Log in

View Full Version : Red banana


Red Sky
08-12-2015, 03:24 AM
I got two plants from the discount rack at Lowe's that were labeled as "Red banana - Musa Cavendish". The underside of the leaves are dark red, green upper with a red vein and red on the p.stem. The p.stem is robust for the size of the plants. Were they labeled correctly?


http://i1187.photobucket.com/albums/z394/sdmessmer/Garden%20pix/Red%20Banana_zpsuou2krav.png (http://s1187.photobucket.com/user/sdmessmer/media/Garden%20pix/Red%20Banana_zpsuou2krav.png.html)

Sekhmet
08-12-2015, 06:21 AM
I'm a newbie, so please don't hold me to this. Others will certainly know better, but my guess is that they're Ensete Maurelii. I saw them at Lowe's also. Pretty plants.

siege2050
08-12-2015, 10:03 AM
They are Ensete Maurelii, are just ornamental, and do not make edible fruit. They will not make pups,and will only grow the single trunk. After a few years, they will bloom, die and set seeds, and if you want more identical to these, you will have to repurchase them as the seeds do not come true, because Ensete Maurelii was selected for its unusually bright colors from the plain green species. The normal species is not this colorful, and the seedlings will not look the same as your plants, probably being more green, or a mixture. Ensete are very pretty plants when they get large, I grow several of them, staggering the purchase dates so if I lose one to flowering, I will still have other large plants, while I purchase new ones. They are not too expensive when buying as Tissue culture plants, and grow very fast.

Sekhmet
08-12-2015, 10:52 AM
Woo hooo! Got one right. Didn't know that they wouldn't grow true from seed. Learn something new all the time. :-)

siege2050
08-12-2015, 11:01 AM
Yep, the only way to get this color is though Cloning, or some people cut the stem down far enough to damage the growing point, then the plant responds by putting out a bunch of suckers that have to be removed and rooted. This does kill the mother plant though. This method does not work on the other ensete species, or rarely works.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=2496&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2496)

Sekhmet
08-12-2015, 11:15 AM
Wow. With my luck I would just end up killing my plant. Looks like I may have to take a trip back to Lowe's and see if they marked the ones over here down so I can have a back up.

Thanks so much for the info. I planned to just save seeds and try that misadventure.

Red Sky
08-12-2015, 04:11 PM
That figures, just another pretty face! Well I'll grow this as an ornamental then.

Yep, the only way to get this color is though Cloning, or some people cut the stem down far enough to damage the growing point, then the plant responds by putting out a bunch of suckers that have to be removed and rooted. This does kill the mother plant though. This method does not work on the other ensete species, or rarely works.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=2496&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2496)

Did you wait until flowering or did you randomly cut back the mother plant? Are these technically clones or pups? I know pups don't always have the same color as the mother plant but if they are true clones they might.

Red Sky
08-12-2015, 04:14 PM
And I guess this is another case of a fake or mislabeled plant!

siege2050
08-12-2015, 05:32 PM
And I guess this is another case of a fake or mislabeled plant!

It happens a lottttttt lol

siege2050
08-12-2015, 05:34 PM
Yep, the only way to get this color is though Cloning, or some people cut the stem down far enough to damage the growing point, then the plant responds by putting out a bunch of suckers that have to be removed and rooted. This does kill the mother plant though. This method does not work on the other ensete species, or rarely works.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=2496&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=2496)


Ewwwww, that pic kinda reminds me of when Han Solo cut open the dead Taun Tuan and put Luke in its belly lol.