Nanners! (with pics)

I have some nice little fingerling bananas growing. Any idea of when to harvest? I have been instructed to cut the entire flowering stalk but beyond that I'm kinda clueless. Any advice is appreciated . Sorry for the smoke in the second picture but this is RIU

I sure wish I could grow bananas. Well I could if I built a two story heated green house in the back yard with supplemental lighting. I have the space and the money to do it. But for some reason I can't bring myself to dump $10,000 to grow bananas. If I had your climate I would have banana's everywhere. I love bananas. I'll eat three or four at a time.

I do have a Himalayan banana at my mothers in a huge pot that I bring into her garage every winter that's been growing for about ten years. They will even survive outdoors here in the ground but if they do produce fruit it's not an edible type. Thing is full of pups that I need to cut off and replant.

You guys and your tropical climates that can basically grow anything year round cause me extreme jealousy.

You want to harvest when the purple flower is shriveled up and the bananas get plump and rounded. It will ripen after you cut it but a good idea is to wait until you see a bit of yellow on a couple bananas and then its ready to harvest. Some people will cut the flower off once the fruit has set to encourage ripening. You got a while to go here.

waterproof808 said:

You want to harvest when the purple flower is shriveled up and the bananas get plump and rounded. It will ripen after you cut it but a good idea is to wait until you see a bit of yellow on a couple bananas and then its ready to harvest. Some people will cut the flower off once the fruit has set to encourage ripening. You got a while to go here.

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Thanks bro!

Do you ever eat those banana blossoms? I see them for sale in the Asian markets every now and then.

waterproof808 said:

You want to harvest when the purple flower is shriveled up and the bananas get plump and rounded. It will ripen after you cut it but a good idea is to wait until you see a bit of yellow on a couple bananas and then its ready to harvest. Some people will cut the flower off once the fruit has set to encourage ripening. You got a while to go here.

Click to expand...

You also encourage the biggest bananas to fill up by cutting the flower end. Depending on how big and healthy the plant is, usually the bananas end up becoming smaller and smaller in every set. So after the tiniest set you want to eat, people cut the end of the flower to force it to fill up.

Then when they're big and plump, just cut the whole banana thing and hang it somewhere.

It's a good idea to cut them when you think they're thick enough, because they can blow up (crack open in ridges) after becoming too fat

and make sure you cut the whole plant because once it flowered the plant is a goner

Thanks for the great advice guys. I will update when I harvest