A MAN living in Fife has astounded experts by growing more than 60 bananas in his conservatory.
John Beaton, 82, was given a banana plant as a present three years ago. He sat it in a corner of his conservatory in North Queensferry and was amazed when it started to grow.
Now eight feet tall, Mr Beaton's tree has sprouted dozens of bananas which he has shared with neighbours.
The retired teacher, who describes himself as "never much of a gardener", said yesterday: "It was given to me as a joke by my son-in-law. It was a tiny plant and we never thought for a moment it would produce bananas in Scotland.
"I put it in the conservatory and apart from feeding it and watering it occasionally I didn't think much of it. I could not believe my eyes when a little banana started to form a few weeks ago.
"Then another appeared, and another. Before I knew it we had more than 60 of them. I had my own mini banana plantation. The most exotic things I've grown before have been potatoes and raspberries."
Mr Beaton, from Post Office Lane, North Queensferry, added: "I suppose my conservatory is perfect in a way. There is always plenty of sunlight during the summer and it is very warm. Whenever my friends come round they have left with a bunch of bananas each.
"I have eaten so many of my bananas over the past month I'm actually starting to get a bit sick of them."
Gardening expert Alex Macdonald, of Dobbies in Dalgety Bay, said: "It's almost unheard of for anyone to grow bananas in a Scottish home. The only chance of success is to ensure that the tree grows no taller than 10 feet.
"The temperature must be kept at a constant 19 degrees and in direct sunshine or it won't bear any fruit. If you meet these very exacting conditions, which is very difficult, it is theoretically possible. It is amazing he managed it without even trying."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article