Ok , here is a question , last february I got 9 diferent types of banana plants , all where micropropagated litle guys few inches tall, I have Kru, Java blue, gran nain, goldfinger , 1000 fingers , ornata macro, manni, super duarf cavendish, anyway they are doing good so far from 2 to 5 ft tall , how soon can I expect flower stalk to be produced and from what plant will it be first ?

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hi lizard, here in St. Augustine (zone 9), most varieties bloom after one winter assuming they have reached mature size (height). The problem some years we can't keep them from freezing thru the winter. What other tropicals are you interested, Papayas?, guavas?, citrus?.

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I have upland cotton, mallows, others.

Thanks Leo , it is my first time growing bananas , but I have had succes with other tropicals like citrus, guavas of diferent kind , mango ,papaya, passion fruit ,it still gets a litle cold here inthe winter and many of the plants slow down then , but manage to survive , we share weather with San Diego,CA.

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lizard - dodging hurricanes is no fun. My plants, (yard) which were beautiful and orderly are now demolished and tattered after "frances" came thru here. What can you do? get back on the horse. My 'rajapuri' banana just put out a bloom before the hurricane and fortunately it survived. The other variety I have is 'ice cream', which is very tall and hasn't bloomed yet. I also have papaya, guava, mulberry, orange, grapefruit, persimmon, fig, pear, tangerine, and avocado trees. The avocado is a seedling and has not produced yet, about 18' tall. It has been killed back by cold every year except last year. If your whether is same as San Diego, then it is quite mild. There is a banana orchard with dozens of varieties of bananas there. I saw it on Victory Garden. They sell bananas at their fruit stand.
I wonder if Elizah Wood is "The Elizah Wood" of the big screen. So long.

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I have upland cotton, mallows, others.

Hey Gecko, It takes my plants about a year and a half to flower from the time they break the soil. so new sprouts in spring, flower the next fall. They seem to need a couple of "babies" growing well before they get comfortable enough to go.

Wow, you have a very nice selection gecko! Hope you gets some flowers soon.

I'm still waiting for my banana plants to flower I think it is going to be another year or so? My musa basjoo grew suckers this year though so I am very pleased; esp. since I just started growing.

Most bananas will produce the flowers around 10-15 months after a sucker forms, and all this depends on the type of banana and your growing season, if it's too cold not enough sun etc the plants won't flower. When any plant flowers or produces a fruit well it is because it got enough of everything it needed to grow and it has some extra energy left over to reproduce.

Stijn

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'All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.' - - - T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia)

I think the chinese yellow banana is one of the most beautiful flowers of any plant I've every seen. The only thing I can think of that can compare would be the some cactus flowers I've seen in bright desert sun in Arizonia these cactus flowers where like nothing I've ever seen before they where so bright and vibriant, you couldn't capture it on film. I can't remember they name of this cactus but it has big pink florecent flowers that only come out for a short period.

Maybe your thinking of San Pedro cactus, I'm seen them have some really nice flowers but I think they where white and would open more at night If I remember right.
Or could it be this
CLEISTOCACTUS smaragdiflorus catamarca "Firecracker cactus"?? http://www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~1~Product_ID~2255~StartRow~1.cfm

You got me thinking, do you have any tips how I can protect my bananas from getting ripped up from the wind? I was thinking of maybe planting some kind of trees or something as a wind break or maybe a fence for now. Could you throw one of those anti-bird nets over the plant before a storm perhaps? I don't know?

Bananas are quite tough in the wind. Mine took hurricane winds this Summer, but it tends to shred the leaves into strips. I think they are like coconut palms in their ability to withstand windstorms.

hi,
usually suckers grow on the base of the mother plant, and these suckers maintain the production for the next years when the mother plant dies. try to select the best sucker (the one about 1.2 meters tall) before winter time (about 90 days), and remove the others. this sucker will go into dormant stage in winter, its leaves will dry, tear, but the central leaf will be alife. this sucker will start to produce new leaves as soon as the spring arrives and the temp starts to grow again. This sucker starts to make leaves and it will flower with 6 month (spring & summer) after winter. at fall, like 120 days after flower, you can harvest.

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bob