There was all manner of terrible titles I could have given this post. Please appreciate my restraint.
It is a good indication of how distracted I’ve been over the past week when I say that I noticed this last Saturday
A banana flower, 20 months after planting the tiny pup. This is a dwarf cavendish banana, and it was sold as a ‘cool climate’ banana in Bunnings.
Over the week I’ve been checking the progress daily as the flower petals unfurl to expose more hands of tiny bananas. This is what it looked like a week ago:
And today:
It looks like some of the bananas have been bruised in the unfurling process. I read that they are extremely delicate at this stage and even leaves brushing against them in the wind is enough to damage them.
At first I was very worried about the angle of the flower and whether it was going to grow over (or right into) the side fence. Luckily it seems to have turned downwards fairly quickly.
P estimates that I might have somewhere between 150 and 200 bananas on the bunch. Should keep us in smoothies for a while!
500m2 in Sydney 
They really have that many in a bunch? I would love to watch them grow – must be fabulous!
That’s what I read, and it certainly looks like it. I’ll be posting frequent updates so you can follow along, but Tino grows a banana in the patch in Hobart, so I’m sure you could give it a go in Melbourne!
My parents have a few trees out the back, and they had bananas this year, but they never ripened properly. Also possums eat them. Might want to bag them eventually, I guess. I’ve ended up using the unripened bananas as worm food, luckily they don’t seem to be infested with fruit flies.
Did they specifically plant a named variety? There are types that don’t suit eating although they look similar. The lady down the road has them. I stopped in to ask her about them once and she dismissed me like”oh those – no, we don’t eat them!”.
Thanks for the bagging tip. I was planning to bag them in clear plastic – speeds ripening too.
Could they be the starchier plaintains? These you cook more like a potato than a banana.
Actually there were banana plants there before my parents bought the house, they cut down the dead ones and threw them down the back and they’ve been taking root and coming up every year ever since, so I don’t know what variety they are. Hope yours turn out well!
I was wondering about plantains too. I think you should try cooking them!
I love bananas but rarely buy them. I shop with my bike and they can get bruised up if I don’t have padding for them (which I never remember to bring). Congrats on your bananas.
I’m seriously impressed with your shopping by bike. I imagine it would reduce the amount you buy too – so many benefits!
Wow! That’s amazing. I look forward to more posts on how they go. But for now all I can think is I want a banana plant! But if it takes 20 months in Sydney, who knows how long it would take down in Melb.
The pups around the base are significantly more established than the baby I planted originally, so I think that I’d get a bunch annually if I constantly trained up the following sucker. I reckon it’s worth a try in Melbourne!
That is so interesting. That tree grew like a weed, it was so small 20 months ago. You will definitely have enough bananas for smoothies for quite a while if all those mature!
Yes- the grow has been phenomenal! And luckily I discovered recently that you can freeze bananas in their skins for use in smoothies and cooking.
How exciting!! We always keep heaps of frozen bananas for smoothies, that should keep you going for ages.
Hi, thought your followers might be interested in this: last week I visited the Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability in Waverton. It’s a wonderful place where North Sydney Council has converted a historic site into a community/native flower garden and resource centre. Worth a visit, here’s site link: http://www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au/www/html/3313-about-the-coal-loader.asp
I had no idea that is what they looked like. Fascinating! 😉
Just dropping by to let you know, I finally fixed up my blogroll page and you’re on it. I read your blog in my blog reader whenever you post, I get a copy. 🙂
Cheers!
Snoskred
Cute little babies, all curled up together – very exciting!