Bragging about my Bananas

Oh my god you guys- I grew these!  A year in to the pandemic and I’m finally self-sufficient; growing my own food.  Actually, I started on these like three years ago and this is the first time I’ve gotten them to bear fruit.  I’m so so please!  I’m a proud plant parent.

I had the odd, single, banana plant scattered in the yard and while I enjoyed the aesthetics of their foliage, I was expecting them to produce… but they never did!  I watched my neighbor’s trees fruit a few enviable bunches but for all my patience, I never got bananas myself.  I finally asked him what his secret was.  He said my trees were lonely, that they need a friend or two to flower and grow a banana bunch.  Ideally 3 plants in a grouping. 

I tried it and wow!  Months and months later: a baby bunch of bananas!  So, I guess I’m a farmer now. 

The other tip my neighbor gave me was to cut down the tree that produced the bunch- it will not flower a second time- and let a new shoot replace it.  I can’t wait to see my next harvest!  I just hope the wait isn’t another 3 years.