Going Bananas

I was so excited yesterday to look up from the bottom of the garden and see I have another banana about to flower. For those who don't know the joys of growing your own bananas yet, the flower is the start of what will become your bunch of bananas. Last year, almost a year after planting two suckers that a friend had given me, I had my first two bunches of home grown bananas. The tricky thing is that like the small hand of bananas you buy and leave on the bench to ripen, the whole lot ripen all at once and I'd estimate that one of my bunches last year would have had in excess of 40 bananas on it. Thats a lot of bananas to deal with at once.

You can see the flower 'bud' in the centre of the image.

After picking the bunch, I've discovered then ripen quite quickly if I hang them inside off of the rafter in the lounge. (Just a note here, be careful for the sap, it stains, hence the newspaper on the floor). It also makes them easier to access. Fresh and newly ripe they are delicious to just walk past, grab one and snack on it, even my chooks like them (although it's interesting to note that they wouldn't touch a store bought one). The rest I chopped up and froze in tupperware containers thinking I'd use them in smoothies or even get motivated enough to do a banana cake. I felt that those two would be plenty to keep my happy, until I discovered banana icecream that is.



My grandaughter helping herself to one off a ripened bunch earlier this year.

 Those first two banana trees produced their own suckers. Most of the websites and blogs I googled suggested that you remove all suckers but one, so you are left with the leader (the first big one) and a follower which is the one that will replace it when you cut down the original after it delivers what will be it's first and only bunch.  This is so that the bananas put their efforts into producing fruit rather than growing the developing suckers. I have to admit, that laziness meant I've got more suckers than I should have and a few months back I got hubby to dig some out and we've established another two spots in the garden with their own two banana plants growing. These ones are coming along nicely, but it will be a year before I'll see them fruiting.



In the centre you can see one of the birds which visit the flowers daily. This photo was taken in early October so it's taken almost 2 months to form the fruit from this time.

 So last years two 'followers' became the leaders and were doing well, have flowered and now have set fruit, so it was a real shock to see that one of the 'followers' is also now beginning to flower.



Bananas growing on the bunch.


Then delight turned to panic last night as I was working late in the garden and saw not just one bat, but two land in my banana tree! Both flew off again, but now I'll have to watch very closely for the first signs of ripening on the bunches that are hanging there ready to make my move before the bats do. If  anyone has any suggestions on how I can deter the bats from my bananas please let me know.

The bananas bekonning to bats in the late day. How do they even know they are there?