Stop Buying Store Bananas： Inside an Urban 2000 Sq Ft Banana Farm

Alright, this is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com, today we have another exciting episode for him here in North Miami, Florida, and I'm going to visit my friend's fruit farm right down below. You guys can see literally his fruit farm is half of a lot, the other half is a community garden, and the other side is his. We basically calculated this out, measured it out, it's 2,000 square foot. So the farm is called Just Banana because banana is all they do, and this is my friend Justin, that I've known for over 20 years, he's been eating bananas as a predominant calorie source in his diet for the last 26 years, and he's been growing bananas and getting them out to you for the last 15 years. So let's go down and learn more about the Just Banana farm here in North Miami. Alright guys, so now I'm going to go ahead and walk into Just Banana farm, and this is totally crazy for me because this has to be the smallest banana farm I've ever been to in my entire life. I'm thinking, how can this guy make any money growing 2,000 square feet of bananas? So anyways, this is my buddy Justin, how you doing today Justin? Great, thanks John, great seeing you. Yeah, good seeing you man. Thanks for having me out. So the first question I have for you is how do you make any money growing 2,000 square feet of bananas that aren't even super densely packed in, and you don't even have a lot of mature plants that I'm seeing. Well it's primarily from my own consumption. Ah, so you grow the bananas not to sell, but to eat yourself. Yeah, yeah, since I have approximately 80 banana plants in the ground, I have the pups constantly coming up, so I'm digging them up and that's what I'm selling. Ah, so you're selling the pups, so you're selling the plants so that other people here in the Miami area, and you even ship these plants, can now grow bananas also. Yeah, I've been hesitant shipping outside of say Florida, yet I'm open, I just like to know that they can grow, like if someone says hey I want to grow a banana in Kentucky and they just, I'll be like hey wait a second, can you grow bananas in Kentucky, have you, have you seen anyone do it? So primarily it's Florida people I'm shipping to, yet I'm open minded, but primarily the banana plants are for people here in Florida. Yeah, because he wants his bananas to live, thrive, and continue to create bananas that will get eaten. Exactly. Alright, Justin, so why do you, why do you call the farm Just Banana? Ah, this, my focus is primarily on the banana, that's what my focus is, so I have 24 varieties, and I figured that's enough for my own consumption, like I'm happy managing that amount of varieties, so I just figured it's just bananas, and my name's Justin, so that's the idea. Alright, so Justin, so why do you love bananas so much, tell us, and why should more people love bananas also? Well, when I discovered nutrition about 26 years ago, and I just, I primarily eat a high carbohydrate fruit-based diet, and I just like a nice, sweet, nutritious, water-filled fruit for my breakfast, and banana was cheap, so I developed a habit of eating bananas, and then when I moved to Miami, it was easy growing them, and there's a bunch of varieties, and then I tasted, say, Sabah, or Praying Hands, or, you know, Mysore and Nam Wah, and I said, wow, this is amazing, let me focus on growing different varieties, as the Cavendish gets boring sometimes, and so here I am, just eating the foods I like, and growing my own food. Wonderful, yeah, and like for me, it's extremely rare that I'll buy bananas at the store unless like they're totally on clearance, on sale, because they're like ripe and ready to eat, because I'd rather buy any other piece of fruit at the grocery store than bananas, and anything else, even apples, like I'm not a big fan of store-bought apples, but bananas that are imported, brought in, picked when they're ripe, they're basically gassed inside the United States, they ripen fast, they don't have the flavor, the essence, or even the sweetness that they should have, you know, it basically leaves me disappointed, but I know this is the experience that most people, all my viewers watching this around the country, you know, get, just these imported bananas, and they think these are bananas, and then most of them, most people just pick them when they eat them, and peel them when they're still like yellow, and probably more starchy than we would like to eat them. So Justin, why would you say growing your own bananas and eating your bananas are like way better, like the next level, than the grocery store? Well first, the different cultivars are great, having, like I said, 24 varieties, each of them have different characteristics, the fruit itself can be different, yet knowing where my food comes from is wonderful, yet aesthetically pleasing, I like being out here, being physically active, managing the banana, watching it every day, the bananas are beautiful, so I get a kick out of that, I like the whole process of growing the bananas, and just to be active, and on my feet, and taking care of the plants, and of course the tastes of these various bananas are all great, I do like the Cavendish banana from the supermarket actually, I could still eat that. Well you got used to it, all these years man, you've been eating that as your dominant. But I do know that, like I've seen enough videos to know that like the process they go through is ridiculous, and how they bring up the market. So it is nice knowing that like when I grow my own Cavendish, I quite like them too, that's a good variety. But what's the difference? Explain the difference people. The store-bought Cavendish you bought at the store versus the one you grew yourself, harvested, you know, when the rack started to turn a little bit yellow, then you let it ripen slowly. Yeah, the taste is quite the same from the stores, it's just more of just the idea of me taking care of my own, growing my own food. I just like the process of being here, like across the street from my house, to be able to grow my own food. Sure, I do believe that what happens behind the scenes with all the commercial bananas is a waste of time, or it's just too much, it's extra. It's all for money. Yeah. And profit. Yet, it's just so nice, the Cavendish banana plant is a gorgeous banana plant, I just love how it looks, and I'm proud having it, and just knowing that I can grow my own food. That's enough for me. Alright, cool. Well, what we're going to do in this episode is we're going to walk around all different 24 varieties that he is growing, so you guys can learn more about them. A few of them I actually have to sample today, while Justin will be telling you guys about the plants so that you guys can be more familiar with other kinds of bananas than the Cavendish, which is when you go to the grocery store and you buy bananas, usually you always get the Cavendish, and many grocery stores don't even have any other options, but when you go to the store and you buy apples, they might have Granny Smith, you know, Fuji, Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, and other ones, right? I would like to see stores start selling much larger varieties of bananas, and if you're lucky enough to have an Asian market or Hispanic market near you, many of the Asian or Hispanic markets may sell maybe up to half a dozen varieties if you're lucky. Alright, Justin, so let's tour around your farm. Sure, yeah. Well, before we go, I'll just preface saying that I'd like to thank my neighbor and my friend from Earth and Us Farms here in Northeast Miami, Ray Chasser, he rents me this space, and so there's many bananas on his farm, too, which is like a sister farm to mine, and I have bananas there, so here on Just Banana Farm, I have 44 bananas, so I'll show you some of them. There may be less than 24 varieties here, but I'll just show you the ones we have. So let's start off with some of the – check out these varieties here. These are young plants, but this is the Praying Hands banana, which is known for being odd because the bananas are fused like this. They're actually like in the form of two banana bunches fused like Praying Hands, and this one is a Saba variety, which is meaning that the ancestors are different than the Cavendish variety. The Cavendish doesn't have really – the texture on the Cavendish is not really starchy and full and fluffy and creamy like this, and so the Praying Hands – have you tried Praying Hands? A long time ago. I love the – Well, explain to people what it tastes like for people that haven't. It's like the best pastry you've ever had. It's fluffy and cake-like. It's almost starchy, yet it's not quite starchy because when it's ripe, that's when I eat them. It's still sugary, but it still has a great texture. So I really like that one. The Saba – another Saba variety is this one here. That one's very popular in the Philippines. It's called Saba, yet there's other types of Saba. It's not the only one. It's like saying Cavendish. There's different types of Cavendish bananas. This one grows very tall. It's the tallest one I have. It could be about 20 feet tall, and that's where the banana comes out from. Yet with that size, I sometimes get 110 pounds of banana. That's why I love Saba as well as the taste of the Saba. It's like eating a shortbread cookie. It's really sweet. It doesn't have a rainbow of flavors necessarily, but I like the flavor. It's just a nice fuel-packed banana, and the texture is outrageous, like a nice ice cream-like texture. This one looks prettier when you just look at the existing banana. As bananas get older, sometimes they start to look funky. So this one has been hanging here. This is a Goldfinger. It's been hanging here for about five months, so it's on the edge. Any day now, I can cut it. I'm just waiting for it to turn yellow. Although I can tell it's mature, yet I still think another two weeks it might stay here. This one was made as a replacement for the Cavendish banana. They made this at a research development place in Honduras in 1984, and it's a great, pleasant-tasting banana. It produces a nice bunch, yet it never took off. The commercial growers aren't really going crazy for it. So it can still be bought. I bought it, and I planted it, and I quite like the taste. I'm thrilled having it. So that's Goldfinger. So this is the Orinoco banana. All the bananas come from the Southeast Asian area of the world, yet the name Orinoco has to do with the Orinoco River in Venezuela. Somehow the settlers from Portugal, or the explorers, excuse me, from Portugal or Spain, when they went to Southeast Asia, they brought bananas everywhere afterwards. So this one got popular in Venezuela, and it's named after the Orinoco River. This is one of the hardiest bananas. And when I say hardy, I mean that I've heard of people growing it in North Carolina. It can handle cold weather. It's wind-resistant, and it's disease-resistant. And this is what it looks like when it's actually fully ripe. And this is another one that has the same parents as the Saba and the Praying Hands. It has like a Musa Acamada and a Musa Balbesenia. And you can just see like the texture of it, like how fluffy it is. Here, John. Oh, thanks, man. Yeah, it's just got a nice texture like that's different than a typical banana. I love Orinoco. It's juicy. It's not overwhelmingly sweet, but there's a tartness to it. This one could be a little riper. I would say it's rich, and it's like, it's thick. You could choke on it, because it's like that kind of dense, versus like the Cavendish kind of like more like cardboard. This is like thick. Good flavor, though. Good flavor. When it gets ripe, it's quite juicy. And I like it for the juiciness. This one is one I'm just over the moon about. I could eat it every day. Many Latino people, they're used to just like giving it to their horses and donkeys. It's very prevalent in like Latin America, like there are a lot of these plants. And so they sort of underestimate it or overlook it. Yet I love it. I'll eat it every day. So that's the Orinoco. This is the Candrian banana plant, which is a place in New Guinea, Papua New Guinea, a place called Candrian. And this one's another tall one, about 18 feet. It's spicy. Spicy? Yeah, it has like sort of like a hint of like allspice and nutmeg. And Bill Lessard, who sold his property to Miami Fruit, he sold these plants back in the early 2000s, and the fruit. And I would buy the fruit from him, and I was like really excited about the Candrian. And then finally I bought the plant myself, and I've had one raceme so far from one of my plants. And it's, yeah, it's a really great tasting banana. Very large, 70-pound bunches, and a gorgeous large banana plant. So that's the Candrian. This is the Mysore banana from India, the very popular dessert banana. And I do have one for John to taste. It has a thin skin. Again, it's a dessert banana, so they're smaller. And it's a pretty thin-stemmed banana, about 12 to 15 feet at ideal conditions. Beautiful, with some red hues. Sweet. I like this. I like this more than the Orinoco. Yeah, well that one's really ripe. It's like perfectly ripe. I like the texture of this one more than the Okinoko, too. It's like more of a traditional texture. Yeah. It's got a funky flavor, though, like a very funky, very- I like the flavor. Yes. The flavor to me is like, it's delicious. Yeah, yeah. It's a good one. I had a meal of that today, and I was just like, you saw me just eating them, I was like, whoo, whoo, whoo. It's just really delicious banana. I could eat those all day. Yes. Yeah, so here's the Gros Michel, the legendary Gros Michel, which was the staple in the banana industry in the 1900s, from like 1900 to 1950. And then the Panama disease took over and really hurt these bananas, and the commercial industries took them out of the ground and replaced them with the Dwarf Cavendish. I was told that the nickname for this was Big Mike. And the reason why is because Gros Michel, translated from French, is Big Mike. Oh, wow. So the guys who were loading the bananas over in France, like the American guys who were working there, instead of calling it Gros Michel, they called it Big Mike. So I was telling someone this on the forum, and they said, oh, that's just so, you know, patriarchal. And I said, no, no, it's not, it's not, it's not, it's not like, I prefer the name Mike, just the name Michel means Michael in French, you know, and that's just what the people called it because it's hard to pronounce. This banana's delicious, has a great texture, sweeter than the Cavendish. I wish they were still sold in the stores. It's a shame that such things happen, yet that sometimes diseases happen. And here in Miami, so far, so good. It's doing well. I don't see any sign of disease, yet I could tell that it could get a disease. It's a little more flimsy, and just the root structure is just not as vigorous as some of the other bananas. I could just tell when I dig up a banana, like when I'm looking at the root system, that maybe they're susceptible to diseases. At least it looks that way. I mean, the other thing I would say is that, you know, this is why there's so many varieties, right? If the whole industry depended on Gross Michel like it did, right, the whole industry collapsed until when this got hit by disease, and then they changed it to the Cavendish. Now they're saying Cavendish is going to get hit by some disease, and then they're going to go ahead and move to another variety. So you know, especially for you guys at home, you know, maybe the Gross Michel is like a weaker plant, and that's why I buy a few from Justin here, and then you can see which one performs better in your situation, and which one is more disease-resistant, so you actually end up getting bananas instead of not. Well, one reason I actually got in this business is how easy it is growing bananas. It's really just keep the weeds out, make sure there's plenty of sunshine, and make sure you're in the proper environment, like that would be anywhere south of Gainesville primarily. Sure, there's some winters that could be cold, that could hurt a banana plant. Like this winter, it got into the 20s in Gainesville. That can kill a banana plant, yet it's rare that that happens. That happens once every 15 or 20 years. I've been in Miami for 22 years, and I've never had a banana die for a cold, although a hurricane will take down a banana plant. So yeah, this is the Gross Michel, beautiful banana plant, nice and tall, and just a dream eating. It's similar to the Brazilian, by the way, which we talked about earlier. So that's the Gross Michel, or Big Mike. So this is the Brazilian banana. The Brazilian was sold, and when I bought it from Don Chapin at Going Bananas, God bless Don Chapin, I've gotten most of my bananas from him. He said the Brazilian was the hardiest dessert banana, meaning that it will do very well in the winter times. And I've noticed it's just a really thick stem, and it's very happy, and it produces a great dessert banana that's very popular in Brazil. And in Brazil, they call it Prata. It's really sweet, just great texture. I think it's why it's not here more in America, beats me. Because it's really hardy. It has a thin skin. That's the thing about it. It has a thin skin, and it could bruise easily if, like, when thin-skinned fruits are transported. That could be a problem where the cavendish is thick-skinned. So yeah, I really like this one. I'm really happy with how beautiful it is. And it doesn't get too tall. It's anywhere from 8 to 10 feet tall. So that's the Brazilian. So I'm here amongst a dwarf red banana. I bought this from Dylan at Ready to Grow Gardens in Kendall, a great nursery. And this grows, the large red banana can be 15 feet tall. So anyone who wants a smaller red banana, this is why I have it. And the red banana has a purple reddish hue throughout the leaves and the trunk. And the fruit has, as Dr. Graham once said to me, our friend, it has a rainbow of flavor. And I thought that's exactly true. It's like a tropical-tasting banana that tastes like a fruit punch mango or a tropical punch mango, fruit cocktail mango. It has a bunch of different flavors, nice texture, and just a beautiful plant. So now you can have a dwarf red banana that's going to only be 8 feet instead of 15. So that's the dwarf red. So here's the dwarf Cavendish. This is one that really changed the world forever. These come from Southeast Asia. And then what's great about it is that for all the bananas, this is the smallest one. Like density-wise, this produces the most. For the size compared to how much it produces, this is the one. So it can produce 40, 50 pounds. And it's the one that's from the supermarket, the same variety. Yet this is one that is grown. And I quite love them, even though I can get them from the supermarket. When I can grow 40 pounds of banana and save $40, I'm thrilled, you know? And it's a nice size. It's only 5 to 6 feet tall. So it takes up little space, and they're vigorous. So for me, it's a winner. I love having them around, and I always have bananas available. What do you think? So Justin, I mean, what I'll tell viewers out there is I know you don't really taste the difference between the store-bought and ones you would grow, like this one. There is. It's, I like it. This is a huge difference. Okay. Like I don't like the Cavendish from the store. It tastes like cardboard. Like there's basically no flavor, barely any sweetness. I'm getting like a, like if you guys bought a baby banana at the store, like generally those have pretty good flavor. Yes. Right? This is like a baby banana at the store, basically to me. Yeah, it's nice. I like the- And it's not like, the texture is really nice, you know? At the store, it's either like starchy, gets a little bit ready, or then it just gets way too soft. It seems like it like ripens way too fast and you can't catch it at the right point. This is like a really nice point where it's just like, like perfectly ripened. You must have some good ripening skills, man. That's the thing. This is like perfectly ripened, so it's like not too under-ripe, not too over-ripe, but like right, right where it needs to be to be perfect, and you know, alright, I'll say Cavendish can be good, but only if you grow it yourself, harvest it yourself, and let it slow ripen over time. Of course, I lucked out when I bought my property in Puerto Rico, and the majority of the bananas on my property are the Dwarf Cavendish, unbeknownst to me. So this is a plantain right here, and I keep a few plantains. I like how rich and calorie-dense plantains are, and plantains are delicious eaten raw. In fact, all bananas, although some are referred as cooking bananas, all bananas ripen. The Sabas and the Orinocos and the Praying Hands are often thought of as cooking bananas, yet again, all bananas can be eaten ripe, and that's the way I eat them. Now this is a plantain, Justin. Yeah, you can taste how the texture's different. I mean, it's definitely more thicker, a little bit more starchy, but not like, I mean, it's still sweet. So tell us, why don't people in the US buy plantain at the store and then eat them ripe? They just usually cook them. It's just a cultural thing. People like to cook bananas, and the plantains, because they have that starchy, more pectin fiber in it, they hold well. When you put them in a pan, they just stick together and they don't fall apart as easily as a Cavendish. So they became popular for cooking, yet they're perfectly edible and such a great treat. I would eat plantain every day, and I plan on eating a bunch soon. I mean, probably the thing I would say is, too, is post-harvest practices matter. So when they harvest the Cavendish, they'll basically cut them green off the plant, they ship them to the United States, and they gas them up. So I'm thinking for plantain, they're basically harvesting them green, shipping them to the US, and then they don't gas them up because they don't want them to ripen, because people are going to cook them and use them as a starch. Then in some cases, maybe they don't ripen, they just turn black because they were picked too early and too green, in which case they won't ripen, since they need to ripen. Then if they do end up ripening, maybe they won't ever get the same texture as the one we just had that slow-ripened on the plant. Yeah, so much has to do with culture. Someone was commenting on a Facebook group yesterday and said, what do I do with all these bananas? I know I could freeze them, I could make smoothies, and I was thinking, if you have all these extra bananas, stick them in the refrigerator, let them sit. People are scared of using the refrigerator for bananas, as the banana industry actually told people, don't use the refrigerator. They wanted them to buy more bananas. Throw out your old bananas and buy more. So they told them, they let people think that the refrigerator was somehow bad for bananas. The refrigerator is perfect for bananas. I stick them in the refrigerator all the time to keep them, and then when I freeze them, then sometimes I dehydrate them and just eat them with a fork. So bananas are meant to be eaten ripe, plantains are meant to be eaten ripe, and the cooking bananas, the sabas, like I said, praying hands, and orinocos, also great ripe bananas for raw fooders and just anyone who likes bananas. Awesome. So this is a dwarf namwa. Although it looks relatively tall, this is still a dwarf. It's about eight feet tall. Well, this one's about seven feet tall. The way that I measure it, when I say seven feet, that's where the banana actually comes out from. What happens above the leaves, I keep that, that's a different measurement. So the dwarf namwa is anywhere from seven to eight feet tall, and it has one of the sweetest bananas, really dense texture. It's very popular in places like Thailand, and I love this banana. I think it's one of the best tasting ones, and it's generally happy, like a hardy plant, low, like disease resistant, and thrilled having this one as well. It's got a beautiful looking fruit itself. I like the way the, how nice the curves are on the fruit. So sometimes there's a bell or a flower that hangs down here, and a lot of people say cut it off and it'll help the banana grow quicker. I know little about that. The only reason I cut it off early was somehow it was in the way. Maybe I was walking past it and it hit me, I said, get out of here. Otherwise I just ignore it and I have neither opinion for or against letting the bell hang here, the flower that was existing. I'll show you another flower in a minute. When this turns ripe, after about four or five months, that's when I start, when it turns yellow, excuse me, that's when I cut it down. I know how old this fruit is as I took a picture when the flower first came out. So I have a time stamp on my phone. So cool, and then how long from the time stamp on your phone until, you know. It's anywhere from four to five months. The time it takes to completely form and ripen. Yeah, during the winter time it could take longer. It does take longer. In the summer time, which is starting now, I expect anything that flowers now, it'll take four months. So this is the Dwarf Namwa. So this is an Orinoco that's a dwarf. How they, who created this, whether it was like man-made or God, who knows, yet it's just nice. There's hundreds upon hundreds of banana plants, so it's just likely that a dwarf exists for many of them. And so instead of having a 10-foot Orinoco plant, I can have a 4-foot Orinoco plant. And they can produce big bunches too. It could have 30 pounds on it. This one's small, yet again, it's nice to have a small compact plant. So that's the Dwarf Orinoco. So the official name of this is unbeknownst to me, I just call it a bell. And people do eat it, they'll cut it and inside of it they'll make something, like maybe they'll take out the innards and cook it with oil. Some of them are better tasting than others. I know a Filipino woman once asked me for the Saba flower. And then I said, can you take any flower? She said, no, I only like the Saba flower. So some flowers are tastier than others. And yeah, so I'm just letting it hang. For me, it doesn't do any difference whether I keep it or leave it, affecting the bananas. I think it's pretty, so I keep it. Yeah, so this is the High Noon banana plant. I bought this a year ago or more. And when Don Chapin at Going Bananas introduced it to me, he said, I got a new banana and I'm disappointed. I said, what's the problem? He says, it's ripe green. I said, what does ripe green mean? He says, when the bananas are ripe, they still are green. They don't change color. So I said, oh, that stinks. How do you know when they're ready? He says, that's a problem. I said, well, why did you get the banana plant? He says, well, it produces 80 pounds. So here it is. And this is the first time. It's pretty big. It looks like it's, this is only a month old. So just imagine in another three and a half months, this is going to fill out. This could be 80 pounds. And I have it time stamped. So I'll know. I'll just come out here and be like, okay, it's time to take them in and then I'll just eat them when they get soft. I'll have to touch them and just, and I'll put them in the fridge and I'll give them a bunch away or freeze them. And yet the, the reason why this came into existence is this is another one that was created at a research place in Honduras. The agricultural facility that works on like creating disease resistant plants. And it's, they're looking for replacements for bananas. So there's no disease. And this one I could tell is pretty hardy. It's got a very thick trunk. It's a beautiful banana. It's been healthy since they got in the ground and. And productive. So I tasted it when I went to his farm, he had it to taste and it was just like any other banana. It was just a typical banana. So it is what it is. And there's a lot of varieties out there. So this is just one that produces a huge amount and I'll take it. So I'm standing or sitting here in front of a Williams banana and the Williams is named after an Englishman just like Cavendish is named after an Englishman too. So this is a variation on the Cavendish banana. What I like about it is it's, it's still relatively small. It's seven feet tall or five to seven feet. And it just gives a different aesthetic instead of having a very small banana plant. Now I have one that's like eight feet tall at the most. And some people like that. So it's just a matter of like what your preferences are. So you have a couple of options in the Cavendish realm. And this produces about 40 pounds, sometimes 50. Very similar to the Dwarf Cavendish. So that's the Williams. So here's a Majestic Saba. That's very popular in the Philippines. It's got a big flower on it. That's a very young flower, only a month old. I'm expecting about 50 to 60 pounds from this. Yet again, like I said earlier, this one can produce over 100 pounds. Really creamy, a great tasting, like a, like a, like a cookie, like banana plant, like just taste wise. And hearty, disease resistant, and just gorgeous. Like really majestic. Like I feel like I'm in Bali right now. So that's the Saba. Alright guys, so now we have a special treat for you. What we're going to do now is we're here at the Brazilian banana or Prata banana. And this is actually from Brazil, as Justin clearly identified it earlier. And what's going on is that Kailash's wife is from Brazil, and this is the dominant variety banana that is sold there that she loves, right. So Kailash, loving his wife so much, wants to bring her this banana back, plant from Justin, planted on our properties in Puerto Rico so that he can grow the Brazilian banana for his wife. And of course also our future visitors, so that all you guys can taste bananas from around the world. So Justin, how are we going to literally move this banana plant from Miami and, and take it on the airplane? Okay, well, the banana grows from the mat of the banana or the root system. That's where the existing plants come, the like the pups come from, or the babies. So I'm going to go back here, and I'm going to make room. I know it's loud. I have the camera on me, so it's probably loud, but there's a lot of clearing out the ground from all the debris and exposing the banana so I could see a clear picture of like where this is coming from. This is a beautiful pup. So I just, I have a couple of tools here. I have a fork, and I'm just going to break some of these roots up. I got a nice pocket knife that I always keep on me for cutting anything away from the plant. I might cut a root or something. So I just start to dig out some of the dirt. I want to make sure I have a clear cut so I get the corm or the root structure. That's the most important part of this is the actual corm or the root. That's where the intelligence is of this banana. Any rocks I throw to the side, I don't want rocks in there. I just want to get a clear picture. Here's a rock. I just want to get a clear picture of where the roots are and where the corm is. It's usually closest to the mother plant. That's where the really healthy corm is. On the outside here, all the way where the banana isn't existing, there's just dirt. So I'm just going to move a few big rocks in here to get a clear. And then I use a nice spade. Sometimes I use a digging bar. I have a very heavy digging bar, but this is a rather small banana plant, so I can get away with using the spade. And I'll just stomp on it a couple times, go around in a circle around the plant. A spade is really effective for this. I just want to break these roots and get real deep. Sometimes there might be a rock in there or something that's preventing me from getting in there. I can feel something. See, like this little rock. Get rid of that. Some come quicker than others. All right, we're almost there. There we go. So here's a baby banana plant. I got enough for the root system. You can see how viable and vigorous that looks. That's going to grow anywhere that I plant it. And it could live happily for days without being in any soil, as long as I get enough of the corn and see all those roots. I could chop this at two or three feet and just without the top, and it still has all the intelligence it needs down here. This is for Kylash. All right, guys, so now I have the pleasure of sitting down with, finally, Justin Lila, who I've known for over 25 years, and he's been selling the bananas to you guys out there for 15 years, eating bananas himself over 25 years, and we're going to ask him some questions about just banana. All right, Justin, so the first question I have for you is why should people eat more bananas? Well, it's a really healthy food, and it's delicious, and there's so much controversy right now on what's to eat. And I think about the government, how when RFK was talking about fixing the dietary practices of the human being, it's so obvious for someone like me and yourself that eating homegrown fresh fruits and vegetables makes so much sense. Growing the banana in Florida is one of the easiest foods that can be grown, and it just so happens that the banana is an excellent food. And so it makes perfect sense that just killing two birds with one stone, I'm enjoying the aesthetic exercise of growing food, and I'm just feeding myself a perfect food. So it just makes a lot of sense in that regard, period. So what would you say to somebody, Justin, that says, I've had the bananas at the store and I hate them, I'm not even going to try to grow bananas? Yeah, well, first, there's hundreds of varieties. I have 24 varieties, so please contact me and I could tell you about them. And this is another thing that's really interesting about this whole idea, where comparing myself and the ideas that someone like, I mentioned RFK, anyone who's an authority in the world of health and nutrition, what I've learned is the art of practicing eating bananas takes time, like anything. When I want to be a great tennis player, I practice my backhand, I practice my forehand. By growing all these bananas, the reason why I'm successful growing them is because I'm counting on them. I'm actually looking for practice. I want to be eating the banana. I want to sit down and make a meal of Williams or Saba or praying hands. And when I do that, I'm always satisfied, and as time goes on, I'm getting more and more satisfied. And now, I decided I want to sell this and share this with the public, how much I love this. It works like a charm. My health is continually improving. I'm making peace with eating the banana, and I have no doubt that I'm feeding myself a great food. So I'm proud that I could do this. Yeah, I mean, I would agree, studies show that most Americans do not eat enough vegetables, but also, unfortunately, even easier to eat than vegetables, because some people don't like their vegetables. People do eat more fruit, but people are still not eating enough fruit, right. And of course, I would agree with Justin, you know, the banana is one of the easiest fruit crops to grow here in the Miami, South Florida, even many parts of Florida, actually, that you don't have to do anything to. And you just come out, plant the banana pup once, and you come back and you have bananas year after year after year, and then your banana growth starts increasing, and you start getting more plants yourself that you can share with your neighbors, you know. My goal is to get everybody in America to grow at least some of their own food. I can say something else that's kind of controversial, actually. It's sort of like the philosophy, like a lot of people would say, that's too much sugar for me, like having bananas. And that's just a belief I have. I believe that I'm satisfied on a high-carbohydrate diet. So most of my calories come from eating high-carbohydrate foods. So when I have my sapodillas, eventually, I have one sapodilla plant. I can make a meal of sapodilla, I can make a meal of mamey, I can make a meal of jackfruit, I can make a meal of durian. Again, though, here in Florida, where I live, it just so happens that bananas are very easy to grow. Otherwise, I would have mamey. I would have jackfruit. When I have a four-foot cavendish plant that has 40 pounds of cavendish on it, great. That's easier than having a 40-foot jackfruit tree. So it's just a matter of training myself, what's feasible, and it puts money in my pocket. I save money when I have a small banana plant that produces a lot of bananas. And I'm satisfied eating bananas. There's plenty of water in a banana. When I'm hot, I just drink a little water. I can make a meal of bananas, have a few cucumbers, and boom, I just move on with my day, a meal like that. I'm very satisfied. And that's my reasoning behind why everyone can have banana plants in their yard. Awesome, Justin. Yeah, I definitely agree with you on that. I always encourage you guys to eat local, like when I'm in Las Vegas. I don't try to grow bananas. I mean, maybe I could try to put it in a greenhouse and do all this work to kind of make it have some bananas, but I don't even worry, I just come visit Justin and eat some really good bananas. Or my other friends in South Florida or when I go to Puerto Rico on my property, where I'm growing my bananas, right? And when I'm in Las Vegas, I've been harvesting white peaches, white nectarines, apriums and apricots that are in season right now. So I always encourage you guys to eat more local fruits, and even better than local, grow them yourself. So they're homegrown, backyard local, and that's really the best way to do it. So Justin, I want to ask you a few questions about growing bananas, because some people may not have enough space in their yard to grow bananas. And so if they could only grow it in a pot, what's the best three varieties that you offer to people that could grow in a pot and still fruit and make the fruit successfully? And what size pot would you recommend? Yeah, you want at least 15-gallon pot. The bigger the better, 25 gallons or more would be ideal. The Dwarf Cavendish, the Dwarf Orinoco, those two really stand out. The Dwarf Bananas, those are the two that I have that, they only grow 4-5 feet tall, so they're going to do well in the pots. Otherwise, bananas can stay in the pots. They just, like the big varieties, they just simply won't produce bananas. But they'll be pretty ornamental plants. So that could be done. I'm primarily looking for people that can put them in the ground, yet I do have some, a couple. I'm primarily focused on bananas that will produce bananas for eating. There are ornamental bananas though, and perhaps I'll consider carrying a couple of them. Yet I'm really, this is about feeding me. I really like having this farm for the production of bananas primarily, yet I definitely, there are some small ornamental bananas that can be put in pots. So that's just something to think about. John Kohler Wonderful, and if somebody's considering buying a banana for their property and putting it in their backyard, you know, what, which three varieties would you recommend for them? John Orinoco, for sure, that's really the hardiest one, the most vigorous one I know of, great taste. I also like the Nam Wah, one of the best dessert bananas, as well as the Brazilian, one of the hardiest. The Brazilian was told me that that's the hardiest by Don Chapin, the Going Bananas. I've seen it enough knowing that it's hardy. I like those three. Praying Hands is hardy, tall though, really tall, like can be 15 feet tall. Those four stand out. The Dwarf Cavendish and the Williams and the other Cavendish, like Grand Name, those are more likely to get diseases like Gros Michel. They're beautiful and they produce great bananas. Red banana, that's a great one. And one other one that sticks out, the Goldfinger and the Sweetheart were specifically, and the High Noon and the Mona Lisa, those four come from the research station in Honduras. Those are disease-resistant bananas. I have all four of them, so contact me about them at any time. So you know, I think a really good way to sell fruit trees is to basically let people sample the fruit. So do you kind of offer some kind of like, you know, fruit tasting, you know, where somebody could like taste the fruit, but then also then buy the trees or something like that? Yeah, when I have them, of course, I can share the fruit. There's quite a bit of banana coming, especially here in the summertime. So I have right now a Candrian, and when I have the bananas, I'll definitely, when I have people come and visit me as a customer, I'll share bananas by all means. Sometimes there's no bananas left, you know, and they get eaten, yet luckily today we tried the Williams banana, we tried the Mysore, and then we tried a Plantain, so John tasted a few. I'd get the Mysore, that was my favorite. Yeah, that one's quite nice. It just so happened to be very ripe at the time. The Orinoco when ripe is great, but not great. Yeah, I don't like the texture of the Orinoco that much. Yeah, it's really fluffy. It's different, you know. Maybe some people like that. It needs to be riper than that. I see. That wasn't ripe enough. All right, Justin, so if somebody wants to come visit you, you know, can they just drop by and what's your address? No, I see people by appointment only, I'm busy, otherwise I have some other things going on. I'm spinning a few plates. Find me on Facebook at Justin Lelia, that's my full name, L-E-L-I-A. My Instagram handle is Justin underscore Lelia. Facebook's the way I sell plants on Facebook Marketplace. My email is contactjustinlelia at gmail.com, that's one big word, contactjustinlelia at gmail.com. I'll answer all emails, yet on Facebook I have the advertisements where you'll see a video, you'll see pictures, you'll see the price, and you can contact me about an appointment and visit me. Otherwise, I do ship, so send me a note either via email or Facebook and ask, send me your zip code and I'll give you a quote. All right, wonderful. So I'll put all those links down below in the description as well as the pinned comment. Thanks Justin. So Justin, are there any final words of wisdom you'd like to share with my viewers today about bananas or growing bananas and banana plants like we've discussed today here with you? Because I consider you an expert since this is like your life, you grow the bananas to eat and then you sell the pups for an income, so you can make a living. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a dream, man. When I moved to Florida 23 years ago as a raw fooder, I was amazed by Bill Lessard, who originally, like I said, he was the owner of what is now Miami Fruit, and he has a big piece of land, like four or five acres, and I just love that sort of lifestyle of being on the farm, working hard, eating my own food. And now that I'm doing it, it's really making my life, it's really wonderful. I'm really enjoying the whole process of growing food, and yet what's surprising is how much I actually love the plants themselves. The plants are really beautiful, and I quite geek out, I'd like to know as much as possible about all of them. So it's just like, it's something to wrap my head around, and I think it could be something, I see a lot of growers struggling, like they don't know what to do with themselves, like what do I grow, or like, I'm like first like, know about what to eat, like when I know what I'm eating, like then it's so easy when I grow. Like a lot of people wonder what, like how to grow well, it's like well, are you eating the food you're growing? So consider learning more about nutrition, and otherwise having plants in general is wonderful, and Floridians particularly, we're lucky we can grow bananas. Awesome Justin, yeah thank you, I mean that's why I got into gardening myself, so I could actually take my nutrition to the next level by being able to grow, you know, higher quality food than money can buy, and also of course more variety and genetics than money can buy as well. That's why of course I'm glad Justin, after all these years, you know, because I've been gardening for a lot longer than Justin, he's finally got the bug, and now at least I know Justin is probably growing almost all his bananas at this point, and hopefully he branches out and starts growing other things in the future. I got papayas, the papayas did really well this year, and I have a mango tree and a sapodilla, but yeah, yeah, yeah, who knows what the future holds, right? Yeah right man. Alright Justin, so thanks for having me out today, appreciate it. Thanks John. I hope all you guys out there in YouTube land love this episode, learning about my buddy Justin that I've known for so many years, who is now selling banana plants and making them available to people here in Florida and even beyond. If you love this episode and want more videos with Justin in the future, be sure to give us a big thumbs up, more importantly share this with other people, so that they can learn about all the different crazy varieties about bananas that you never knew, because everybody goes to the store and they just get bananas, and they're always going to be a Cavendish for the most part, which tastes like cardboard to me. Also be sure to click that subscribe button right down below so you don't miss out on my new and upcoming episodes. I've got a community of 5-7 days, you never know where I show up, what you'll be learning on my YouTube channel, and make sure you click the little bell so you get notified as my new videos come out. Also be sure to check my past episodes, and past episodes are a wealth of knowledge. Over 800 episodes at this time on this channel dedicated to you guys how to grow your own food, and I actually have an original video that I went to going bananas way back in the day with Bill, link down below to that if I remember. Alright, so with that, my name is John Kohler with growingyourgreens.com, we'll see you next time, and until then remember, keep on growing.