I know February is still a long way off and what was true last year may not be the next.I was looking at the instructions for ordering for a previous year and it said the cost was $3 and cutting amounts were 1 to 3 for each variety. Is that $3 for each cutting or $3 for each variety. Like I said Feb. is nowhere close but I am starting to assemble a list of desirables. I need an idea as to cost before I come up with a list I may not be able to afford. I am new at this so a little coaching will be appreciated.

I ordered fig cuttings for the first time from Encanto this year too. I was also confused by the same thing. I asked for, but did not get clarification. It turns out the cost was $3 for each cutting and my bill was about $100 instead of about $30 - 40. But I wanted the cuttings, so I said to myself 'oh well', and paid.

Well, knowing what we now know about rooting cuttings, maybe only one of each is required, as long as they are dormant! 

I do have my list for Jon specifically, and those are varieties I can not get free from UC Davis. 

My loyalty to Jon and this forum is huge, but you have got to consider the costs, and weigh things.  I have paid and am willing to pay.  Have also gotten cuttings free from members, and am willing to do the same for figs I own. 

Dicey little game here, but we all owe Jon for the forum, and selling rooted trees and donating profits to the foundation sounds like a great idea to me.  I forgot who came up with it, but someone did today.  You would need a rare tree indeed to offer it for sale with proceeds going to the fig foundation.  Mine are all pretty common.  Bummer.

Finally done with work for the day, and can relax and think about my Fantasy Football tonight!

Suzi

$3 for each cutting was last year.  It may go up this year.  There's also shipping on top.  Jon takes cuttings of 2000 trees, has to keep them all straight, build everyone's order, label all the bags, label all the boxes and get them to the post office.  There are hundreds of orders!  I got a small taste of that with 150 cuttings of only 1 variety.  It's a lot of work.

1 million dollars donanton to the f4f foundation

Dan, your going to change that number. Dr. Evil puts his finger up to his bottom lip and says 1 trillion dollars. (evil laugh).  Austin Powers



luke

Is that in stone, Celt?  Jon won't need us!

[QUOTE=rcantor]$3 for each cutting was last year.  It may go up this year.  There's also shipping on top.  Jon takes cuttings of 2000 trees, has to keep them all straight, build everyone's order, label all the bags, label all the boxes and get them to the post office.  There are hundreds of orders!  I got a small taste of that with 150 cuttings of only 1 variety.  It's a lot of work.[/QUOTE]

I don't think anyone begrudges Jon getting a fair price for his cuttings - it's a great resource and I'll probably buy more this coming year too. But it would be nice if he clarified a sentence or two pertaining to the cost, especially for new people.

OK, we'll work on clarification this year.

Having said that, I have no idea what will happen next February. I never know till I take the cuttings, what there will be. Previous ears we have priced things according to variety and scarcity. this year we went with a flat rate price in part because we were forced by the warm winter to begin taking cuttings earlier than usual before the broke dormancy and were lost, which shortened the time available for assessing each variety. So some were a little more expensive and some were significantly cheaper than previous years.

This is still a work in progress. On the flip side, watering all those cuttings runs about $600 a month in the summer months. That also includes the bananas, but they are by far the smaller portion.

OK seperate your banana costs out of the fig costs. 

The Fig Foundation only wishes to help with the fig costs.  Can you separate them? 

Bananas are really cheap at the grocery, and they are a good source of vitamins, but, frankly darling, they are really ugly to grow.  And those that grow them, let them look raggedly and we always question if they ever produce a banana.  Can you justify growing them when they are so good and cheap at the grocery?

Suzi

Suzi, only you can answer that question.  I highly recommend getting an Ice Cream plant from Jon.  If you do, save room for your next obsession.

Suzi, the bananas I grow are no available in any store. You have obviously never ventured beyond Chiquita. ;-))

Maintaining the fig collection is currently funded by sales of cuttings and plants, including sales of banana plants. The Foundation is not paying for any of it, currently, and I do NOT expect that to change in the near future.

Suzi, that is like saying you will only get figs at the grocery store. 

My aunt has many banana plants and the flavors off of those plants are amazing. Def not the cheap grocery store Chiquita. You should go to a farmers market and pick a few up and enjoy a tropical vacation at home. 

Jon, I've been an officer in several Horticultural groups and boy do I know what it's like to get inudated with suggestions. The problem is the suggesters usually don't do anything to actually get the job done. I'm not trying to disparage this group, this is a great group and without the distance logistics I think you would get lots of help. Just a point of fact that it's easy to offer up ideas if you aren't seeing them through personally. The other thing is that there is a thousand ways to skin a cat or run a fig foundation. 

OK!  I'm good buddies with Chiquita!  I guess my opinions on Bananas should be left out.  I didn't know there are multiple flavors.  Maybe when I come down to pay Jon for figs and cuttings, he can prove to me how much better they are than Chiquita!  I'll be happy to sample!

We've been looking at properties wth acreage, and many have these huge banana tree clumps and nobody takes care of them and they look all raggedy and they also look impossible to remove.  I've seen them so big you can't even see the house behind them!  Not sure why people let them get so ugly and huge, but this is where my opinions on Banana Clumps come from.

This fig fan will say no more about the dreaded banana, I promise :-))

Suzi

Thanks for clarifying the cost structure, Jon. Besides that, it must be a herculean job to do what you do in such a small time window. As with legit sellers on ebay, I really like to see people make good coin for what they offer. In the end, that helps everyone.

As to bananas, at a farmers market I used to go to, there was someone who sold an incredible array sizes and colors of bananas grown in SoCal. I love my Chiquitas to be sure, but their's were from another dimension. (photo from the net.) Here ya go Suzi. :)

i like banana.. didn't know there were better banana than chiquitas.. i don't think banana will do well here. my grandfather on mother side had a banana tree in korea. never seen it putting on a fruit.. then again, he used to grow peacock too..

One of the dirty little secrets in agriculture is that taste is not the priority. If you are going to plant and orchard of peaches, bananas, apples, or what ever, or tomatoes, lettuce, peas, etc. There are a whole series of criteria that go into what gets grown: does it do well in my climate, disease and pest resistance, uniformity of plant size, uniformity of fruit size, or vegetable size, does it scar easily, post harvest requirements, easy of picking, is it alternate bearing, and etc. etc., etc. One of the biggest criteria is presentability: does it look nice, have good shape, color, etc. (will people buy it). We have a tendency to want perfect fruit sand produce, even when it does not affect flavor. So those who produce fruit and produce tend to produce what we want because that is what sells. Flavor is a criteria, but not always at the top of the list.

As an aside, that is why we are part of this forum, because we want more than the 25 varieties that are mass produced for the nursery industry. Not picking on anyone in particular, but call Edible Landscape or Guerneys, or whomever and try and buy a Ronde de Bordeaux tree, or a 143-36, or a Black Bethlehem. It ain't going to happen. But we all know that there are 1000s of varieties out there,  but the overwhelming majority are not available commercially. Same idea.

There are many very good tasting bananas, but they fail in other criteria. They have thin or easily bruised peels, they do  not color up to a nice yellow like a Chiquita, they don't peel as easily, they are smaller, larger, different shaped, etc.

Much of American agriculture is based on a factory or manufacturing mentality - to produce large volumes of the same thing at an inexpensive price, and opposed to customized production. That is changing somewhat with the growth in farmer's markets,  buy local initiatives, and such.

Not complaining or saying one way is better or worse, just pointing out how it is.

Suzi, banana leaves fray in any wind strong enough to raise a flag.  Each type has a height it gets to before producing bananas.  The dwarf types sometimes don't ever produce bananas so if you're serious you grow the bigger ones.  People who grow the chiquita type banana will tell you ripening them on the plant produces a much better fruit than ripening them at home. 

OTOH, digging them up is much easier than you think.  Each stalk has a corm at the base.  Dig up the corm and there's no more plant.  The roots don't matter.

OTOH, if you have tall bananas, you might as well fertilize and water them, get the bananas  (The flowers are gorgeous, too - take pictures!) then the stalks will die down and you'll get dozens of 'pups' which you can sell off and be rid of them forever.   Unless of course you eat a fruit and change your mind....    :)

Jon, What you say is so true. Most large operations don't grow for flavor or taste, they grow to please the eyes. If you like what you see, you will buy it. I buy  the majority of my seeds from a company out of Maine called Johnny's Select Seeds. There main object is taste and quality, even when you read their description of the veggy or fruit, they will tell you. They trial everything they sell, and if it doesn't pass their standards they will eliminate it.


luke

Luke, Fabulous. But you and I can do that, accept less that perfect fruit, live to try again if it doesn't work one season, etc.  In short, we can afford to be inefficient and do it for love.  But commercial enterprises don't have the luxury of inefficiency and love in most cases. Survival is measured in $.

I have played with growing peanuts, potatoes, asian pears, many melons, mangoes, malabar chestnuts, and etc. Some did well, others not so much, but my survival, my putting food on the table, my paying the bills did not depend on my success with these things.

Suzi,

Bananas done right;



Recognizing what Bob said, that they are not designed for winter, so there metabolism slows down, they get beat up in the wind, and do not rejuvenate as quickly in the cold.

From what I've read, shipping well is the primary criteria in agribusiness.

Jon, do you have a (super)dwarf that always produces bananas before the stalk dies down?

Jon,

Your line of Banana trees are nothing like what I'm seeing when we go out looking for our acreage.  I'm seeing huge clumps, not neatly trimmed one stalk trees like yours.  I guess residential folks just let them go nuts, like they let the dreaded bird of paradise do!  That's another pet peeve of mine!  Why can't they take care of the Bird o Paradise?  They just let them grow miles wide and look ratty!!

I may just be convinced after seeing your photo! ;-)  But I may need to come down and taste samples to seal the deal!!

Anyway, your trees look very nice!  How do you get up the stalk and pick the bananas? 

Suzi

Helicopter.

The stalks are very delicate and you have to climb them naked.

Or you can get lucky

OK, I am now seriously unconvinced!  TY!  None of my neighbors would like to see me naked climbing that banana ....ewwwww!  Even JD wouldn't speak to me ever...  so No Banana Trees for JD and Suzi!  Ever!!

Suzi

You can wear clothes in the helicopter.

Or train a monkey to climb and harvest, they are used to climbing naked. And they'll work for guess what? I grew a dwarf then super dwarf bananas in pots, never got fruit. I do have a friend who has several varieties and has actually gotten fruit in NJ north too. I am no longer permitted to eat bananas so no monkey for me and no climbing naked. Wouldn't mind the copter ride though.

[QUOTE=DesertDance]Bananas are really cheap at the grocery, and they are a good source of vitamins, but, frankly darling, they are really ugly to grow.  And those that grow them, let them look raggedly and we always question if they ever produce a banana. 
Suzi[/QUOTE]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder!!!

The ragged look IS the look of the ISLANDS where the winds shred them. It is perfectly normal and many people like the look.

Do they ever produce a banana?

I quit counting bunches at twelve this year. I probably have fifteen to eighteen this year thanks to a nonexistent Winter.

The taste. My Orinoco have a hint of blackberry with a touch of Lemon at the finish. They are creamier and less dry than Ms. Chiquita. OH and they taste best if you wait till they look like you need to throw them away.

I am growing several dwarfs to see if I can have good yields every year. They set fruit at a shorter height and mature quicker.

Sorry about the OT!

I used to work with a woman that lived here in Southern Indiana, and she grew a dwarf banana. She didn't know the variety but she used to get bananas every year. She grew them like cannas, planted them in the garden each spring and then dug them up in the fall and stored them in the basement in a cardboard box over the winter. She told me that she had given pups to all her neighbors and had populated most of the county with bananas. I was inspired and bought 5 varieties last summer and another this year. Maybe I will get some fruit at some point. I think that they are beautiful and I am enjoying them. They are all in pots and will spend the winter in my house in a cool upstairs room.

Click the link.  No one's naked.  It's a how to for when the fruits don't bend to the ground.

Also some banana plants are variegated, some with red.

OK Bob!  I see nobody is naked.  BUT, I read all the comments.  Every one.  And the one I liked was "cut the tree down," see?  Then you can get the bananas easy!  Question.  Will the tree grow back?

Suzi

[QUOTE=DesertDance]... And the one I liked was "cut the tree down," see?  Then you can get the bananas easy!  Question.  Will the tree grow back?

Suzi[/QUOTE]

Usually, but not the same tree per se. We had banana trees in the yard when I was a kid. 2 varieties. One sent up lots of side pups that grew and replaced the main tree after it bloomed/fruited. The other variety (a lovely reddish one) bloomed once, then died without producing any pups.

Once the P-stem (this has nothing to do with being naked) has a bloom it will die. New pups are constantly forming and being pushed out of the ground and they will be the next ones to bloom.

Everything you ever wanted to know about your Banana but were afraid to ask.

http://www.bananas.org/ 

The reddish one was probably

Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii'

Some nice picture of it here
http://www.bananas.org/wiki/Ensete_ventricosum_%27Maurelii%27 

All about Bananas