Bananers

Hi,
I just wanted to introduce myself.
My name is Les and I'm from Northern(the real Northern) California zone 9.
I just found this site last night while surfing the net,before this I have been hounding the people over at the Gardenweb Banana forum.
This site has a much friendlier feel to it. Thanks for making it available.

I just got my first Banana plant in April. It is a Pisang Raja(Musa Belle). Its about 2.5 to 3 feet tall right now and thanks to this site I found out I should be measuring the pseudo(?) stem which is about 1.5 feet. And I am the proud owner of a pup 2 days ago.
I plan/hope to add more varieties as I learn what I am doing and tend to ask a lot of real simple questions so I hope I don't annoy anybody. I can think of one person I know I have that I see is part of this great site that has been helping me. Thanks pitangadiego.

Thanks for the site.
Les

JoeReal

Welcome to this forum Les, I am also in zone 9 California. Specifically in Davis. I used to have 60 kinds of banana plants all potted. Since I have a tiny yard, I did a single non-replicated experiment. At one winter, I left all of my bananas by themselves in the pot exposed to the cold winter. Whatever plants maintained their stalk alive are the ones that I kept and planted in the ground. I only have about 8 kinds right now. The rest of them died, and those that died back to the soil level and sprung back to life, I gave them away to friends, and some of them to fellow forum members here. The Musa "Belle" is one of those that died and never returned.

momoese

Welcome aboard Les!

Bananers

Thanks guys.

Hi JoeReal ,
I'm a bit further North in Humboldt County just south of Eureka.
I hope to expand to more varieties when I learn more on how to care for them and can afford it.
My Musa Belle seems to be doing really well but I do plan on digging it up for the winter as we get some real hard frosts and extremely wet in the winter.

I hope to learn a lot here and its nice know that there are others fairly close to me.

What varieties do you have now that made it through your test?

Thanks again for the warm welcomes guys

JoeReal

California Gold, Dwarf Orinoco, Dwarf Brazilian, Manzano, Misi Luki, Dwarf Namwah, Ice Cream, Raja Puri, Sweetheart (all planted in the ground), as well as all the tall counterparts of the listed dwarf (Brazilian, Orinoco, Namwah) which are not planted. There are other cold hardy that I mistakenly given away such as Rhinohorn, Monkey Fingers, Thousand fingers and some more I can't recall.

Bananers

Hi JoeReal,
Thank you,that gives me somewhere to start for plants that might do well in my area when I expand.
Your yard must look great with all of those Bananas.

I have been thinking about the California Gold and the Ice Cream as I have read that they are tasty,so those two might be my next investment.
Have you ever grown any from seeds before? I'm just wondering if that might be the way to go.

Thank you

JoeReal

Most naners that i started from seed... they're history now. The eBay tissue culture plantlets are better alternative than seeds, just my experience. But the best ones to use are pups from your fellow forum colleagues.

Bananers

Hi JoeReal,
So they are pretty hard to grow from seed.Good to know before I wasted time/money on it.
I'm not even what a tissue culture is.
Is there a certain person on ebay that you would recommend buying from?
When the time comes I will make a post on here for some that I would like to try.

How late/early can you plant Bananas?
I am hopefully getting a greenhouse this weekend so maybe that will make it easier to grow them in and extend the season.

Take Care

JoeReal

Almost all banana plants sold in eBay that are in the range of a foot to 24 inches long are tissue cultured plantlets. Their measurement of height is from root tip to the tip of the leaves, with the pseudostem more likely from 3" to 8" only and chopstick to pencil sized trunk diameter.

When meristematic tissues are obtained from parent plant, grown in some nutrient broth, the tissues could be subdivided indefinitely, producing thousands upon thousands of plantlets which are later separated and individually planted in itty bitty pots. Thus one donor parent could produce several hundred thousand plantlets if so desired. These itty bitty pots are mass cultured until the plants become bigger and sold off by the flats composed anywhere from 2 dozen to hundred of individual plants. The famous supplier of these tissue cultured plantlets sold by the flats is Agri-Starts, perhaps a big majority of the source of eBay sellers. The eBayer entrepreneur buys these flats, as it is too expensive for ordinary hobbyists to buy a single variety by the minimum order, and then that entrepeneur will repot these plantlets further, care for them until they are bigger, replant them on bigger pots, and then individually auction them off. The tissue cultured plantlets are sold anywhere from $0.99 each to $19.95 depending upon how gullible the first timer buyers get.

Other retail nurseries also purchase from Agri-Starts and then they really spend time to grow the plants so that they become bigger and then sell them off at about $20 to $30 per plant. One of the easiest ways to distinguish a tissue cultured plant from a real pup is that the corms of the tissue cultured plantlets are disproportionately tiny and very thin diameter pseudostems. Tissue cultured plants would take 3 to 4 years before they fruit and would require extra care. You don't plant these directly into your soil, you will have to grow them in pots first and bring them in each winter, until the trunks are at least about 2 ft high and then you can plant them in the ground late spring to early summer. Never plant in the fall, there is no time for growth and you will have to dig them out stressing the plants and killing them.

A pup comes from a mother plant and they are usually taken off during mid-spring to mid-summer and when their trunks are at least a foot high. A 3-ft high pup would be ideal and they can be planted right away in the ground and usually bear fruit next year or two. They are also strong growers, but a lot depends upon how carefully they were taken from the mother plant.

To save on shipping, sometimes, you only need to ship the corm of the pup and plant it, but it would delay the growth of the plant, but still a lot better than tissue cultured plants. So you can have the whole pseudostem cutoff or broken and the plant will easily regrow from its corm. If the tissue cultured banana plants stems are broken off, they will not regrow back especially when you just bought them.

If you can handle potted plants carefully, the tissue cultured plants are one of the cheap ways to obtain banana plants. Grow them in pots well before planting them in the ground.

One of my reliable source of good planting materials is www.going-bananas.com They sell plants that have very good root system and of good quality size trunks. Sometimes they sell tissue cultured plants, sometimes pups, but it doesn't matter as their plants that are sold are good sizes ready to go into the soil for planting. Prices are reasonable.

In eBay, if they don't mention that the plants are pups, it is 99.99% certain that they are tissue cultured. Moreover, I have high incidences of mislabeled tissue cultured plants from eBay or elsewhere, but it doesn't stop me from trying out banana plants. One of my favorite banana seller at eBay is wellspring100, sometimes he would go the extra mile to keep you happy, like I emailed him that some of the shipped banana plants have broken stems, he'd reship replacements without hesitation. He sells tissue cultured banana plantlets on the cheap, and you can combine orders for cheaper shipping.

Bananers

Wow,Thanks for the great explanation.
That is amazing that one plant can produce that many plantlet's.
If I end up getting that greenhouse I might give the Tissue cultured plants a try but they sound like they aren't really for somebody who doesn't know a whole lot about them.
Thanks for explaining how to identify a Tissue culture,I can see that coming in handy in the future.
I checked out that Going Bananas link you posted and their prices do seem very reasonable.
I'm making a list right now of the ones I would like to try and grow...Like the Ice Cream,California Gold ,Apple(I cant remember the full name off the top of my head?),Praying Hands, Goldfinger just to name a few.
I'm more interested in the edible type rather then the ornamental.
I can see Bananas are going to be very addicting.

Thank you for your great post it has been very helpful.
Take Care

AnnaJW

Hi and Welcome from So Cal!

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

MediaHound

Hi, Les, welcome!

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Bananers

Hi Anna and Mediahound,
Thanks for the welcome

bigdog

You got that right! Welcome to the forum, Les.

Bananers

Thanks for the welcome bigdog.
Yes,I already have a very long list of bananas that I want to get for next year...I cant wait.

garnetmoth

Happy addiction! I started wtih citrus last year- I was just a bit cautious- I got a few cheap/seedling plants, and saw if I could keep them alive during the winter. they lived just fine, so at the very end of winter, I got a nicer, big kumquat.

good luck!

Bananers

Hi garnetmoth,
Thank you.
I am growing some citrus for the first time this year as well.
Lots of fun.

Good luck with your Citrus and have fun.