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Old 11-28-2006, 03:01 PM   #1 (permalink)
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Default Another UK member

Hi all,

Although I'm not a new member, my posts have been infrequent to say the least. Sometimes its too painful reading about other members' success when you haven't had much yourself! The flip side is the inspiration the board has given me.

I really want to try and fruit some edible musa varieties (got some orinoco plants growing) and with advice from the good people of this board, hopefully I can.

Happy growing.
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Old 11-28-2006, 03:36 PM   #2 (permalink)
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Default Re: Another UK member

Never give up. Good luck!
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Old 11-28-2006, 05:48 PM   #3 (permalink)
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Originally Posted by PaulM View Post
Hi all,

Although I'm not a new member, my posts have been infrequent to say the least. Sometimes its too painful reading about other members' success when you haven't had much yourself! The flip side is the inspiration the board has given me.

I really want to try and fruit some edible musa varieties (got some orinoco plants growing) and with advice from the good people of this board, hopefully I can.

Happy growing.
Hi Paul,
Glad to hear from you. Although I've been reading the posts on this forum for over a year, it was only a couple of weeks ago that I actually joined. And although I had been able to order some plants from a few members, my main reason for joining was so that I could meet more members from whom I could get more plants. After I joined, I have not yet gotten any new plants as a result, but I discovered and have been engaged with a bunch of people who are very, very interested in the same things that I am. The information exchange is tremendous. Although I was born and raised in the tropics, and was active in raising vegetables and trees, living in Seattle presented extraordinary challenges when it comes to raising tropical plants here. (I have numerous other "exotic" tropical plants other than bananas-check out my avatar.)

Talk about inspiration, I had a couple of dwarf cavendish that I ordered from the Canary Islands in 1974. I grew them indoors in our living room and they did very well. Then in 1978, we moved to our current home, where although we had a greenhouse, they stayed indoors because the greenhouse was not heated. We just bring them out in the spring, back indoors in late fall. Eight years ago, we had an early freeze that killed them.

Lucky for me I had been giving pups to friends and relatives. My brother had 2 pots of them that were very robust. However, in late Aug 2005, I asked him if I could get some pups from his bananas. He responded, "Oh, I forgot to tell you that I wanted you to look at them because they don't look so good." My heart jumped. I saw them, they were in the middle of the rec-room next to some desks away from the windows. One pot had 1 pup about 3-inches, the other 1 pup 6-inches. The 3-in pup was rotten at the corm and had a mushy base. the 6-in one was OK. I took it home and carefully thatched the soil around it and put it in a shaded area of the greenhouse.

The following month I was sent by my company to Florida, then to California, then to Mississippi in support of FEMA and this poor plant was left in the hands of my family all this time. Before I left the plant was at least 8-in tall. When I got back last Aug., it was a spindly 6-incher again. I repotted it into a 30-gallon pot 2 weeks later. Just before I covered it for the winter, it was over 2-ft at the base of the topmost leaf. And I am determined to pamper this baby until it fruits, which I hope will be this next summer.

So, take heart, your bananas have a cooler zone rating than my Dwarf Cavendish. They have a better chance. I will continue to share my experience with this group. Hope you will do the same.

Much luck to you,
Chong
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Old 11-29-2006, 06:53 AM   #4 (permalink)
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Default Re: Another UK member

SteelViper,

Thanks for the encouragement.

Chong,

Thanks to you too. It's funny, I was born nowhere near the tropics but have an interest in many plants from there. Incidentally, most of my failures have been with dwarf cavendish. Even though I've mollycoddled them and had them inside over winter, they die back. I'm wondering from reading your post, if they've not had sufficient light.

I've done quite well with ornamental musas.

Much luck to you too.
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Old 11-29-2006, 07:43 AM   #5 (permalink)
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SteelViper,

Thanks for the encouragement.

Chong,

Thanks to you too. . . . . . . . . . . Even though I've mollycoddled them and had them inside over winter, they die back. I'm wondering from reading your post, if they've not had sufficient light.

I've done quite well with ornamental musas.

Much luck to you too.
Paul,
You're very welcome. You might be right about the light thing. You didn't say whether you have yours outside where it gets at least 30% sunlight for 10 hours. Just to show you how important it is, the Dwarf Cavendish (DC) that I recovered from my brother had been doing great for over 25 years and had been producing lots of pups every year, although it never fruited. But then, I told him to keep it near the 10-ft wide sliding glass door because the location was on the North side of his house.

For those 25 years, he kept them there. But for some reason, when he rearranged his furniture, he placed them in the middle of the room, where it might have complimented the furniture arrangement. Now, my brother is an architect. He's more into aesthetics than function. I'm a mechanical engineer, and I'm conscious about temperature, humity, light, and all those environmental situations. So as soon as I saw the condition of his bananas, I was very disappointed and just prayed that some of them survived. The last time I saw them was 4 or 5 months before and they were fine. There were probably 4 or 5 pups in each pot. Now all that's left were those 2 little pups I spoke about earlier.

Besides the lighting, another issue might be your potting medium. Whatever it is, I would suggest that you mix some 1/4-inch to 3/8-inch pumice or lava rocks to your potting soil. In the ground, if your soil is clayish, I'd do the same thing. In the ground, I suppose you can also use pea gravel. This would improve the drainage of the soil. Usually, I have a 40% pumice to 60% soil mixture. While bananas are voracious feeders and can stand short periods of wet base, they do not like "their feet wet all the time". On the other hand, you do not want the soil to get totally dry.

If you're already doing all of this, maybe there might be issues with the environment where you store your corms in the winter.

Glad chatting with you . . .

Chong
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Old 11-29-2006, 09:51 AM   #6 (permalink)
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Default Re: Another UK member

Paul, try them in different parts of your yard, and when you plant them, dig as large a planting hole as you can, and amend it with fresh compost. And keep adding fresh compost so the nutrients don't get all used up. A lot of problems not only stem from insufficient watering, but insufficient planting holes.
Your mileage may vary, but it's just a thought.
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Old 11-29-2006, 03:14 PM   #7 (permalink)
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MediaHound, Chong,

Thanks for that feedback. So annoyed have I become with my cavendish over wintering issues, I've wrapped them up and placed them in the attic. This hibernation I know works well for some musa (orinoco, especially, I've read), so maybe it'll work for this variety.

It's the aforementioned orinocos that I'm thinking will be most suitable to my conditions. Got a couple of rajapuris on order too. Plus, a UK nursery is offering a dwarf red variety next year.

I'm just going to throw as many plants and as much effort as possible at the whole venture and hope I'll be eating my own home grown nanas one day!

I'll keep the faith.
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Old 11-29-2006, 08:23 PM   #8 (permalink)
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Default Re: Another UK member

I have what I think is a dwarf Cavendish, bought at a garden centre with the label 'Bananarama'. It has some reddish marks on the leaves, and makes lots of pups. But it doesn't grow much! I keep it in a spare bedroom in winter under an east facing window at around 16-20C (61-68F). In summer it goes in the greenhouse.

All I get is stunted leaves and a gradually taller base with a thickish stem. It just doesn't seem to like our climate! My Musa Williams Hybrid does very well, I grew it from a tiny tissue cultured plug and it's grown quite big in 2 years. It continues to grow inside over winter and now has a very thick stem. I have read that bananas stop growing below a certain temperature, that being 56F I think. I wonder if M cavendish requires higher temperatures.

In the UK we don't have a long season, and summers are generally cool, the maximum average for the hottest month being 21C only although this year was an exception. It can be very cold up until June, even then it can still be cold! I understand that many places in America have very high temperatures with a longer season even if they do experience lower winter temperatures, with being a large land mass. The UK is surrounded by water and this keeps the temperatures more moderate (translated to cold, cold, and cold).
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Old 11-30-2006, 10:52 AM   #9 (permalink)
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Banananana,

Yes, no doubt about it, we've got our work cut out in the UK. But with greenhouses, conservatories, etc, there's hope I think. I did get a Musa Malbogh ( it's probably known under other names too) to a great height but tested it for hardiness one winter and it passed on. I wrapped it so well though, I might have suffocated it.

I've had cavendish in a bedroom over winter and still the psuedostem has collapsed, but not the pups. That's why I was wondering about light.

If I ever have spare plants (that'll be a blessed day), would you be interested in having some? Regards.
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Old 11-30-2006, 11:51 AM   #10 (permalink)
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Cavendish is the least hardy banana I have ever tested out, in terms of cold. It's the more hardy/easier plant in indoor conditions, wich is the reason they sell them at Sainsburys, IKEA, and Wall-Mart.
It's a nice and chubby plant when it gets some size, but in my climate it just completely dissapoints me compared to almost all other species and cultivars I have tried over the years. It's a shame Cavendish is usually the only one for sale.

Paul, drop the Cavendish-cabbages and join me in the crusade to get some nice Dwarf Brazilians to Europe! From what I hear, this species is supposed to be hardy like Orinoco, and I think a member here overwinters them in-ground in Zone 7 Pennsylvania?!

Erlend
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Old 11-30-2006, 03:41 PM   #11 (permalink)
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PaulM,

I would agree with mrbungalow, drop the cavendish! I took a pup from mine and it grew better than the parent, possibly becasue I grew it in good compost, but once it gets to about a foot tall it seems to stop. The parent plant made two new growths from the one stem after last winter, it doesn't collapse, it just doesn't grow. Plenty of pups on both but I see no sense in trying with it any more, I decided to bury the parent plant along with it's pups in the ground this autumn, mulched well and leave it to fate. The other one is in the greenhouse, I don't think I will bring it inside, if it survives I will bury it somewhere too!

Williams Hybrid on the other hand is well worth growing, it is used for commercially grown bananas. I have high hopes of getting nanas! It's very attractive too, after last winter inside I found the rear side of the stem that didn't get the light was bright violet. It was stood on my kitchen/dining room floor somewhere near the south facing window but didn't get much good light, it's tough. The leaves when inside have red markings, but outside they seemed to bleach out perhaps with the heat this year. I was worried it wouldn't survive when I got it, it was so tiny and in December, easytropicals sell them on ebay but I don't know if they have this now. They do have orinoco at £3.99 for a plug, but postage at £2.99 can make it expensive if it doesn't live. I just potted mine up and left it moist in the bedroom and it got through. I also bought some Alocasias and Colocasia, one died, one has grown well, the other is Alocasia Purpley and it just started to reroot this autumn after a dormant spell, started to shoot and stopped but is developing a stronger crown, they don't make proper bulbs but it's alive! Plugs of those are very risky, the one that died had made a tiny bulb less than 1/8" diameter, a tiny watering in spring rotted it! If they are selling these on ebay the postage should be less, I have seen people paying a fortune for some of their plugs when they could have bought them with 'buy it now', they just bid and don't look! I think many expect to get a big plant like they show in the picture!

http://www.easytropicals.com/pcp/Bananas.html
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Old 11-30-2006, 04:59 PM   #12 (permalink)
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Erlend,

I'm right beside you on any crusade to get some dwarf brazilians into the EU. I've also read dwarf namwah has some cold hardiness qualities and doesn't get too large.

We'll have to investigate just what musas are for sale in Europe.

Banananana,

Maybe if I get any suckers off any plants you're interested in, I can trade for a Williams hybrid pup. Just a thought.

To the both of you,

Do the people you share your houses/apartments with (if any) ever comment about the sheer number of plants that you bring inside over winter? The things I have in my bedroom. Still, got have a hobby.
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Old 11-30-2006, 05:17 PM   #13 (permalink)
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PaulM,

I'll see what I have next year, the 2 pups it has now should have grown sufficiently by then but I would like to see more on it before I trade, I need a back up!

You only have plants in the bedroom?? What is a dining table for!! And a coffe table, the floor....

If I have a visitor the excuses are made before they can open their mouth!
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Old 12-01-2006, 01:21 PM   #14 (permalink)
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I try and and not make excuses. I feel if I started it would turn into a very long thread.
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