Ripe yet?

JULIE?JOHNSTON/Ledger?photo

Katie and Matthew McLain check to see if the bananas are ripening on the banana tree near their grandparents? house. The tree, near the front door of John and Pat McLain?s home in Lockridge, has flowered and now has several bananas, which are still green. The McLains received the tree from a relative who no longer had room for it in his home. According to the Web site www.greenhousebusiness.com/banananinfo.html, the banana is a tropical plant which grows best under warm conditions, requiring as much warmth as can be given them. The large leaves of bananas use a great deal of water. Stalks of bananas are usually formed in the late summer and then winter over. In March they begin ?plumping up? and may ripen in April. Occasionally, a stalk will form in early summer and ripen before cold weather appears. The fruit can be harvested by cutting the stalk when the bananas are plump but green. Apparently this hot, wet Iowa summer has been ideal for it to bloom and develop fruit. As summer ends, the McLains will have to move the plant indoors for the winter as banana trees cannot tolerate prolonged temperatures below freezing.