The cold season is closing in. Ben Pratte, an energetic, genial man with wide-
ranging interests, busies himself protecting his plants from the approaching winter,
just like any other diligent gardener/farmer/plant aficionado.
So what’s so noteworthy about these plants?
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THE large bananas, normally grown in the tropics and used for cooking, are successfully being grown in a quiet,
secluded neighborhood not far from Bradley Creek, a decidedly non-tropical region.
It takes about 18 months from first planting to first harvest. To protect the plants from the coastal Carolina winter
climate, they have to be dug up in the fall, stored away, and replanted with the arrival of spring.
“I realized early on that you have to dig the plants up early, before cold weather arrives,” Pratte says. “If they freeze, the stalks turn
to mush.”
Pratte, who grew up on a farm in Spencerville, Ohio, and calls himself “an Ohio farm boy who can’t break the habit of growing
things,” moved to Wilmington in 1993. His plantain plants surround the perimeter of his home.
Ben Pratte grows about 150 plantain plants on his Wilmington property. Opposite: A bud hangs from a plant’s peduncle.
ALLISON POTTER
JIM WOODSON