venturabananas
05-12-2012, 08:38 PM
I have a mat of Goldfinger bananas that has bloomed twice and is about to open a third flower. The first two inflorescences have not produced female flowers and so no fruit from them. They start with some weird looking flowers and then make typical male flowers. The third bud looks very skinny, too, and I bet it is going to fail to make fruit also.
The question is this:
Is this plant failing to make fruit because it has had a tough life, experiencing boron deficiency, or could it be that this plant is a somatic mutant generated by the TC process?
I know the plant suffered from boron deficiency and I solved that problem by supplementing boron. And I know that flowering and fruiting in plants in general can be affected by boron deficiency. And I know that the flower bud in bananas is formed long before, sometimes months before, it emerges. So in my plant it is possible that these problems are still showing up, months after I corrected the boron deficiency. But I'm wondering if that is likely.
Anyone know if boron deficiency can cause the absence of female flowers in bananas?
I figure I'll let a few of the younger p-stems that did not experience the boron deficiency flower and if they too don't have female flowers, then I'll conclude the plant is a mutant and dig it out and replace it. I'd rather not have to do that, but it has to earn its keep by feeding me.
Weird flowers:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48790&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48790&ppuser=7760)
Skinny bud:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48788&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48788&ppuser=7760)
Eventual male bud with normal male flowers:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=46966&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=46966&ppuser=7760)
The question is this:
Is this plant failing to make fruit because it has had a tough life, experiencing boron deficiency, or could it be that this plant is a somatic mutant generated by the TC process?
I know the plant suffered from boron deficiency and I solved that problem by supplementing boron. And I know that flowering and fruiting in plants in general can be affected by boron deficiency. And I know that the flower bud in bananas is formed long before, sometimes months before, it emerges. So in my plant it is possible that these problems are still showing up, months after I corrected the boron deficiency. But I'm wondering if that is likely.
Anyone know if boron deficiency can cause the absence of female flowers in bananas?
I figure I'll let a few of the younger p-stems that did not experience the boron deficiency flower and if they too don't have female flowers, then I'll conclude the plant is a mutant and dig it out and replace it. I'd rather not have to do that, but it has to earn its keep by feeding me.
Weird flowers:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48790&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48790&ppuser=7760)
Skinny bud:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=48788&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=48788&ppuser=7760)
Eventual male bud with normal male flowers:
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=46966&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=46966&ppuser=7760)