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View Full Version : Don't Give Up Too Soon


Yug
02-17-2012, 09:06 PM
A friend with a Popoulu banana (see my 'nanner gallery, last pg) had cut it down after it fruited. He didn't know I was interested in it. After the main part of the corm, with about the bottom foot of the p-stem, had been laying around dying/drying for about a month, I stopped for a visit. The corm looked totally dead and was stinking from the rot. Not easily deterred, I asked him if I could have it, which he quickly agreed to. I took it home, and cut off the worst of the rotten/dead parts, split it into 3 pieces, and potted them up. Well, they sat and languished for about 2 months not doing anything. I figured it was a lost cause, but continued to water just enough so it didn't get bone dry. Well, about the time I got an Iholena corm from robguz24, I figured I'd use one of the pots since the Popoulu hadn't decided to sprout anything. Well, as I was picking one of the pots, I happend to notice a little pup sprouting from one of the corm pieces. Lesson: don't give up too soon!!

Popoulu pup sprouting
<a href=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=47945><img src=http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=47945&size=1 border=0></a>

pitangadiego
02-17-2012, 09:50 PM
Never give up until all that is left is a hole in the ground.

venturabananas
02-18-2012, 11:49 AM
Never give up until all that is left is a hole in the ground.

So true.

Chance1945
02-18-2012, 07:23 PM
Makes your heart skip a beat when that happens, doesn't it. Good for you.

Olafhenny
02-18-2012, 09:17 PM
Thanks Yug, I have been time and again amazed at the capacity of nature to regenerate itself.

And that does not just go for bananas.

kentiopsis
02-18-2012, 11:03 PM
Over 30 years of germinating palm seed, I learned never to give up on anything for at least a year. Too many times I found palm seedlings in the compost pile.

palmtree
02-19-2012, 12:53 AM
Wow, thats always the greatest thing to see. I love seeing plants come back after I think they have died. I thought my Ensete Maurelli was a gonner when it died to the ground last spring after a battle with aphids all winter long indoors. Turns out that it started growing again. It ended up not growing very fast, but it did survive and its still alive now (as a very small plant). Maybe it will get some more size on it this summer!

Yug
02-19-2012, 12:55 PM
Makes your heart skip a beat when that happens, doesn't it. Good for you.

Makes a cloudy/rainy day so much brighter (he says as he nudges the pot to a spot where it will get a little more liquid-sunshine) :waving:

Yug
02-19-2012, 01:12 PM
Thanks Yug, I have been time and again amazed at the capacity of nature to regenerate itself.

And that does not just go for bananas.



A couple of years back I had a terrestrial orchid (one that grows in dirt) growing in a pot that was sitting on the ground. I gave the potted 'chid to a friend, and when I picked up the pot I noticed that a few of the roots had grown into the dirt. I snipped them off, and never gave 'em a second thought. Well, almost a year later I noticed two odd looking 'weeds' with very pleated leaves growing in that same area. Some terrestrial orchids grow with pleated leaves, but I didn't know what they could be so I dug & potted them up thinking I would like to see what they were. Well, when it flowered, it turned out to be the same type as the one I gave away - Phaius tankervilliae. I have no idea how just the pieces of the root survived until the next blooming cycle; there was no sign of it above ground for many months.

Once those were blooming, I gave them away, too.