Plantains?

Racing against the inevitable killing frost (and surely to lose badly) is this plant. My source, who came by yesterday, grew up in Belize - his family grew sugar cane and produced rum. Though he's not a banana expert he thinks it is a plantain. He has bloomed them here in 6a too and seen immature fruit but never had any ripen. He says that the fruits come in (several) smaller bunches than the "regular" banana. (?) I don't suppose there is any way to tell other than actually harvesting the fruit. I love fried plantains for breakfast, sliced thinly. Um good!
I will update this post as the blooming/fruiting progresses. If these prove to be plaintains one will just have to stay in the greenhouse until I get some!
Dave.

What exactly is the difference between bananas and plantains?

I think plantains are less dessert-like and more potato-like.

I'm with Dave, one of my fav breakfasts is fried plantain.

SB

I've seen varities from Ecuador and Guatemela here at different stores. Plaintains are larger than the regular bananas, green, and slow to ripen. I suppose this is somewhat of an advantage since they can be shipped and stored for a while. They are very starchy (and hard) until ripe, the starch slowly converting to sugar. When fully ripe the skins are nearly black. Peel them and slice thinly (DW likes them thiker) and fry in butter until golden brown. Delicious.

Surely someone on DG grows one or two.
Dave

I have 2 varieties of Plantains: New Guinea and Rhino Horn which is massive.
My New Guinea plantain is finally taking off after stuggling at it's new home here for the past 2 years. I got the Rhino (said to grow 25' tall) as a mother bulb so I still have it in a pot but it's doing wonderful.

I think that the plantains are usually larger, with a longer shelflife and thicker skin.

Some people (my Cuban relatives) eat the semi green plantains like mashed potatoes with almost every meal.

Here is about 100 plantain recipes http://web.foodnetwork.com/food/web/searchResults?searchString=plantains&site=FOOD&searchType=Recipe

Oh yes! I forgot our local "horse banana" which is an extremely hardy plantain. I planted them and there was no shock- they took off like crazy.

Unfortunately our first frost date here is usually in October. I have the bananas (and plaintains?) in a bed next to an in-gound pool which tends to fend off the first frost or two. We have had years without a killing frost well into November but also had frosts in early October. I'm sure we won't have mature fruit but perhaps we will be able to tell what sort of Musa we have.

I can't imagine the work it must be to have bananas in a cold climate. We had one frost at the beginning of the year (I think it was Feb) but it was short lived and only killed my noni seedlings.

Well, it's like working as an Elementary School String Music Teacher (my DW) - you train the kids and just when they are getting good they up and leave.

Here's today's picture - the scape bract must have come off in the wind yesterday (makes for easier picture taking).

That is one awesome picture!

Here is the fruit picked about 6 weeks later. Only the first bunch set any fruit. I don't know if that was due to the colder weather but the bees were all over the flowers right up until the end. With upper 20's forecasted this morning I decided to cut off the fruit and see what happens. As you can see, each fruit is only about 4" long, and the edges are very pronounced, like many plaintains I have had the pleasure of eating. They are also rather hard and very green.