Going Bananas



 The bananas in our greenhouse are receiving some tender loving care from Paul one of our expert greenhouse horticulturalists. 



Banana pup growing alongside mature banana

He has split a pup from one of the older plants and planted it into its own planter. A pup is effectively a banana cutting and it forms alongside the mature banana plant. We cut it when it' s 45cms tall, it’s quite a job because the trunk of the pup is 15cms wide.

 As with all cuttings it is very important to keep everything very clean when taking and planting the cutting/pup. This banana won’t fruit for another year or two, but the other 2 plants in our greenhouse should produce bananas from about June.



Banana pup

We grow Dwarf Cavendish bananas. This variety grows to 6 - 8 ft (1.8 - 2.4 m) and it is very fast growing. The bananas produced grow to 15 to 25 cm in length, and have a thin skin. Each plant typically produces 80 - 90 bananas when it fruits.

The bananas in our greenhouse are grown hydroponically (without soil). The planters use the Ebb & Flood technique which means water is pumped from a resrevoir below the planter to the plant roots several times per hour. Whatever the plant does not use drains (ebbs) away back into the resrevoir.

As the water ebbs away fresh oxygen is drawn down into the root area. This means that plants have great access to water, nutrients and oxygen. We think that the fact that we harvest on average 80 - 90 bananas a year is pretty good evidence of the effectiveness of this method of growing.