March 10th Banana Update

Between being sick with a virus off and on for a few weeks, plus incredibly busy at work, I haven't kept up on the latest P2 news.  Here's the latest!

• On about March 1st, a flower making battle ensued between old friends Swamp King and Lisa.  You'll recall that both Swamp King and Lisa spent a LONG time in the pool cage side by side.  Even after the other bananas left, they remained since they were spectacular tall bananas with large perfect leaves.  We finally made the decision to get them out of the pool cage when the bugs were nasty last year, and they got planted in Banana Beach in December, side by side.  They did great for a while, lost some leaves in the February freeze, and then came back strong. So when Lisa put out a flag leaf and started to push out a flower, Swampy would not be shown up, and he put out the fastest flag/flower I've seen yet.  Swampy's flag and flower arched over and started opening in 24 hours, well before Lisa's flower even made it up and out of the center.  Swampy 1, Lisa 0.  They both have tiny bananas forming... pictures coming soon!
• The mystery banana near the end of Banana Grand Prix (farthest north) also created a flag leaf and flower a week or so ago, but the flower is taking it's time reaching up and out of the center, so no opened flower yet.  This banana plant had a HUGE trunk, a few inches bigger than Swampy or Lisa, so maybe it takes longer for the bananas to push though when the trunk is that big.
• I planted tomato, papaya, wing bean, watermelon and some other seeds out back a few weeks ago, but the weather didn't warm up as quick as I'd hoped, so they're getting a slow start.  
• A note on the malabar spinach:  It didn't do well in January and February, and is just starting to come back.  Seems that the plant doesn't regrow from the roots, but rather needs to be started from seed.  I'll have more time in April to plot the next batch of malabar spinach, but for now it's hit or miss.