However last winter was not cold enough to kill the plants and for some reason they bloomed early. The bananas in this image should have time to ripen before the cool weather gets here, so I fertilized them, which helps development. They are supposed to have the flavor of vanilla ice cream. The plants are about 15 foot tall. Average trunk diameter is 12 inches.
Bananas are easy to grow providing they get lots of water, they like being watered from the top, as if it were rain. It cools the tree from warm temperatures that occur at the hottest part of the day, which is when thunderstorms occur in the natural environment, and the plant drinks from where water collects in natural pockets formed, where the leaves meet the pseudostem, as well as the roots. They love rainy weather and the past couple years here have been abnormally wet. I don't usually fertilize them unless there is a chance I get fruit. This summer there are more flowers in my Banana groves than I've ever seen.
The banana tree is not a tree at all, but a herbaceous plant, a herb, or a berry.There is no woody substance in the trunk (pseudostem). However bananas are fruit.One surprising thing about banana trees I've experienced is that once a banana tree has achieved its mature form, it does fine in temperatures to cool for it to have matured in the first place. It will do well, and seems to like temps around 60F.
October 14,16 my banana bunches are ripening beautifully. This is a very sweet, fruity, slightly tart, tasty banana.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Java_banana
