Banana tree fruit pods

[greenthumbs]

Please Help! One of my banana plants bloomed the other day. My problem is that the pod, which is purple in color is not all complete. This has happened several years now. Five or six leaves, one at a time, 1 leaf per day, would open. There would be 8-10 baby bananas under each leaf. After the sixth leaf, the bananas appeared to be under-developed and all-flower form, and would fall off the pod. That has been the course of the whole bottom of the pod, so I only got around 50 bananas off the bloom. Less than half the pod developed. I find this a shame. What can I do in order for the rest of the pod to develop. Weather conditions haven't changed. I live in central Florida, so the plants get plenty of water. The plants are located on the north and east side of the house. The plant that is blooming is on the east side. Any help would be appreciated.

Wanda

[Ed Griffin]

The pod (flower) goes on forever, and ever, and .....forever..... The more wildly you feed and feed and feed the plant, the more bananas will develop.

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[how]

----- Original Message ----- From: Newsgroups: rec.gardens Sent: Thursday, June 02, 2005 10:48 PM Subject: Banana tree fruit pods

Hi, If you are referring to the small banana like things between the purple "leaves", these are the male flowers and will not become fruit. All the bananas form behind the pod. The female flowers are the dark area at the end of the banana but there will be no viable seeds. The purple leaves are edible, an aquired taste. Bananas require lots of potassium to produce good fruiting and they need it when the plants are very young, as in just emerging from the corm. IIRC the formulation that they would want would be something like 6-2-12. HTH -_- how no NEWS is good

[greenthumbs]

Ed: Thank you first for replying to my question. Are you saying all I need to do is fertilize? This has happened before @ my old home. I dug all the babies up and brought them here, to my new home. I only lost one plant in the process. I have waited 2 years for the babies to grow and bear fruit. Finally one plant did, but the whole pod didn't develop properly. The first 5 or 6 leaves had healthy bananas behind them, but now, the fruit isn't fully developed and they are fallling to the ground after the leaves open. Any additional help or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank You, Wanda

[greenthumbs]

How: Thank you for your response to my problem. You say the bananas falling off the pod are males. I'm still not understanding completely. How do they become females? What do I need to do to make the whole pod females and be bananas? Is it a lack of potassium? I have more bananas coming to maturity. Each of my bananas have 2 juveniles coming in their bed, which I have been told has to happen before they will bear fruit, as the fruit-bearing banana plant will die and they will not produce until there are two to take over the fruit-bearing status. Thanks, Wanda

[how]

Hi, If the 'bananas' that are falling off first appear under the petals of the purple/red blossom end, they are not bananas. This link shows a banana blossom.

link shows the male flower under the petals. a google image search for more. There is nothing you can do to make the male flowers become bananas, the male and female parts are there for the next generation but being hybrid and sterile, most edible bananas only reproduce by offshoots. Lack of potassium on the juvenile plants limits the amount and size of the fruit they will produce. HTH -_- how no NEWS is good