I just might be intrigued by ! Then another noteworthy contributor ( initials are Glenn ) reaffirms # 1's good vibe's, then a vibrant thumb's up from a third savvy contributor, ( initial's are Deb ),...were all I needed to plunge ahead despite my adamant decision NOT to expand my plantation !!! ( Somehow there always seems to be room for one more ! )
Sooo, despite warning's from both Del Monte and Chiquita that they might cancel our future contracts, LOL ,..on Tuesday I ordered not two, but THREE Gros Michel banana pups from the Florida Hill Nursery, up near Orlando !!!!
That was the easy part,...now for the back breaking part I was trying not to think of !
My banana plantation is in a raised bed of enriched soil & compost within 5 ( at present ) huge ( & heeaaavvvvyyyyyy ) 8 1/2' x 7 1/2 " x 9 " railroad ties THAT WEIGH A TON !!! Educated guesses from a few farmers hereabouts say each will weigh 150 to 200 lbs !!! Those initial five were hauled in off my PU truck and set up 9 years ago by myself and a male friend, both of us in our mid 60's ! To be brief, that is not the case now, plus there's no " guy pal ", - just me ( healthy but no way as strong ) and my tough as nails 59 yo wife Rhonda. So we procrastinated a bit, knowing we were way overmatched !Also, instead of only buying one RR tie, we decided to leave the old one on the end as it was well sunk into the soil and looked like lt'd need 3 linebackers from the Gator's football team to move it ! Sooo, we bought TWO new ( really quite old ) RR ties from the big pile at Lowe's in Northport. Digging our hole deeper for sure.
Long story short, - I gently sliced up ( very shallow slices ) the entire grassy area inside the new bed ! Then came Tuesday, the day we couldn't put off any longer, - so in desperation I hijacked my 70 yo neighbor Tom, and somehow the 3 of us were able to get those TWO huge, heavy ties off the truck and in place on the grass. Then we lined the sides of the new ties with plastic and then Rhonda and I poured in 38 bags of compost & cow manure.
Getting tired again just thinking of all this, so will just add a few pics, then sit and have a cold one on the lanai ! Enjoying the marvelous weather and experiencing what the Eagles surely must have meant when they sang about that " Peaceful Easy Feeling ! " LOL
Get tired just lookin' at this pic. Gettin' both home was a hassle, but nowhere near the struggle we had getting them from the truck to their proper place on the lawn !!!
New home of the 3 Big Mike's is to the far right !
All done !!! Time to relax,..where's that Sea Breeze ? : ) Expecting the 3 Big Mike's to arrive within the next 4 days. Planting them will be so easy, compared to gettin' their future home squared away !!! LOLjofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years ago
tcgardener Zone 10a SE Florida
6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked tcgardener Zone 10a SE Floridajofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoGlenn Jones(9b)
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked Glenn Jones(9b)tcgardener Zone 10a SE Florida
6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked tcgardener Zone 10a SE Floridajofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoHi Carol, am sure it's not easy growing bananas in zone 9b, but am hoping this warmer weather will save your crop. Good luck !
Hi Scott, thanks for the post. Unfortunately my computer just started acting up, - have not been able to get thru to AOL, where I send/receive my emails ! For 3 days now, even my computer genius wifey has been unable to break through ! Maybe we can communicate " offline " on Houzz ?
In the meantime will try to update what's happenin' here with my bananas.
Awhile ago I said I'd most likely have 4 flag leafs by April 1st. Well I only have 3, but am not complaining. As I learned many years ago, PATIENCE is the name of the game with bananas ! A few pics !
The 2 x 4 prop I nailed together 2 days ago as the Mama plant looked like it was getting ready to crash down due to the increasing weight of my latest flag leaf, which only emerged 6 days ago,..when my osprey eyes first got a narrow glimpse of it. It's an Ice Cream, and it has me quivering with excitement, - never grew an Ice Cream stalk to maturity. I expect the stunning pale silvery/blue hands will start to appear soon !
Thar she blows !!!
These are the newest addition, the 3 Gros Michel's I have been waiting for,..like forever !!!!! They only arrived 3 weeks ago and were promptly planted in our new extension to the raised bed,..a 9' x 9' plot that will be strictly reserved for these guys and their offspring ! :)
An ideal spot for these babies. The shade is only about 40 % in the early AM, ( pic taken at 8:30 AM today ) ..will be only like 10 % by noon !
Muchas gracias again to Silvia for putting me onto these guys !
Another view ! ( click on pic for more definition )We also added a UF BEST peach tree at the other end of our yard, it had sixty ( 60 ) smallish peaches on it when planted, I immediately pruned off 51, leaving 9 that were picked by wifey an hour ago ! Dark red, soft and the one slice I ate was absolutely scrumptious !!! Reminded me of the old days up in NW New Jersey and my Elberta orchard !!! LOL
But that will definitely be the last item I plant on our ever-burgeoning property,..no doubt,..the very last tree/shrub,..NO MORE !!!
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoCarol Pennington-York
6 years agojofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHi Glenn : The Big Mikes ( Gros Micheles ) are doing fine, thanks for asking.
All 3 of these guys arrived quite small,..barely 7 inches tall above ground as I recall. Now, after being planted only 7 1/2 weeks ago, and receiving a little TLC, plus the huge torrential downpours over that time,..the biggest plant is a robust 36 inch's tall, - & the other 2 only an inch or so smaller !
The most prevalent word when growing bananas is PATIENCE, ( as you well know ) ! That said, I am hoping to be tasting some by this time next year ! What do you think ?
A few pics, taken today,..between rain squalls !
The beer can is there only for a size reference !! :o)
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoThanks Carol,..being retired leaves me plenty of time to prep the bananas in the way they like ! :o)
First off I'd like to keep my promise to Sylvia
that I'd post a short note on how some of my five varieties of bananas
taste, as I sample them ! I just harvested my 1st stalk of Ice Creams a
week ago, hung 'em in a shed till they softened and ripened a bit more.
Had the 1st one 2 days ago and the taste was an eye opener ! Like its name suggests, it is sweet with undeniable hints of vanilla and its skin even appears frosted, starting out as a bluish-green color before it ripens. Its texture was fluffier and creamier than the typical banana and it practically melted in my mouth. Bottom line ; I am sold !! My very first Ice Cream and it was exquisite !! Only about half the size of the Cavendish's that Wally's sell, but taste wise ? NO COMPARISON ! These guys may be sloowwww to develop, but well worth the wait,..IMHO ! Now
will be watching the others ( Goldfinger, Jamaica Reds, Apple & the
Big Mikes ) to put out a robust stalk ! Have already tasted the
Goldfingers & Apples,..on a scale of 0 - 10, they were 9.0's :o) !!
The Ice Cream ? ..a 9.0 also ! Have a feeling the Jamaica Reds and
the Big Mikes will step up to the plate in like fashion ! I enjoy
the Cavendishes also, when nothing else is available,..rate 'em around a
6.5 in comparison ! Not putting them down really,..I love nanas of all
types,..but the home grown guys are special !Must mention in closing, the gorgeous foot wide
white blossoms on my 22+ ft tall Edith Bogue southern magnolia tree on
the front lawn ! Must be 18 - 20, STILL blooming !!! I find it
especially scintillating when I detect the heavenly fragrance from afar,
before I see the white blossoms ! Must be my Edith is putting on
a special show to impress her doubting, cynical Yankee caretaker !! :o)
This is Joey, my little Egret who has made his home under Edith. He does a good job of protecting her from any critters !
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoHi Glenn,
Yeah the three Gros Michels are doing fine. I'll add a few pics that I
took earlier today using my ol' trusty can of beer to give an idea of
their relative size. Am a bit surprised in the different sizes of each, -
one is quite tall at 6 1/2 ft, the 2nd is 4 1/2 ft tall and the smallest guy is a midget at only 3 1/2 ft tall !They all have distinctive light brown markings on
their wide leaves, unlike the other bananas I've grown which have a
solid green color !Looks like it'll be another 8, 9 months before I see
a flag leaf, but considering these guys were only planted 3 1/2 months
ago, I think they've grown fast, especially the tallest two, - so maybe it'll be sooner !
This whole banana plantation has grown very fast and thick in the last 4
months ! The most dense I've ever seen it since I planted the first guy 9 yrs ago !! There's an RV park over that 6' tall wooden fence behind the
'nana's, - we used to clearly see the tops of a few RV's and many small
homes back there, but no more. Reminds me of an old Tarzan movie
set,..half expect to see Cheeta come hopping out ! :o)- jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a ) thanked Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
jofus, ( Englewood, Fl zone 10a )
5 years agolast modified: 5 years ago
SweetMonkeyCheese Z9 Tampa