Hello friends!
In today's video we're gonna talk all about bananas
So the banana plant is mostly known for its fruit
But in today's video you will also see
How you can use the other parts of the banana plant
Like the flower the stem and of course we will also see
The banana fruit that's you know the reason why the banana plant is so popular
So bananas can be grown year-round in places like California
Where the the weather is warm and conducive to the growth of bananas
And the banana usually starts flowering late summer
And once the flower is sent out
The bud keeps growing towards the bottom
As you see here
And the bananas are formed on the top
So that's the beauty of the banana plant
That it will keep growing the bud as well as keep producing
banana
As the bud grows towards the bottom
Now you'll notice that after some time
The bud will no longer have bananas over it
Or the bananas would be very you know
Not so well-formed
And that's when you can harvest the flowers
So as you can see the bananas have started developing
very nicely here
And what's going to happen is eventually as the plant grows
The most important part of the plant which is the bananas
Are gonna keep growing
So as you can see here the bananas are forming on the top part
And if you notice near the area where the bud or the flower
Joins the bananas the bananas have now started drooping
Or started dying down
This usually means that the plant is not going to form a lot more bananas
It's just a natural way for the plan to sustain
If it keeps producing a lot of bananas the plant might just fall from the weight
So this is a good time to harvest the bud or the flowers
So let's go ahead and harvest this banana bud
Which will have a lot of flowers growing in it
It's just the unique way that the banana plant grows
Its got this really huge purple bud that you can see here
And then all the flowers are there inside this bud
And just be careful of all the sap that falls down when you harvest the banana flower
It can stain your clothes a little bit
So you know just be careful while harvesting it
So that looks like a pretty nice bud
And this is what you see inside the bud
These are the banana flowers
They look like bean sprouts
But they're really banana flowers
And you can cook banana flowers with coconut
They taste really good and are a popular South Asian cuisine
So as you can see here we have removed the banana bud
Or the flowers and while you use the banana flowers
The banana plant will continue to grow these fruits on the plant
in fact it relieves them of some weight
So it's actually good if you harvest the bud once the bananas stop forming on the plant
And I think that also signals the banana plant
To start concentrating its energy on the fruit
Which will cause rapid fruit growth
And once the fruit is fully grown
It will also ripen as as we will see in the next section of this video
So now we come to the best part the reason why the banana plant is popular is it fruits
And homegrown bananas taste so much different and so much nicer
Than the store bought bananas
I mean in the store you are you gonna find just one variety which is the Cavendish banana
At home you can grow pretty much any variety of banana that you want
And these bananas have ripened on the plant itself
If you want you can harvest the banana fruit and keep them indoors
And they will ripen indoors as well
And now I'm gonna talk about something that a lot of people don't know about
And that's the banana stem
The banana stem itself is a delicacy in a lot of countries
And if you haven't tried out banana stem you should try it out sometime
It's got a very unique flavor
And that's the center part of the stem that you're looking for
We're not looking for all the part around it
Because it's too much of fiber and you cannot really eat it
But it's the tender center part of the banana stem that's popular in cooking
And a lot of South Asian countries, especially countries like India, in the southern part
of India
The banana stem is a very popular delicacy
So all you do is just split open the stem
You can chop it into smaller pieces for convenience
And then you just try to get the the center part of the stem out
Now remember that the stem from the bottom part of the plant will actually have more
volume
And as you start going towards the top its gonna shrink in size
So this is what you're looking for
So I hope you enjoyed this video about about the incredible banana plant
The entire banana plant is useful
You can actually use the leaves as plates as very economical and biodegradable plates
that you can eat your food in
You can use the stems
You can use the flowers
You can use the fruit
So all in all it's a very useful plant
So do let me know how you use the banana plant
Do just eat the fruit?
Do you use the flowers?
Do you use the stem?
I would love to hear from you
And I'll see you again soon!
Happy Gardening!!