View Full Version : Dwarf Cavendish
Bonnie
04-08-2016, 08:28 PM
I live in NC and have several Dwarf Cavendish that I winter in a heated greenhouse. This year we will have bananas! One has 2 buds that started in mid-March and another one that is just starting to get a flower bud.
I am so stoked because it has been 2 years since we had bananas.
What can I do to insure I have a flower every year?
The latter one, the huge pot has split so I don't think it can be divided now without a risk.
Any thoughts?
Botanical_Bryce
04-08-2016, 10:08 PM
I chop my bananas up so many ways that I'm not sure what risk there could be. My dwarf cavendish are my hardiest so far even though they are the most cold sensitive. I get bits and pieces popping up all around from parts I toss out. I would guess there would be no risk.
Gabe15
04-09-2016, 12:08 PM
If they are near to fruiting size, separating them could really mess up and stunt it's fruiting process, so better to wait, but as JP said, if we can get some photos it would be a lot easier to give you specific advice.
As for getting them to fruit regularly, as much continuous growth as possible is ideal, if you are growing them in pots, keeping them to only one shoot at a time (meaning you take off all suckers as they appear) can help to focus the growth on only the main shoot which will allow it to fruit easier.
Bonnie
04-09-2016, 01:27 PM
I have 2 different pots of bananas in the greenhouse. They are both dwarf Cavendish. I posted about them under the pictures. Any help, especially the over grown pot would be greatly appreciated. Click the link to see my pics. They come out of the greenhouse (http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/bananas.htm) in the spring. I am in zone 7, NC.
Bonnie
04-11-2016, 05:52 PM
If someone can tell me how to post the actual pictures here I can do that instead of posting a link to a page I put them on.
Pictures? Muddle thru this http://www.bananas.org/f5/how-post-images-your-threads-97.htmlthan. Ask questions if needed; people are nice about helping here.
I'm going to be the maverick I assumed someone else would be. You have DC that produce right on schedule. Their schedule. If they require 3 years, they take 3 years. So you get fruit every 3 years even from their progeny. Want to mess that up? Bring in some strange. Plants that aren't on the others' schedule. I could be wrong but I could be right. Right? LOL
Bonnie
04-11-2016, 06:28 PM
Link says page not found
It does. Well, darn, I coped the link. Sorry. Okay, go search in Site Help and Feedback. About pictures. If you have issues, ask there.
Kegas76
04-11-2016, 09:34 PM
Link says page not found
click the link she provided (http://www.bananas.org/f5/how-post-images-your-threads-97.htmlthan) and then remove "than" which appears after the .html tag and hit enter.
Hammocked Banana
04-12-2016, 05:56 AM
To me, your first pot with lots of pstems looks like zebrenia not DC. It is not an edible banana due to all the seeds in the fruit. The second fruiting plant does look like DC.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 07:05 AM
To me, your first pot with lots of pstems looks like zebrenia not DC. It is not an edible banana due to all the seeds in the fruit. The second fruiting plant does look like DC.
Is your comment on that banana based on the leaves you can see? The overgrown one has one banana in the pot that may be zebrenia. Not even sure how it got in that pot because we have many different bananas growing here and not all are fruiting.
Hammocked Banana
04-12-2016, 07:42 AM
Yes, I based it on the pup and the flowering plant's leaves. DC lose their wine spots on the leaves as the mature. The banana in your pic still has wine marks at flowering, plus petioles are a yellow/red colour. Also the new cigar leaf coming out is redish which is not a trait of DC. It's hard to tell in the pic but the fruit also appear to be red.
Botanical_Bryce
04-12-2016, 07:45 AM
Looks more like a super dwarf than a dwarf to me. Has chitin and my dwarf cavendish do not have it.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 07:48 AM
Back to my original question. The one that is over crowded, can it be divided while in flower?
Also I don't know what chitin is?
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 07:51 AM
Looks more like a super dwarf than a dwarf to me. Has chitin and my dwarf cavendish do not have it..
The one with 2 flowers is not super dwarf, I have several of those and this one is way to tall to be super dwarf. It is about 6 ' tall.
I will get a better picture of the leaves today.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 10:11 AM
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot5.jpg
Do I repot this with the bloom?
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 10:12 AM
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot5.jpg
So do I repot this even though it has a flower bud. Will it be edible? Actually I am not sure of the variety because I have many bananas in the greenhouse. I "think" it is dwarf cavendish...
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 10:18 AM
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot1.jpg
Here is the pot that is no longer round but oval
Thanks for all who helped me learn how to post images!
I'm sure it's not DC. I would NOT repot it at this time because of the stress it can cause to the plant. I would wait after fruiting.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 10:29 AM
I'm sure it's not DC. I would NOT repot it at this time because of the stress it can cause to the plant. I would wait after fruiting.
Thank you, JP!
Does this one look like DC?http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot6.jpg
It has 2 very large blooms and I believe we had bananas on it 2 years ago.
Could it be double mahoi?
Are the 2 flowers on the same pstem?
Did it have 1 or 2 flowers the first year?
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 01:03 PM
I suppose it could be but I bought it as a DC. No only one flower previous times. There is 2 years between blooms. And this is the 3rd time.
They are very crowded in the greenhouse right now so it is hard to get between the large 25 gallon pots. We should be moving them outside soon and I can get a better pic them. All 3 times they came into bloom in March in the greenhouse and we cannot move them out until after April 15th or there about.
The bananas we small, maybe 3 to 4 inches long and very sweet.
Botanical_Bryce
04-12-2016, 03:32 PM
Raja puri imo.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 04:40 PM
Raja puri imo.
I think you may be correct because I looked on line and as I recall that is what the flowers look like. Time will tell.
Botanical_Bryce
04-12-2016, 07:55 PM
I thought at first it was because the fruits were not fully out of the stalk. I went with super dwarf because it looked short in the photo. When you said 6 foot i knew right away it looked just like our Raja Puri. Further south of me the stalks are longer.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 08:11 PM
I thought at first it was because the fruits were not fully out of the stalk. I went with super dwarf because it looked short in the photo. When you said 6 foot i knew right away it looked just like our Raja Puri. Further south of me the stalks are longer.
Botanical_Bryce, Does this look right for the Raja Puri?
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot3a.jpg
Botanical_Bryce
04-12-2016, 08:17 PM
Typical. The fruit is supposed to come out further but Raja Puri does that common where it remains in the stalk. Flower petals even curl up like that. I am pretty sure but some people can evaluate finer details than myself.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 08:20 PM
Typical. The fruit is supposed to come out further but Raja Puri does that common where it remains in the stalk. Flower petals even curl up like that. I am pretty sure but some people can evaluate finer details than myself.
I was just starting to read about choking. Is this is what is happening?
Botanical_Bryce
04-12-2016, 08:27 PM
Yes. If you read reviews on Raja Puri you will find it is a common issue. Our does it all the time. High fruit loss. I have one called pinapple that is supposed to be Raja Puri clonal mutation. Has less choking.
Bonnie
04-12-2016, 08:30 PM
Yes. If you read reviews on Raja Puri you will find it is a common issue. Our does it all the time. High fruit loss. I have one called pinapple that is supposed to be Raja Puri clonal mutation. Has less choking.
Oh no! Does that mean I have to remove the bud?
Bonnie
04-13-2016, 11:41 AM
OK so curiosity got the best of me and I removed the leaf that was hiding the flower bud.
So some are growing out of the tree (called choking, I believe) It now looks like the flower bud is headed in a downward position.
Is the bloom salvageable?
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot7.jpg
Gabe15
04-13-2016, 12:02 PM
Choking is common for any potted bananas while fruiting, not just 'Raja Puri'. To me it looks within the Cavendish realm but hard to say for sure without better photos of the whole plant.
An easy way to point us in the right direction is to post a photo of the pseudostem surface towards the bottom of the plant UNDER the outer-most sheath, you want a surface that has not been exposed to sunlight. Peel back an outer-most layer and take a look, if it is mostly a deep and or bright red, it is Cavendish. This trait can sometimes be somewhat reduced when grown indoors/greenhouse, but there still should be lots of red.
Bonnie
04-13-2016, 12:46 PM
Any comments on what I should do with the ones growing out of the "crown"?
Gabe15
04-13-2016, 01:15 PM
I would just let it do what it wants, not a whole lot you can do. If there are some fruit which are being smashed between leaf bases, you may try to maneuver the leaves slightly to give them some room, but you should be careful not to break the leaves, as that could negatively affect the whole bunch. If it were my plant I would just let it grow and try not to intervene too much. It looks like you've pretty much done this, and it looks ok. The leaves that are folded down will probably remain functional for the duration of the fruiting, but I wouldn't risk doing anymore.
Bonnie
04-13-2016, 01:33 PM
Choking is common for any potted bananas while fruiting, not just 'Raja Puri'. To me it looks within the Cavendish realm but hard to say for sure without better photos of the whole plant.
An easy way to point us in the right direction is to post a photo of the pseudostem surface towards the bottom of the plant UNDER the outer-most sheath, you want a surface that has not been exposed to sunlight. Peel back an outer-most layer and take a look, if it is mostly a deep and or bright red, it is Cavendish. This trait can sometimes be somewhat reduced when grown indoors/greenhouse, but there still should be lots of red.
So the stem underneath is a pinkish red. I have some super dwarfs I bought last year from Loggee's and their stem is the same pinkish red.
They have been in the greenhouse since last October and will soon be coming out.
On the other hand the one I posted about in this thread further up, the one that is super pot bound, it is white under the lowest leaf.
Gabe15
04-13-2016, 01:47 PM
That pot-bound one is definitely not a Cavendish of any type. It's funny because I know this plant very well, it is extremely common, but I don't know what it is really, and it seems neither does anyone else. I could write a whole story on this plant, and maybe I'll do that one day, but for now you should know that it has the capacity to make good edible fruit, but often has trouble filling the fruit in a meaningful way, they are often very skinny, but can have a nice flavor, but not always. There are some theories I have about it, but it would take awhile to really sort it all out.
Hammocked Banana
04-13-2016, 05:09 PM
Gabe please explain what you mean nobody knows what it is? Is it not a zebrenia/blood banana/Sumatran? Or do you mean people are unaware of the origin? Are the fruit seeded? I thought I could remember an old thread where you had a GN x Sumatran flower and it was seeded as well. Sometimes my memory fails me, especially when I learn more on here than I actually have experience with.
If it is a seeded variety, I was going to suggest separating the plant now, as it would give the pups a good chance to grow and the plant is mainly used for aesthetics. It also appears like the main flowering plant with the small pup attached are zebrenia, but the pstems towards the outside of the pot (on both sides) may be Cavendish, or some other edible variety, based on stem thickness. Thoughts?
Gabe15
04-13-2016, 06:45 PM
Gabe please explain what you mean nobody knows what it is? Is it not a zebrenia/blood banana/Sumatran? Or do you mean people are unaware of the origin? Are the fruit seeded? I thought I could remember an old thread where you had a GN x Sumatran flower and it was seeded as well. Sometimes my memory fails me, especially when I learn more on here than I actually have experience with. I never had seed in this cultivar, but I may have posted about true M. acuminata subsp. zebrina containing seed in the past.
For how well distributed this plant is, there is really no well documented information on it. Mostly it has just been called "Zebrina" or "Sumatrana" or "Blood Banana", however those names, at least the first 2, are taken from 2 wild plants, Musa acuminata subsp. zebrina and Musa acuminata subsp. sumtrana, both are different from eachother, and neither are this plant. Bill Lessard claimed in his book to have created a hybrid between 'Grand Nain' and M. acuminata subsp. zebrina, they way he described what he did is not impossible, but so highly unlikely that it make's it seem like either a fake story or there was some mixup along the way, however we are left with this odd plant which seems to be exactly that, a Cavendish-wild M. acuminata hybrid, but this has not been verified to my knowledge, so I'm very hesitant to say that's what it is exactly without figuring out more about it.
If it is a seeded variety, I was going to suggest separating the plant now, as it would give the pups a good chance to grow and the plant is mainly used for aesthetics. It also appears like the main flowering plant with the small pup attached are zebrenia, but the pstems towards the outside of the pot (on both sides) may be Cavendish, or some other edible variety, based on stem thickness. Thoughts?
I see what you are saying about the different plants in there, it does look like there are 2 different plants in that pot, Bonnie would have to verify this.
Bonnie
04-14-2016, 02:58 PM
OK so this is the banana in the pot that is over crowded. Hammocked Banana suggested it might be a different variety. The pic is the one on the right side of the pot. The left side in the same pot looks different because it does not have the markings as the pic below. The left sided one is totally green.
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pic8a.jpg
Hammocked Banana
04-17-2016, 10:44 AM
The plant pictured is a "zebrenia," the other which is totally green would not be...
Bonnie
04-17-2016, 01:18 PM
So does the zebrina bare fruit?
Hammocked Banana
04-17-2016, 03:30 PM
Yours is! But I would re-read Gabe's posts...
Bonnie
05-17-2016, 07:33 PM
Quite awhile ago I posted the top picture. Today I am adding a picture of the actual bananas hoping for identification.
The little bananas are brown in color but still very firm.
Note: I am not sure how the shorter plant that has the splotches got in the same pot but the one blooming/producing is a different kind of banana.
It is in a huge pot and taking up room in the greenhouse and if these bananas are not going to be edible, I will compost all the plants in the pot.
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/pot1.jpg
http://www.bonniesplants.com/bananas/banana.brown.jpg
Bonnie
07-10-2016, 04:49 PM
What a disappointment. The Maho and both other bananas all turned brown and fell off. As the bud drops lower, no more bananas are forming.
Should I just cut the flower off?
sputinc7
07-10-2016, 07:03 PM
I have grown plants my whole life,but I have never container grown bananas, but that looks severely root bound. That might be part of the problem. There can't be anything but roots in there.
Then again, I could be wrong.
Bonnie
07-10-2016, 07:08 PM
Yes the one is very pot bound but the others that the bananas dried up are not. And it did get ample water as did the others.
sputinc7
07-10-2016, 07:20 PM
I was just about to remove my stupid post as I did not begin on the first page and read the whole thing. I have now, and I see everyone else already knows it's root bound. DUH! :D :D :D
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