Marvin Dickson was working in his yard on Hwy. 341 North, just above Hwy. 32 when he heard his wife Wanda scream, “Baby, Bananas!”
“No, ain’t no way,” Marvin answered in disbelief. But he walked over, took a close look toward the top of the giant banana tree that towers over the front of his house, and there they were, several bunches of small pinky-sized bananas.
“I didn’t know what to do so I called my pastor and asked,” Marvin said. “He told me his had never produced like that and his is much bigger than my tree.”
Marvin’s pastor is Willie Lairy of Calhoun City, and it was from his banana tree Marvin got his cutting two years ago when it was just about waist high.
“I was talking about cutting some of the limbs the other day because they’re blocking the steps going up on front porch,” Marvin said. “I’m not touching it now.”
Every time another leaf peels off the big bulb another bunch of small bananas pops out and with each day they grow larger and larger. The tree has become quite the attraction in the community.
“Lot of people stopped to take a look and have tons of requests for a sprout off of it,” Marvin said. “We had one there I was going to try and dig up and give to someone but I couldn’t get it free. It was shaking the whole tree. I’m not going to mess with that now. I want to see what this can do.”
Beyond a sprout, people are also requesting bananas as soon as they become larger enough to pick.
“I told my church all about it and my pastor said he wanted the first banana. I said that will be $20,” Marvin said with a large laugh.
He explained these aren’t your run-of-the-mill bananas. These are Mississippi bananas.
“I didn’t know you could grow this here,” he said. “I’ve just been amazed.”
Marvin has great success with honey dew melons and a number of other plants every year, but the banana tree has him excited.
His theory for its success is the position of the tree up in the corner of his house, almost under the eave where it gets some protection and lots of water.
“This area stays really moist so I think that makes a big difference,” he said.
Now it’s just a waiting game for Marvin to see how many more bunches of bananas come out and how big they might get. He won’t be watching alone.
“People stopping all the time to check this out,” Marvin said with a big smile.