Mudturkle

Earlier this year I bought a tiny banana plant from Baker Creek that was labelled as "Dwarf Iholena". I assume that it was a TC from Agristarts. I do believe that it is an Iholena because the cigar leaves have a slight mauve color that fades after opening. The plant doesn't have any visible pink on the petioles, unlike the Iholena "Tigua" that I got from PR Giants.

The prospect of getting fruit with orange or yellow-orange flesh has me excited. But it would be nice to know which Iholena I actually have. I am trying to attach 3 pictures. Any guesses?

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Manzano, Goldfinger?, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Dw. Iholena, Patupi, Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, FHIA-21 (so far).

beam2050

back in the 80s I owned a place with bananas on it. every now and again I got a bunch that were orange inside, they were good. but I always wondered if I was picking them to early. thanks for the info.

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robguz24

It's hard to tell from the pics without any petiole details showing well, such as how open they are or not. My first thought was it doesn't look like any Iholena I have. Also if it is an Iholena, like the Red Iholena, it could be something tissue cultured for years which isn't really even something that could be called the same as what it originally came from.

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Mudturkle

Thank you, Rob for the quick response! I'm going to try to post pics of the petioles (duh, should have thought about that!)
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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Manzano, Goldfinger?, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Dw. Iholena, Patupi, Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, FHIA-21 (so far).

Mudturkle

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Manzano, Goldfinger?, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Dw. Iholena, Patupi, Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, FHIA-21 (so far).

Mudturkle

OK. Here is an update. Since I figured that the Baker Creek "Dwarf Iholena" came from Agristarts, and Agristarts currently sells a "Dwarf Iholena", I emailed them and asked them exactly which it was. Here is the answer I got:
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Hi John,

I had to research this one a bit, since I didn't know much about the Haa Haa
banana. Haa Haa is listed on some websites as available (for trade or for
sale), although it is not one Agri-Starts has in culture. It looks to be
very rare and in some areas extinct.

The Musa Dwarf Iholena we are producing from our own tissue culture labs. We
received it from a customer in Hawaii who has been tracking down older
varieties of Hawaiian bananas to replenish the valleys there. It is a dwarf
form, growing to 6'-8' tall (but not very short like Haa Haa). We received
the plant in our hands as Musa 'Maia Iholena Haia Dwarf' The gentleman who
gave it to us refers to it as Dwarf Iholena as the 'common name'.

We sell these as 72 cell pack trays, with a minimum of 2 trays per order (2
trays of any 2 varieties, does not have to be 2 trays of the same plant.)

If you're interested in ordering, please let me know. We'll have a couple
trays of Musa Dwf Iholena available in late December, if you would like to
prebook some.

Thanks,
Heather
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So, does that make any sense to any of our Hawaiian banana gurus here? I can see Iholena Haa (short Iholena?), but why is "Maia" included? Is there such a thing? Yours, John

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Manzano, Goldfinger?, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Dw. Iholena, Patupi, Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, FHIA-21 (so far).

Mudturkle

I asked why the name included "Maia". Apparently it means "banana", duh!

I also found this:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/forest...im/14838313120

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Central Texas Zone 8B and Gulf Coast zone 9B: Raja Puri, Dw. Brazilian, Dw. Orinoco, Dw. NamWah, Manzano, Goldfinger?, Dw. Cavendish, Dw. Green?, Dw. Red? Dw. Iholena, Patupi, Tigua, Veinte Cohol, Misi Luki, FHIA-21 (so far).

Hamakua

There may be some truth to this story.

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Currently Growing:
Blue Java, FHIA 01, Gros Michelle, Dwarf Orinoco, Maoli Ele Ele, Maoli Manini, Maoli Dwarf Kaualau, Putalinga Kula, Iholena Lele, Iholena Ula Ula, Iholena Iholena, Iholena Kapua, Unknown purple leafed Iholena, Tuu Ghia, Tagomor, Luba, Kokor, Vunumami, Hapai

robguz24

That would make it Mai'a Iholena, aka Iholena Iholena. It's all covered in the Kepler & Rust book. I keep meaning to look at these pics next to mine, but I'm guessing now they're the same. I'll still try to do that this week. They tend to have very little color on the underside of the cigar leaves compared to other Iholenas so it sounds the same.

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Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage