Tree bears first fruit in seven years

Gina Cripps, Nevada, with a banana tree that has yielded its first fruit after 7 years in her garden, offering an unexpected delight she wanted to share with the community. She and her husband Laurence have other tropical plants in their garden as well.

By Ben Holman

Nevada Daily Mail

Gina and Lawrence Cripps, of Nevada, are going ape over their banana plants which, for the first time, have produced fruit.

The Crippses received their first banana plant seven years ago from Gina's sister and brother-in-law, who live in Sand Springs, Okla., and have about 30 plants, five of which are currently producing fruit.

Gina was so excited see bananas growing on her plants that she wanted to share her excitement with all of Nevada. "We've got bananas growing, right here in Nevada," she exclaimed. "We've had people coming into the driveway. They've seen banana plants before but they haven't seen them with actual bananas on them."

Two of her plants have bananas on them right now. One bunch is too far behind in development and will probably not beat the frost, but Gina said that she would cut it off and see if the bananas will ripen in the house when it gets cold. The other bunch has about 14 or 15 bananas on it of varying size, but they look like they will ripen and the Crippses will be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor.

As one would expect, growing bananas in Missouri takes quite a bit of work -- they can't just be left out year round because they are a tropical plant. The plants have to by dug up, placed in buckets, and stored in a greenhouse over the winter. "We used to warehouse them at a local greenhouse," said Gina, "but that got too expensive."

So last year, Gina searched the Internet and found a Canadian company that makes a lightweight greenhouse that folds down for easy movement and shipping. "It was getting close to Fall and we had to make a decision,' she said. They purchased the greenhouse and now winter the bananas in their own backyard.

Lawrence chops the tops off of the plants and then they dig them up, place them in 5-gallon buckets and move them into the greenhouse. Gina said that even in the greenhouse the plants require supplemental heat from space heaters.

When they put the plants in the ground after the weather warms up, Gina said that the plants don't grow very much, but when it gets hot, they grow like wild.

Gina also talked about the banana pod, a purple growth that looks a lot like an ear of corn in the husk. She said that the pod is considered a delicacy in many Caribbean countries, "but it smells terrible."

She said that she has never tried to eat the pod because, "something has to smell good to me before I think it'll taste good."

For Gina and Lawrence Cripps, their hard work and dedication has paid off in the form of bananas, and they hope they will be able to harvest an even larger crop next year.