Topochos and Apple bananas
It's amazing that we've made it this far already! Last year I was also harvesting at this time of year, how fortunate! I was recently on vacation from work and almost missed the Garden Journal Challenge!!! Although I took care to get enough rest and dealt with other activities that I had neglected, I diligently watched my plants working their magic on their own in silence!
Among them, the most prolific and curious, in my opinion, are bananas and plantains. Bananas belong to the Musa genus, within which about 70 species are recognized. In my orchard there are 5, 3 are bananas and 2 are plantains, all with different characteristics of growth, size and flavor, and it applies to both plants and fruits.
Of the bananas there is a variety that is like ordinary bananas. in size and flavor, only that its peel tends to be greenish, that is, it does not turn yellow completely even when ripe (which usually causes some to be lost by leaving them too long).
Last year's harvest
Then there is one that gives a super tiny, but very sweet banana. Also, this one reproduces more than the previous one, although it bears less fruit.
In 3rd place there is one that we call "dwarf banana" because the plant is really less than half the size of any of the others, and it has taken a long time to grow, it just recently started to bear fruit and already has a pup.
Of the plantains there is one that is known as "topocho" is a little smaller than the common plantain and also has a more square shape, this plant also reproduces surprisingly, however, the other plantain that we have almost 2 years ago, has not yet borne fruit, and just now is that it is giving a pup. I have had some problems with this variety since I was given two as a gift, one had a trunk fall on it and it broke, it sprouted but then dried up, the one that is left is surviving because its growth has been too slow and it looks too skinny for the size it has, but I have hope to see its fruits and that it reproduces!!!!
Topochos recently harvested
The survivor 🤣
And its pup giving me hope
But it's not just bananas! I have also recently harvested cassava and malabar spinach and herbs like oregano. The plant has grown a lot and now I have fresh oregano whenever I want, sometimes I pick it in the mornings to prepare my lunch as well as the spinach, while I drink my coffee I grab the leaves hahaha.
Fresh Oregano
Malabar spinach growing wild
Getting some for luch, I usually cook it with eggs
This type of spinach is also low maintenance, the previous planting if I took care of it a little more at the beginning, with these I just let them grow where they wanted and that's it! Below you can see how one grew near where I planted my new passion fruit and stretched so much that it climbed over that fence and now they are tangling with each other!
Top: Passion fruit vines. Bottom: Spinach. There's a wild season coming since there are 2 passion fruit plants there, last time I was going crazy with 1
Being able to have this kind of plants that require practically no maintenance and yet you can still take advantage of them has been very helpful since I don't have time to take full care of my garden, because whenever something is missing in the kitchen, there is always something there to solve the food!
I'm happy to keep sharing my experiences with all of you! And I hope you enjoyed the reading ;) read you soon!!
Gracias por leerme. | Thanks for reading.
Todas las fotos son de mi autoría. | All photos are my own.
