A couple of years back in December 2019, I published a post on a wee planting of bananas we had put in.
Here’s the photo I published of it at the time.
I followed that up in May last year in an update post, where I got to show you this photo.
It’s been raining all week here at The Outpost, and there’s not a whole lot to write about in the garden, but I thought I could post a few photos showing how that planting is going in April 2022.
A couple of the Inga Beans are pumping, though a couple are much slower to establish. I don’t know how long the tagasaste will keep growing for – we’ve had one complete it’s lifecycle and die on us already.
The hope is the natives and inga beans will grow to do their job, but I’m not sure if our timing has been great.
This summer I got more serious about fertiliser and mulch. I’ve been dumping grass clippings around the bases of the bananas and adding a bit of Tui Citrus and Fruit fertiliser around them too.
Between that, a high rainfall year, and the increased wind protection given by the mature tagasaste, the bananas have absolutely boomed this year.
We haven’t had fruit yet, but I think our first flower can’t be too far away. The wind is probably taking a toll on the fruiting potential, but we’ve had no problems breeding new stems – which was the main point anyway.
Overall, I love looking at these bananas and remembering how bare it all looked when we put them in.
Trees we have planted around the place (mandarin, apples, feijoa, limes, lemons, passionfruit) are now literally baring fruit and it’s so exciting.
Perhaps, not too long from now, I’ll be able to show you our first banana flower!
