Bananas.org - View Single Post - Growing Bananas at 8000 feet/searching for A'ea'e

WildernessGreen · 05-15-2024, 02:31 PM

Thank you for these diagrams.

One note, in this thread, when I refer to "A'ea'e, and "Florida" - this is what they were sold to me as. I have not fruited either mother plant so will never be sure of what I have until that point. Although I have a lot of years growing musa under my belt - I only have a couple years with A'ea'e and Florida.

I wish my mother "A'ea'e" plant was still here so I could spend a lot of time studying the petioles. I have read how the A'ea'e petioles should be more curved inwards than the Florida. I have a question on this though - does this petiole difference show in small leaves as pups? Or as they mature? Can you feel the leaves of a 2' high Florida, and A'ea'e and there is the difference? Is this 100% of the time, period, or does it vary?

The main difference I saw between my Florida, and A'ea'e, was their stance, and size. The Florida was smaller, much more erect leaves, and the A'ea'e was much taller - around 12' when she died, and her leaves were far more droopy than the Florida. Unfortunately I made the same crucial error on both - putting them into whiskey barrels with not enough. and too small drainage holes, getting fooled by the top drier soil, hiding the wet bottom soil.

When studying hundreds of online pictures, it appears A'ea'e will have overall more white, and less grey than Florida - BUT, I have seen many contradictory posts/pics on this - some folks have strains, they claim to have fruited that have very little variegation. It gets very confusing as I'm sure a lot pics I have found are mislabeled, and then you bring in possible different strains, and then growing conditions, and then of course, did honest sellers including the Indonesian sellers calling them "Florida AeAe's"........yikes!!!!! Danger Will Robinson!

05-15-2024, 02:31 PM	#26 (permalink)
WildernessGreen Location: Northern New Mexico, USA Find me on the map! Join Date: Jun 2019 Posts: 81 BananaBucks : 14,715 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 63 Times Was Thanked 114 Times in 45 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times	Re: Growing Bananas at 8000 feet/searching for A'ea'e Thank you for these diagrams. One note, in this thread, when I refer to "A'ea'e, and "Florida" - this is what they were sold to me as. I have not fruited either mother plant so will never be sure of what I have until that point. Although I have a lot of years growing musa under my belt - I only have a couple years with A'ea'e and Florida. I wish my mother "A'ea'e" plant was still here so I could spend a lot of time studying the petioles. I have read how the A'ea'e petioles should be more curved inwards than the Florida. I have a question on this though - does this petiole difference show in small leaves as pups? Or as they mature? Can you feel the leaves of a 2' high Florida, and A'ea'e and there is the difference? Is this 100% of the time, period, or does it vary? The main difference I saw between my Florida, and A'ea'e, was their stance, and size. The Florida was smaller, much more erect leaves, and the A'ea'e was much taller - around 12' when she died, and her leaves were far more droopy than the Florida. Unfortunately I made the same crucial error on both - putting them into whiskey barrels with not enough. and too small drainage holes, getting fooled by the top drier soil, hiding the wet bottom soil. When studying hundreds of online pictures, it appears A'ea'e will have overall more white, and less grey than Florida - BUT, I have seen many contradictory posts/pics on this - some folks have strains, they claim to have fruited that have very little variegation. It gets very confusing as I'm sure a lot pics I have found are mislabeled, and then you bring in possible different strains, and then growing conditions, and then of course, did honest sellers including the Indonesian sellers calling them "Florida AeAe's"........yikes!!!!! Danger Will Robinson!