HANGING BANANAS UP TO RIPEN
We've struggled with ripening bananas. If they sit on a table then ants get on them. Opossums have climbed up the supports in our pole-barn to eat our delicious yummy fruit.
It takes a while for the bananas to ripen, sometimes a month or more. So what to do with them while we wait, we don't have space in the kitchen for several 30-35 pound bunches of bananas.
The solution, while simple, involves a little bit of backbreaking labor.
The short answer is, we embedded "Shepherds Hook" plant hangers in concrete which was poured in Home Depot 5-gallon pails. Each bucket has roughly 80 pounds of concrete in it to make it stable with bunches of bananas hanging on the hook.
A design trick I borrowed from the Butterfly Sanctuary in St Martin, I placed the hooks out away from the bucket side so that we can put two-inches of water in the bucket after the concrete set up. The water creates a barrier that ants hate. Mary and I have a $100 bet as to whether the ants will swim the short distance to get to our yummy bananas. Only time will tell.
Mary cuts the "hands" of bananas and then puts a long wire-tie through the hand so it can easily be added to a "Ripening Hook".
When we first started growing banana plants we never thought we'd ever be eating our own bananas. We're growing the best tasting bananas available anywhere. They are so flavorful and sweet, much more yummy than even the organic bananas from the grocery stores.
We're currently in the testing phase to evaluate how this system works.
Advantages: Portable, low cost, easy to use
Disadvantages: Heavy, not easy to move
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| Two Inches of water in top of bucket keeps ants away, they hate swimming :-) |
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Hanger post is 3/4" away from bucket, there is clear water on top of the concrete to create an Ant Free barrier
Without the water ants will find there way up the hook to the bananas above |
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The hooks are only rated for 10 pounds of weight but in this setup we've hung 30-35 pound bunches
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