Growing up in Barbados in the 60’s, almost everyone we knew kept livestock of some kind in their backyard. This would include pigs, sheep, goats, and chickens. In addition, there would be an herb and vegetable garden, (kitchen garden as it’s called) at the side of the house. Part of producing some of your food included the planting of fruit trees, (mango, papaya, soursop, avocado, coconut) to name a few. If your property was small with no room to plant the bigger fruit trees, you could still plant a banana tree, everyone had banana trees. Bananas are so easy to grow, you could literally establish a farm from a single tree, although it might take a while. Each tree, as it’s maturing, produces suckers. There could be as much as ten from a single tree. They can be removed and replanted and they in turn produce more suckers.
The main bearer and the next in line. 
Suckers, the next generation. 
A new leaf come out of the centre and unfurls like a sail. 
The banana flower in its initial stages look like a leaf but then thickens at the base and tapers at the top. 
After a few days the flower can no longer support its weight as the stem is still developing. It just falls over. 
One or two at a time, the petals begin to open, and fruit will soon be revealed. 
The first few “hands” usually have the most fruit, about two dozen on our plant. 
As the fruit on each hand begins to mature, the petal curls up, dries and falls away. 
The hands become smaller as the petals on the tapered end of the flower open. 
This is about as much as you’re going to get. As the fruit matures, the tree begins to lean from the added weight. The rest of the flower is removed. 
From the appearance of the flower to this point, about one month. Sometimes a stick is needed to support the tree from the weight of the banana bunch. Since a tree only produces one bunch, it is cut down after harvest. In about six months, one of the suckers, the heir apparent, will be ready to produce.
After a little more than a year of this planting, we had fruit. This bunch had over a hundred bananas. We shared with the neighbours, cooked some (green ones) harvested some to ripen, left some to tree ripen, baked banana bread, peeled and froze some. So that’s pretty much the life cycle of the banana. Island life offers a lot of cool and interesting experiences. Some people never see a banana until it’s in the market, here, I’m able to grow my own.
Trandy Escapes 
Great post. Excellent pictures. We always buy bananas but never give it a thought about how they grow in the tree. Do you have some other tropical fruit trees? Like mangoes or avocados?
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Hello and thanks. I do have a mango tree but not ready to bear fruit yet. I also have plantain trees, soursop and passion fruit. There’s a large mango tree at my family property in another part of the island, some of my neighbours have mango trees and they share.
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