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Saba Bananas, originating from the Philippines Happily Growing in North Florida!
Date(s): opened Nov. 8, 2018. Album by Bruce Strand. Photos by Bruce & Ralph. 1 - 26 of 26 Total. 1419 Visits.
1 Here is our entrance gate and behind it is where the bananas are kept.
2 Chicken yard right next door provides plenty of fertilizer for these bananas to really grow. This variety is the " Saba " banana from the Philippines ....... and they made it all the way over here ...... HA !
3 Some of our banana crop here.
Ready for some banana cream pie ? "Or Banana bread...yum yum" View Comments...
4 Now if this don't beat all ! It's the heart of the banana plant that made fruit and I was chopping it down and feeding it to the hogs. After watching them I noticed they pealed open the trunk and ate the heart. Sliced in 1/2" chips, in the microwave for 1 minute, it has a pleasent taste to it like that of a summer squash, and a little butter and salt it tastes great. I found a new use for the plant trunk ! ( Sue says, "Now you take food from the pigs?" )
5 And another bunch of the delishious bananas..
6 Our friend Kelly from Minnesota taking some of our bananas back to the cold country. Banana cream pie on the menu !
7 So, with so many bananas we dehydrate them making banana chips and then vacuum seal them and into the freezer.
8 It takes about a day to do a big batch of the banana chips.
9 Way up there is my next banana cream pie !
Actually they are about 14 ft high here. They grow so profusely because the chicken pen is right next door and plenty of hot fertilizer runs off when the daily sprinkler and over flow from chicken water trough drains to the banana plants.
10 Nothin like a sneck around your neck. This is my pet grey rat snake, Herman, and he lives in the banana plants and eats any mice, rats, and roaches that appear. He has also been know to eat a couple eggs from the chicken yard once in a while. That's his pay for guarding my Saba bananas ........
11 These are newly planted banana shoots and they get watered every day from our lawn sprinklers. Fertilized four time a year with 15 / 0 / 30 to keep them growing well they also like a shot of Amonium nitrate 18 / 0 / 45 once in a while and that stuff kills all the weeds around them but they can't get enough of it. Bananas are heavy feeders for sure.
12 And look at the growth in six months !! Water and feed your bananas often and you will have a happy plant with a nice crop of bananas. With global warming bananas will grow more and more in north Florida.
13 Another banana picture on our entrance road.
14 OWWww ! Banana down ! When they finish producing, they come down easy with a little cut to the rear of the plant in the direction you want them to fall and they are easy to just pull down. Here our chickens love the leaves and the pigs as well ...... not much around here gets wasted.
15 Here are some of my bananas up above people below.
16 Just to get some prospective about the size of the Saba banana here's a beer can on top ( ready to be drank - ha )
17 Left to right - Lynn - Bruce - and Les, who just got a baby plant for his homestead in MacClenny FL. These folks are also highly RADIO ACTIVE !!
18 Here are the banana plants from a distance and ................ one of our weed eaters " Opal "
Download MPEG4 19 Ron's banana history - click the above image to play video
20 My son Brett with his huge crop in Jupiter Florida.
