Harvesting Banana Plants
Are you ready to enjoy delicious homegrown fruit? Harvest is the time to enjoy the results of your hard work. Keep a few things in consideration as you reap the fruits of your labor: the best time to pick the fruit from your tree, and how to store the fruit.
NOTE: This is part 11 in a series of 11 articles. For a complete background on how to grow banana plants, we recommend starting from the beginning.
The banana plant typically produces fruit 15-18 months after planting. After the banana plant flowers and fruits, the top portion of the plant dies and another plant sprouts up from the same roots to replace the previous banana plant.
Banana stalks are found in the late summer and then winter over. The fruit begins to plump up and ripens in April. Occasionally, a stalk will form in early summer and ripen before cold weather appears.
Mature bananas are not harvested when they are yellow but while they are still green. As the fruit matures the fingers get fatter but stay green. About 4-6 weeks after the fingers have stop growing you can harvest your fruit. Bananas are ready to pick when they look well rounded between the ribs and the little flowers at the end are dry and rub off easily. It is best to cut off the whole stalk of bananas. Hang your stalk of bananas in a shady spot to finish ripening. They usually ripen from the top to the bottom going from green to yellow.
