Log in

View Full Version : mini sdc choking?


sandy0225
11-16-2009, 09:05 AM
I went out to the greenhouse this morning, noticed there were some fallen leaves inside my mini sdc from the tulip tree. I took them out and there was a bloom! I dont know how long it's been blooming.
But here's my question, I thought from other sdc pictures I'd seen, and other bananas that I'd bloomed ...that the bloom should be coming out on a short stalk and then opening up. I think this one might be choking up inside the stem. It's just peeking out and already colored up. There are also a couple of leaves including the flag leaf that look like they didn't come all the way out.
How would you fix this? Cut it carefully with a knife to release it? It has two large pups in the pot that can feed this pstem if I need to slice those leaves off and do a little careful surgery.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=26797&size=1

chong
11-16-2009, 08:07 PM
I don't think that it's choking. It's coming out up top. Crank up the heat a little in your greenhouse, or place it in a warmer area, and see what happens. Congratulations!

r3tic
11-16-2009, 08:50 PM
well done with the bloom....can we see the whole plant?

Gabe15
11-16-2009, 10:02 PM
This variety often chokes like that. If you are going to operate, I would recommend carefully making a slice in the pseudostem instead of cutting leaves off.

sandy0225
11-17-2009, 06:56 AM
r3tic, here's a picture of the plant a couple of months ago. It's in the greenhouse now and let me tell you that one is too crowded to even think about getting a picture from a distance. I'm lucky to be able to thread myself through there to water! I did crank up the heat a few more degrees. I'm keeping it at 60 at night in there now, instead of 50. That's my smallest and cheapest to heat greenhouse, (10x20 glass with plastic and polycarb layer inside that) so far I'm just using one electric radiant heater in there, but prety soon I have to kick the gas one on when it starts getting in the 10's at night regularly.

http://www.bananas.org/vbclassified/uploaded/r8gvsuqr.jpg

I took my hands yesterday and kind of pulled apart the leaves and loosened up the top of the plant a little bit yesterday. I'll see if that makes it come out. If not, I'll do a little slice down the side of the pstem up at the top as Gabe suggested. It's easy to work on anyway since the whole thing is only about 3.5 feet tall, pot and all!

CValentine
11-17-2009, 07:08 AM
So excited to see a bloom on this Sandy!!
Your SDC mini is beautiful!!
Gives me(blooming) hope for the minis that I got from you!!! :D ~Cheryl

r3tic
11-17-2009, 10:37 AM
You must be feeding it like mad to get it to fruit in such a small pot! How old is that plant?

sirmoebly
11-19-2009, 08:14 PM
Just let it do it's coarse, mabe keep it warmer.... awesome!!!!!!! Job!!!!!!

mushtaq86
11-22-2009, 02:09 PM
You must be feeding it like mad to get it to fruit in such a small pot! How old is that plant?

I would like to 2ND that sandy,i wouldn't have thought you would have got fruit by looking at that pot size.How many times a week have you been feeding it and how much.Forgot to mention, congratulations.

sandy0225
11-29-2009, 07:35 PM
Hey it was choking big time. I first tried to loosen the bloom by pulling slightly down and outward on the leaves. In a few days I checked it and eek...the bloom was still stuck and it had a little bit of whitish fuzzy mold on it! So I gave it a quick cut down the side of the pseudostem with a pocketknife, and started pulling the pstem open (kind of like butterflying it open)so I could see what I was doing. I pulled the bloom sideways and it popped out of the side of the stem where I'd made the cut. I could see that the bloom stalk was still even further inside the stem, so I made the cut longer and pulled on it again. The bloom actually had a few hands of small bananas forming inside the pstem! But it looked like it was still further down in there. So I one more time lengthened the cut and pulled sideways gently on the bloom stem again and I was able to pull it to where all the fingers were sticking out of the side of the stem on a stalk about 3 inches long. I altogether had to cut the pstem open about 5 inches and pull the flower out. I think it might make fruit now though. The mold was on petals that hadn't been able to fall off as the bloom opened because it was stuck and now the little hands of bananas are out of the pstem so they might just make it, I hope.
I'll take a picture of it tomorrow, it's dark out there now.

sandy0225
12-01-2009, 10:25 AM
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=27329&size=1

picture as promised, see how far I had to cut and pull it out? The bananas were already forming in the stem and it's to the point of producing male flowers now. There's no pollen at all, so much for trying to cross it with my ice cream!

mushtaq86
12-02-2009, 05:37 PM
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=27329&size=1

picture as promised, see how far I had to cut and pull it out? The bananas were already forming in the stem and it's to the point of producing male flowers now. There's no pollen at all, so much for trying to cross it with my ice cream!

Wow amazing sandy0225.:lurk:

sandy0225
12-24-2009, 07:57 AM
My chop and pull method seems to be working! the little bananas are plumping up slowly.

Caloosamusa
12-24-2009, 08:52 AM
While Ice Cream is a female fertile plant, the Cavendish are AAA (triploids) and do not produce a viable pollen. Try a Rose, Monkey fingers, or PJB, as the male and your results will be better.

I hope this helps. :2239:

LilRaverBoi
12-24-2009, 03:47 PM
I was just wondering how this was coming along the other day! My SDC has just stopped growing for some reason...not sure why. It's warm enough (next to a heater and a south-facing window) but hasn't done much all winter.

Just keep us updated on the progress! I wanna know how SDC bananas taste!

Jack Daw
12-24-2009, 07:51 PM
Good job, Sandy, let us know how the winter harvest tastes. ;)
Yummy.

IndianaSue
12-27-2009, 11:00 AM
Congratulations Sandy!! Please keep us posted.

sandy0225
12-29-2009, 08:14 AM
I don't think there will be any harvest until spring. They really do slow down to the point to stopping growth this time of the year in Indiana, unless you have them under a grow light running 14 hours or so a day. It's the short days.
That is fine with me anyway. How many mini's do you think I'll sell this spring if I have that one cleaned up with little bananas on it sitting in a prominent place on the end of the greenhouse bench with the little ones sitting beneath it for sale? I'm thinking one or two anyway.....my (evil) marketing plan for spring!mwahahahahahaha...

LilRaverBoi
12-29-2009, 03:19 PM
ROFL...that's actually a pretty brilliant marketing scheme! You should totally capitalize on that!

Patty in Wisc
12-29-2009, 05:51 PM
Congrats Sandy! They came out looking yellow already. Hope they don't get over ripe by Spring...and watch out for ppl trying to steel a nana LOL.

sandy0225
01-31-2010, 08:03 PM
They are slowly plumping up and starting to actually look like very small bananas now. I've been really careful about watering not to let them get too dry or too wet. I'll post a picture in a day or two, I think they were looking yellow because they were trapped in the stem and they were lacking sunlight. kind of like growing in the dark. They are getting plumper and green now. I don;t really know how big a mini sdc fruit is, so I guess I'll have to wait and see how big they get. I'm glad they are in a different greenhose than the ice cream banana, which got frosted due to a heater problem.

LilRaverBoi
02-01-2010, 01:35 PM
Yay! Glad to hear things are coming along with the SDC. Sorry to hear about your IC, but it might still be okay. Keep us updated!

sandy0225
02-04-2010, 11:00 AM
update on mini, she's so fun to grow! I'm calling it the "mini family" now. The pot is very crowded.
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=29494&size=1
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=29495&size=1
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=29496&size=1
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=29497&size=1

LilRaverBoi
02-04-2010, 11:21 PM
Wow..very nice! Thanks for the pictorial update! Fruit look small, but everything is healthy! You could probably remove the flowers now. That's exciting! My SDC stopped growing months ago and has a very healthy pup that has taken over. It will get bigger this year than last year based on the fact that it has a bigger pot, better root system and a larger plant currently than what I had in late feb when I got it last year....but it's still kinda sad to lose all of last year's growth. Oh well, I don't really care about fruiting much anyway. It'd be nice, but I grow for foliage, predominantly.