View Full Version : Stupid or Wise?
asacomm
04-20-2009, 04:12 AM
The first job this Basjoo did this spring was to start the flower bud without
preparing leaves or whatever. I have never seen this phenomenon for other
bananas.
Was it stupid or wise? What do you evaluate?
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=16768&size=1
Gabe15
04-20-2009, 04:29 AM
That flower bud was made months ago, well before it got defoliated. Once it starts making the bud, it cannot undo it, so if all of the leaves were killed, and this is what it made next, it means the plant had made it over the summer and it was sitting in the pseudostem all winter waiting to come out.
Bananaman88
04-20-2009, 11:48 AM
After losing all its leaves due to the cold, I had a plant produce one leaf, then the flag, then the bud last spring. Fruit developed and ripened normally. I say normally, I'm sure they were smaller than they would have been otherwise, but they were still about 5" long and tasted fine.
LilRaverBoi
04-20-2009, 02:32 PM
Seems like a pretty dumb thing to do, honestly. Without leaves, it will be hard to develop fruit. But since it's a basjoo, it's not going to have edible fruit, anyway...so it really doesn't matter in the long run.
Gabe15
04-20-2009, 05:50 PM
This isn't a matter of whether or not the plant knows what its doing or is "stupid" or "wise", it already made the flower bud during a time of warmth and active growth, its not the plants fault that its leaves got frozen off right before it planned to flower. It can't just retract the bud and make leaves instead, everything that comes out of the top of a banana plant is initiated months in advance, they are not like other plants that can react quickly to flowering signals. The flower bud has to grow from just a few cells and travel the distance from the ground to the top of the pseudostem to emerge, that kind of process takes awhile, up to 6 months for some varieties in certain growing conditions. The point is the flower bud was not created right before it started growing this spring, it has been there a long time and would still be there regardless of whether or not the plant has leaves or not.
LilRaverBoi
04-20-2009, 07:28 PM
You do raise a valid point, Gabe! Never really thought of it like that, but that totally makes sense. Thanks!
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