Last fall sometime I wrote a small note in our journal about watching the purple bud on a banana tree turn into a bunch of bananas. Well one of the 2 trees that I transplanted from the Stake farm last September 11th now has it’s own little purple bud forming. I am going to take a picture everyday, while the bananas are forming. It has been amazing to watch how large some of the bunches of bananas get. I have not been to the Stake Farm very much lately, but the banana trees that we cleaned up around last September are producing bananas. There is always a bunch to look at somewhere on the farm. Just across the street, the neighbor has a row of about 5 banana trees and there are 2 huge bunches on 2 of those trees. We have watched those for quite some time and the purple bud is still there but hasn’t produced any more bananas for more than a foot. People that raise bananas cut the bud end off when it starts to not produce anymore bananas. The bud has gone from coming out of the top of the tree and going straight up, to hanging down where it is more visible in 3 or 4 days. It looks to be about 2 inches in diameter in what will become the stock. The bud itself is over 1 foot long. The bunches of bananas will start to form under the first layer of the bud. That top layer will just dry up and fall off after the flowers have been pollinated and the banana starts to form. There will be 10 or 12 bananas on that layer and then the bunch starts to look like a twirl as it continues to grow. They are an apple banana variety. They don’t get quite as big (long) but are bigger around, and they still go from green to yellow. They have the same look as they are growing though. It is really interesting to watch the bananas form. They are about as big as your little finger and have a large yellow flower on the end of what will become the banana. As the flower is fertilized, the flower dries up and the finger sized banana starts to grow. Another day or so and you have another layer come out from under the next layer of the purple bud and another 10 or 12 bananas appear. I will give you a head count as they appear. Eileen is already planning things to do with our banana money.
This was Thursday morning, August 11. There are 3 fallen bracts on the ground and well over 60 bananas that can be counted on 6 whorls.
Here is a close up of the yellow flower before it starts to fade.
