After living in my current home in North Florida for about 27 years, I’ve only seen one banana flower on my banana trees.
We cleared a large portion of our property over the past year and found we had several other banana trees, and while excited to find them and clear around them, the real excitement came this summer. We noticed a banana flower by the trees next to our back porch, which has yet to produce a banana. Then noticed 4 bunches in the trees ‘down the hill’ on our property. More bananas than we will likely be able to eat, and certainly more than I’ve seen in my life.
Our family loves bananas, and growing up we did have a bunch in my parents’ yard, but we didn’t seem to love them, likely picked too early with my mom’s enthusiasm biasing her decision about when to pick them.
I’ve read up a little and spoke to my neighbor to determine when the best time might be. It was decided that we would cut off the flower after the bananas stopped being produced, and then when the bananas get to be a bit more rounded, we would ‘pick’ them.
Funny story, as my dad told it, he was visiting my mom’s family in Venezuela, where she lived for a part of her life, and as they were ‘picking’ bananas, one of my uncles cut the tree down, instead of just cutting the bananas off the tree. My dad was alarmed and asked why they didn’t just cut the bananas. He was told that once a banana tree produces a flower, it will die after the bananas are ripened. So rather than just cut the bananas (which in most cases they couldn’t easily reach), they cut the tree. The trunk of the tree is actually good for the living bananas as well so when possible, I’m told it is good to leave the trunk to decompose by the living trees.
As I was walking around my yard, I noticed one more banana flower right by my porch. So, 6 banana flowers, 5 banana bunches… Yum.
I hope the rest of N. Florida is enjoying bananas as I hope my family will be soon.