Young’uns grow so fast at this age

It seems like it was just three days ago that I last posted a picture about our banana bunch. Well, I guess it was.

Three days further progressed and it is amazing the difference. They say you can see these things grow and I tend to believe it now. If you will look at the picture I posted a couple of days ago you will see (or, I can see since I know what I am looking at) that there are four hands and then the main pod. There are actually five, but you can’t see that fifth one in the photo. In this new picture there are eight hands and the main pod. I am certain there are at least two more hands as part of the main pod there at the bottom, but there may be more.

This plant has three suckers (that is the technical name by the way) growing beside it. One is inconsequential since it is only about two inches high. The other two are too tall to cut off now. We did not know you were supposed to cut all suckers except one, which then becomes the follower. Since these plants grow in the wild and do just fine, I figure it is better to leave the two suckers we have now than to traumatize the plant by cutting off one of them.

The reddish protective leaf (I am sure there is probably a name for that) has fallen off of three of the hands and three more will probably fall tonight or tomorrow.

I suspect that a couple more hands will pop out of the pod at the bottom. If you look at the two pictures and can wrap your head around what you are seeing, you will realize that I have taken a picture of the same amount of information (just a slightly different angle). It is just that the stem that the bunch is growing on has gotten longer and the pod at the bottom has gotten smaller as the new hands pop out and begin to grow.

It seems like we will have bananas ready to eat in just a few more days, but having been through this process with some friends, we know it takes much longer than you expect.