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ron_mcb
05-13-2009, 07:04 PM
has anyone ever moved a banana plant and its suckers with a shovel and left the severed roots in the ground and found little banana plants growing in that spot?? when i moved my gran nain i found a few small plantlets. i didnt believe they were bananas at first i thought it may have been just some type of grass. by the time i identified the plants it was late in the fall and it was a week before first frost. i tried to lift the things and i killed a few,they had virtually no corms.they were connected to only a stringy root,i broke it and i put em in pots. the two that i save lived for a while in pots before they were decapitated by a falling accident..unfortunately they didnt regenerate after that with no corm.

those things were tiny they looked like tissue culture plants. has anyone ever had any experience like this? <a href="http://s717.photobucket.com/albums/ww176/ronaldmcblunder/?action=view&current=tinyelephantear.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://i717.photobucket.com/albums/ww176/ronaldmcblunder/th_tinyelephantear.jpg" border="0" alt="elephant ear regeneration tiny plant" ></a>
before someone says im telling a tall tale look at this. i found it growing today. i removed my elephant ears from the ground in the fall. this thing survived 17 degree weather and snow and several frosts. i didnt have any hand in protecting it because i had no knowledge of it. i believe it was regenerated from a root piece the same as the banana.. this thing is no bigger than my thumb. there were two and i pulled one up and found no bulb in sight. if that happens again with the bananas i will get some pictures.. will see how big this gets by the end of the year..will definately propagate from this thing!!!

just j
05-13-2009, 07:43 PM
wow i never heard of that with bananas but the elephant ears i belive those thing grow like weeds some times when u dig out the bulb for winter u miss a small chunk that breaks off i have seen them grow back actually im gonna go take a picture of a little one that is starting to grow it looks just like your pic i dugg them up a few weeks ago cause i didnt like where they were planted the first time and know i got a little one coming up already in that spot they are like dandylions, very invasive

just j
05-13-2009, 07:47 PM
here is the picture

Lagniappe
05-13-2009, 09:16 PM
I've had this to happen with both A. Plumbea var. Metallica and A. williams hybrid. They popped up a full two years after I dug up the plant. I potted these and found more the next year. They were very, very slow to grow at first, being so small.
I'm somewhat confident that the same thing happened with M. sikkimensis var. Daj giant and M. itenerans. The Itenerans may have, by the very nature that gave it that name, already developed a plant away from the original corm.

Rmplmnz
05-13-2009, 10:13 PM
wow i never heard of that with bananas but the elephant ears i belive those thing grow like weeds some times when u dig out the bulb for winter u miss a small chunk that breaks off i have seen them grow back actually im gonna go take a picture of a little one that is starting to grow it looks just like your pic i dugg them up a few weeks ago cause i didnt like where they were planted the first time and know i got a little one coming up already in that spot they are like dandylions, very invasive

" like weeds some times "...sometimes...lol

we collect oak leaves and giant EE's pop up (frequently).....

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=11540&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=11540)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=11539&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=11539)

just j
05-13-2009, 10:27 PM
u got a little rain forest growing in your back yard lol

Rmplmnz
05-13-2009, 10:40 PM
All climate..I am a total slacker...lol..

Sooo when are you going to visit and load up on some corms???

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=7400&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=7400)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=3709&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=3709)

NotherNana
05-14-2009, 06:37 AM
Ronald, I could be wrong but I think from the photo the second poster is correct. I grow elephant ears too, and from photos that's what it appeared to be to me too. I guess we can all wait to see them as they grow larger to find the truth! Isn't it amazing the things that mother nature is able to do to regenerate herself. If man left the planet, I'm surre she'd have no troubles taking back what is rightfully her own. :)
Gino

ron_mcb
05-14-2009, 08:06 AM
its crazy how we try so hard to overwinter plants,or propagate them and sometimes fail. there isnt a doubt in my mind that i would have lost some of the big bulbs trying to mulch em in that severe weather (the reason i lifted them). nature protected that tiny thing..amazing

NotherNana
05-14-2009, 01:23 PM
Ronald,
what agricultural zone do you live in? Your post makes me wonder how hard you must work to grow sub/and reg...tropicals? :)
Gino

lorax
05-14-2009, 01:25 PM
To answer the original question, YUP. I've had Cavendish come back this way, as well as Plantains and a number of other edible cultivars. I pretty much give up on moving mats once they're established, since this always seems to happen and I don't want to nuke my yard with nasty chemicals.

ron_mcb
05-14-2009, 05:14 PM
Ronald,
what agricultural zone do you live in? Your post makes me wonder how hard you must work to grow sub/and reg...tropicals? :)
Gino

i live in zone 8 im in central ga. its true summers last longer down here warm weather can last untill early oct/nov..the winters can get cold and wet. temps drop into the teens and there is freezing rain..the ground will freeze there is rarely snow but last winter it contributed to crown rotting a few pindo palms.most fronds already came back . i know our cold cant compare with nothern temps... but tropicals can/will rot in the ground or get damaged. i can grow a tiny corm,or bulb into a big one if i wait on it.. .why have a damaged soft bulb/corm when you can have a big one that puts out big leaves from the start??? maybe if i stock up on my tropicals and i get so many that i cant store em,i will chance em in the elements. that has only happened with the cannas.their mats are so thick that the low temps dont seem to harm em much.. i hope to also grow a few huge mats of every banana cultivar i have.