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Originally Posted by varig8
I also have seen your youtube videos and I dont quite understand what it is you are actually achieving by doing this. From what I know, simply by joining 2 different corms together wouldnt do anything except grow 2 different bananas together. The same as just planting them separately,but close together.....True, if the 2 corms grow together they would both be benefiting from the intake of water and nutrients from the combined roots, but this wont produce anything different as far as flowering or fruiting, or "mutating". How does this act of grafting combine or mix any of the differences between the 2 plants into something new, or create any type of a mutation? Mutations can occur randomly in nature or by natural or man made radiation, resulting in a differently shaped leaf or perhaps variegation, etc. But you cannot "create' a mutation simply by the act of grafting. This would not be considered a mutation anyway, it would be called a hybrid which is completely different. And usually when you hybridize plants, it is done by cross pollination and not by grafting. When you graft one plant onto another, it is usually a weaker growing plant tip being grafted onto a stronger root stock in order for the weaker one to grow more easily, or for obtaining fruit quicker when taking a limb from an already mature tree and grafting it to a very young rootstock.
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Here's the way I see it: The 2 halves of the p-stem are fused to form 1 p-stem. As the p-stem grows, understandably, the 2 halves are on each side of the p-stem, then forms a flower bud, followed by the fruit. Now, I'm not there to inspect it. But would you surmise that half the fruits on one side of the fruit stem would be a Basjoo fruit and the other half the Rajapuri, such that if the split happens to be in the the middle of a hand of ten fingers, there would be 5 Basjoo and 5 Rajapuri? Personally, I would think not. I would think that the characteristics of the 2 varieties would be present in each fruit (finger). Perhaps Mauro can show us what the fruits look like (cut in half).
Quote:
Originally Posted by varig8
The other reason I have seen for grafting is to produce a single tree which would have various types and colors of flowers (such as Hibiscus), in a single tree, or with fruit trees, in order to end up with a single tree that will produce different fruit on the same tree--but, these are separate branches which hold true to their specific flowers and fruit. Bananas do not have branches and only a single meristem so this is not possible to achieve the same result. By simply 'joining' , (or "grafting") 2 different banana plants together it is not possible for their separate differences or qualitys to somehow magically 'Mix' and produce anything different. Each corm or tree would just produce suckers of its own type and flower and fruit each to its own.
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If the resulting fruits are a combination of the 2 varieties, then I would think that some of the pups emanating from the area of the joint would also have a mixture of the 2 varieties. Perhaps, the pups further from the joint would favor the characteristics of the pertinent side. Again, since Mauro has done this for a couple of years now, he can show us some of the offsprings from his "grafted" plants.
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Originally Posted by varig8
As for the 'mutant' flower in your gallery photos of this Basjoo, it looks to me like the flowering stem just got 'stuck' growing out during the winter and was never able to continue to grow out naturally and become pendant like normal, and this is the reason it is erect like a Fehi banana. I believe this is true because the fruit is also immature and had started to ripen just from age as it was not able to continue filling out due to the winter conditions. None of this was caused by grafting or "mutating", just natural occurrence from the winter conditions.
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For this particular plant I concur that the timing of the emergence of the bloom and fruit may have affected the way it bloomed. But did the weather affect the shape of the fruits, which neither look like Basjoo nor Rajapuri. Well, maybe. In which case, which half would have seeds and which half would not? Or are they completely seedless?
Quote:
Originally Posted by varig8
I just dont understand what it is you are doing, if you would be so kind as to explain this I would be very interested in understanding. Thanks!
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I believe he is just doing what the people in the islands have been doing for generations - "grafting" bananas to produce a different variety. I do not believe that they are just doing it for the fun of it.