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Old 03-03-2010, 09:36 AM   #3 (permalink)
jeffreyp
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Default Re: Most tolerant banana to dry, but tropical conditions

for ornamental purposes I would suggest looking into Ensete, a very close relative of musa. There is a cultivar of ensete grown in the Sahara desert where after the trunk is grown it is chopped up and used as a food staple. Ensete has a single pseudostem, normally dilated at the base, from which new pseudostems emerge only when artificially induced, that is, when the stem of the central inflorescence is removed from the pseudostem. Moore (1957) in his review of Musa and Ensete included the following species in the latter genus:

Ensete gilletii (DeWildeman) Cheesman, is native to West Africa from Sierra Leone to Angola and is ecologically adapted to drier regions.

Ensete ventricosum (Welwitsch) Cheesman, represents perhaps 70 per cent of the Ensete types cultivated in Ethiopia.

Ensete superbum (RX.) Cheesman is native to India.

Ensete homblei (Bequaert. ex. DeWild.) Cheesman is distributed in the Congo (Kinshasa) and Zambi

In dry sandy conditions I think cultivars that are resistant to nematodes should be a consideration , lady finger and mysore are known to be drought tolerant varieties. The country of Turkey has commercial banana production so I don't think your growing conditions in Thessaloniki are too different.

Last edited by jeffreyp : 03-03-2010 at 10:01 AM.
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