When I moved to Boca Raton, FL, I found that the grocery stores had bananas that were unlike the bananas (usually Dole) found in midwestern groceries. They were different in two respects:

#1 – They were about 25% smaller, both in length and girth.

#2 – When the “Dole” bananas developed brown spots on their peels, the fruit would also have unappetizing gooey brown spots. But when the small FL bananas developed brown spots on their peels, even lots of ‘em, the fruit was still good. In fact, even better, with no “green” taste.

Does anyone know the name of those small bananas?

Thanks.

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Originally posted by HRK:

Nanner Link

Do you know long it takes a new plant to start producing? (Remember, I'm an Old Guy)

Time to make the Nanners

Can't say from personal experience but google says about a year, 10 to 15 months depending.....

My daughter just bought a new house, back yard has seasoned Orange, Lime, Myers Lemons, figs and a nanner plant.

The lemons are going full bore, we'll get it cleaned up around them, pop on some fertilizer and see how it goes...

I think you'll be at the costco fruit section for a bit...

Plantains?

I think they are called Lady Finger bananas?

There are many, many varieties of bananas but most US supermarkets usually only carry the familiar Cavendish type.

If you are referring to the "mini me" small bananas that have a somewhat apple-like flavor to them, they are called plátano manzano.

These....

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Originally posted by Sigfest:
Plantains?

Don’t think they were Plantains. The Plantains that I know of have thick, tough peels, whereas the little bananas had thin delicate peels.

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Originally posted by V-Tail:

quote:

Originally posted by HRK:

Nanner Link

Do you know long it takes a new plant to start producing? (Remember, I'm an Old Guy)

We planted a young plant, and with plenty of water and huge amounts of manure fertilizer, it bloomed after a year. According to the horticulturists Natasha knows, that is rare. It sprouted 5 offshoots, and he have 5 hands ripining now. It took the offshot about 15 months to bloom. Good news is, we have 3 more stalks nearly the same size, so we hope next summer to have 2 or three blooms. Lots of fertilizer is the key.

quote:

Originally posted by Dtech:
If you are referring to the "mini me" small bananas that have a somewhat apple-like flavor to them, they are called plátano manzano.

These....

Those looks like the ones I asked about, but from the web:

“The platano manzano has a thin, yellow skin, white flesh, and a very sweet flavor, with characteristic notes of acidic green apple.”

The “thin, yellow skin” part is right, but there was no acidic or green flavor. They were very mellow – the tastiest bananas that I’ve ever eaten. Even so, this might be the right answer to my question – flavor is subjective. Thanks.

We do have a banana expert on the forum, but he has not chimed in yet.

I think the "acidic green apple" description was meant to be an all together description (not that they are particularly "acidic" or green / less ripe tasting), but yes their flavor can vary a little depending on where they come from and how ripe they are. Apple-like flavor is to be taken as a guidance only as it is the closest thing people can relate the taste of these bananas to as they are a unique tasting banana but yet with a familiar banana goodness (if you like bananas that is, which I do).

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Originally posted by V-Tail:
We do have a banana expert on the forum, but he has not chimed in yet.

He suggests peeling them with your feet.

Dwarf.......something.

In Hawaii we knew these as apple bananas.
Here's a description that likely fits what you found, Pipesmoker:

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If you've only eaten bananas in the Continental United States and Europe, odds are good that you've only had one kind of banana. But if you've had bananas in Southeast Asia or Hawaii, you may have run into a banana that's shorter and tarter, less sweet and perfume-y: an apple banana. In the age of pink pineapples and pluots, that might sound like the newest fad hybrid fruit, a cross between an apple and a banana. In fact, apple bananas, or Latundan bananas, are just a varietal of the fruit in the same way that Pink Lady and Red Delicious are varietals of apples. They're rich and just a touch tangy, a whole different ballgame than their cousin, the Cavendish banana, which is likely what you've been eating on your cereal.

Apple bananas, at least those we had in Hawaii, are more tart, firm, and IMO tasty than usual bananas, and tend to stay firm even as the peel gets black. They make fantastic banana bread, which you can buy on Maui on the Road to Hana. Ah, nostalgia!

Dwarf Cavender, mayybe dwarf cavendish

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
We do have a banana expert on the forum, but he has not chimed in yet.

This place is incredible with the range of experts here.

One day I will pose a question no member here has the answer to...

Enjoy them while you can. I understand there is a new banana disease.

Fusarium wilt of banana, popularly known as Panama disease, is a lethal fungal disease caused by the soil-borne fungus Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc). It is the first disease of bananas to have spread globally in the first half of the 20th century. The epidemic strated in Central America on the susceptible 'Gros Michel' banana, which at the time dominated the global export trade. In the 1950s, 'Gros Michel' was replaced by Cavendish cultivars. At the end of the 1980s, the so-called TR4 strain, to which Cavendish cultivars are susceptible, was isolated from samples from Taiwan[1]. It has since spread through Asia and reached Africa in 2013 (see Distribution of TR4).

The fungus enters the plant through the roots and colonizes the xylem vessels thereby blocking the flow of water and nutrients. Disease progression results in the collapse of leaves at the petiole, the splitting of the pseudostem base and eventually plant death. The fungus cannot be managed using chemical pesticides. The solution best adapted to the continued production of bananas in infested soils is replacing susceptible cultivars by resistant ones.

The pathogenic isolates are classified into races based on the cultivars on which they cause disease. For example, the isolates that affect cultivars in the Gros Michel, Silk and Pome subgroups, among others, are classified as race 1. When Cavendish cultivars exhibiting symptoms of Fusarium wilt were first observed, the isolates were classified as race 4. They were later subdivided into subtropical race 4 (STR4) and tropical race 4 (TR4) to distinguish the strains that need predisposing factors to cause the disease from the ones that don't (see Race 4). The race concept has been criticized for being an imperfect measure of pathogenic diversity, but it is still considered useful to describe host reaction and new disease outbreaks[2].

http://www.promusa.org/Fusarium+wilt

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
In Hawaii we knew these as apple bananas.
Here's a description that likely fits what you found,
<snip>

Thanks SJ. From your post, and Dtech’s earlier post, it’s now clear that the bananas that I asked about are “platano manzano”, which have an “interesting apple-like flavor”.

Your comment that they “tend to stay firm even as the peel gets black” is especially telling – it agrees with the “#2” comment in my OP.

Sure wish I could find these bananas in San Diego. They’re so good.

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Originally posted by Johnny 3eagles:
Dwarf.......something.

There’s a "Dwarf Cavendish" banana, but it’s not the one that I asked about. From Wikipedia:

‘The name "Dwarf Cavendish" is in reference to the height of the pseudostem, not the fruit.’