http://www.growinggroceries.com/
Bring the Tropics to your Garden- Grow Cassabanana!
Posted: 25 Nov 2008 06:24 PM CST
Every so often, even I, your ever-talented host, fail.
One of those occasions happened this year with a plant I was really excited about and intended to write a comprehensive article on growing it. This plant was Cassabanana, Sicana odorifera.
It’s not a banana at all, but it’s still quite tropical and nearly unheard of in the United States. It’san herbaceous perennial vine, but can be grown as an annual….where? I’m not sure. The information on the plant is so sketchy, it’s very hard to find any kind of information on it. All I know is several copy-and-paste garden websites listed it as a perennial in the tropics and an annual in “most climates.” Whatever that’s supposed to mean.
The fruit is long and cylindrical. Think overgrown cucumber, with a very tough skin and what is said to be a lovely aromatic smell. In fact, many people use the long-lasting fruit to freshen the smell of a room.
The fruit is either cooked prematurely like squash (which I wasn’t interested in since I was drowning in squash of all kinds this year), or allowed to ripen and used fresh, in drinks, pies, or preserves. It’s said to have a sweet tropical flavor. Again, whatever that’s supposed to mean
Growing Cassabanana
My own experimentations lead me to believe you stand an okay chance trying to grow this sucker down to USDA Zone 6. It thrives in hot summer weather, and for me, didn’t do much till summer arrived. Afterwards it needs a lengthy ripening time before frost. Because of this, I would nominate this plant for starting indoors early.
The vine may be too long and cumbersome for very small gardens. It needs a lot of sprawl space or a tall trellis. It’s said to grow up to fifty feet, but mine sure didn’t. My trellis was short, but I let it grow up and down on it, resulting in a jumbled mess that at least kept the fruit off the ground.
Seed is not too difficult to come by, several tropical-oriented companies offer seed for sale. My seed germinated very poorly- about 20%. It could have just been old seed, since most members of the gourd family germinate in no time flat. 20% equaled two seedlings, which for the amount of space the plant takes up, was no less than I needed. I was still a little bummed. I paid for ten seed, I wanted ten plants.
Nothing but trouble thereafter. While transplanting the very slow growing seedlings, I half cracked the stem of one plant. Ouch. This one actually survived but was set back for some time.
It grew slowly to start, until the heat kicked in. Then it took off. It didn’t produce very many female flowers, but all of them set fruit.
The fruit grew splendidly into a rather large cylindrical shape. It began changing color from green to yellow. Then from yellow to purple-ish. What followed was a week of solid rain, and the fruit all split open. Bugs quickly found their way inside and ruined whatever might have been edible.
Fruit was still setting, so I hadn’t lost all hope, but then came an infestation of squash bugs, that killed many of the flowers before I vacummed them all up (more on vacumming pests in a future post). Afterwards, fruit was still setting, but the ripening period for this fruit is so long that none of them made it till frost. I was so disgusted I didn’t even bother harvesting the immature fruit for cooking. I wanted ripe cassabanana, and I won’t be completely happy till I get it.
Bottom line? It didn’t work out so well for me, but that’s no reason for you not to give it a try. Up to USDA Aone 6, at least. I’ll be giving these guys another go-round next year. Let’s hope for better things!
#
Cassabanana
A handsome and interesting member of the Cucurbitaceae, the cassabanana, Sicana odorifera Naud. (syn. Cucurbita odorifera Vell.), is also called sikana or ...
www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/cassabanana.html - 10k - Cached - Similar pages
#
cassabanana — Britannica Online Encyclopedia
Fruit and leaves of the cassabanana (Sicana odorifera). perennial vine of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), native to the New World tropics and cultivated ...
www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/98072/cassabanana - 45k - Cached - Similar pages
#
PlantFiles: Detailed information on Cassabanana Sicana odorifera
Browse pictures and read growth / cultivation information about Cassabanana ( Sicana odorifera) supplied by member gardeners in the PlantFiles database at ...
davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2775/ - 19k - Cached - Similar pages
#
PlantFiles: Pictures of Cassabanana (Sicana odorifera)
View original, high resolution pictures of Cassabanana (Sicana odorifera) at Dave’s Garden. All pictures are contributed by our community.
davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/63221/ - 17k - Cached - Similar pages
More results from davesgarden.com »
#
Cassabanana - Sicana odorifera
Sicana odorifera · Cassabanana. Tropical Fruit Database ... Cassabanana. Seeds Now Available! Sicana odorifera. Very large fruit (up to two feet long), ...
www.tradewindsfruit.com/cassabanana.htm - 20k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Effectiveness in defense against phytophagous arthropods of the ...
Sicana odorifera (Vellozo) Naudin (Cucurbitaceae),. the cassabanana, is a large vine, believed native to. Brazil but today found spread throughout tropical ...
www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1570-7458.2002.00973.x - Similar pages
by DW Kellogg - 2002 - Cited by 4 - Related articles
#
Sicana odorifera - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jun 17, 2008 ... Sicana odorifera, the only species of the genus Sicana, ... English names include cassabanana or casbanan, sikana, and musk cucumber. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sicana - 21k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Cassabanana (sicana odorifera)Tropical Rainforest Seeds - eBay ...
eBay: Find Cassabanana (sicana odorifera)Tropical Rainforest Seeds in the Home Garden , Yard, Garden Outdoor Living , Gardening Plants , Plants, ...
cgi.ebay.com/Cassabanana-(sicana-odorifera)Tropical-Rainforest-Seeds_W0QQitemZ400008584922QQcmdZViewItemQ... - 104k - Cached - Similar pages
#
‘CASSABANANA’ SICANA ODORIFERA SEEDS A RARE FRUIT - eBay (item ...
eBay: Find ‘CASSABANANA’ SICANA ODORIFERA SEEDS A RARE FRUIT in the Home Garden , Yard, Garden Outdoor Living , Gardening Plants , Plants, ...
cgi.ebay.com/’CASSABANANA’-SICANA-ODORIFERA-SEEDS-A-RARE-FRUIT_W0QQitemZ190263857195QQcmdZVie... - 109k - Cached - Similar pages
#
Picture and details of CASSABANANA see Sicana odorifera Seeds and ...
How to grow CASSABANANA see Sicana odorifera instructions coming soon! And CASSABANANA see Sicana odorifera growing tips coming soon! ...
www.banana-tree.com/Product_Detail~category~20~Product_ID~386.cfm - 12k - Cached - Similar pages
[continued]
Granny notes: One year I grew a Luffa plant in the living room, it was a beautiful plant that flowered every morning at 4 am, you could set your clock with the flowers.
Half my living room ceiling was a green plant, LOL, I have never taken down the macrame rope that I ran all over the ceiling, from hook to hook, as I still plan to do it again, or a gourd, a feather or paint brush will fertilizer the flowers.
Someone around Reedley, California is growing luffa. I saw it at the Fresno County Fair with the “odd plants.” There was a craze for luffa for a while to help with cellulite... you can still buy it in the stores. Is that the same luffa?