Fort Nelson couple’s banana plant comes to fruition

FORT NELSON, B.C. — After buying a banana plant from a local grocery store last February, a Fort Nelson couple recently harvested their first rack of bananas.

Yukon Soles took to Facebook to share the accomplishment, saying the plant spent 13 months in the ground before Soles and his wife harvested their first rack of bananas.

“Or rather it harvested itself last night when the weight of it caused the stem to snap,” he said in the post.

The endeavour started in February 2021 when Soles bought the plant in a six-inch pot from the local grocery store.

From there, Soles learned how to care for the plant through google and by “listening” to the plant.

“[I] followed what it wanted,” he said.

In only six months, the plant had grown to fill a 30-gallon pot before being put in the ground inside a greenhouse instead.

The greenhouse is where they propagate seedlings for the farm, meaning “to cause (an organism) to multiply by any process of natural reproduction from the parent stock,” according to dictionary.com.

“Through the winter, it had put out these giant leaves, and we never really knew what we were doing with it,” Soles explained.

“We didn’t know whether it would even fruit, what sort of weather it needed to fruit… Expectations were pretty low.”

He says once it survived the first winter, that is when the plant put out the first fruit bud, but they were still unsure if it was going to produce fruit.

The couple kept an eye on the plant during the summer but were quite busy running a vegetable farm.

“That’s been my livelihood for the last four or five years at least,” Soles said.

Soles wasn’t entirely unprepared due to his experience.

“[We were] unprepared as far as the particular plant goes, but I’m familiar with growing all kinds of plants already,” he said.

In a Facebook post, he says he’s not sure what the future holds for the banana plant itself.

“One thing is for sure… I need a bigger greenhouse.”