bunch of banana pics
 

just put the plants out a few days ago.. and yesterday i divided my two containers of bananas. one had 6 plants the other had 3

i brought them outside towards the end of the day with a cloudy forecast for the next day, however on the third day the bigger ones got fairly sunburned.

bringing them up the stairs from the basement was an endeavour of its own!


these plants have been through some ups and downs

the first banana i bought was in niagara falls my guess is DC


i got a few other varieties that summer


nice growth through that season and some pups


they didnt overwinter well...
i tried spraying the soil off, drying, and wrapping in newspaper and then tucked a cool dark spot in the basement. unfortunately the basement flooded and the stems were reduced to mush.


only the musella lasiocarpa and DC(i think) survived



through that season growth was not quite as vigorous as the first season probably due to poor nutrition and underwatering

that fall they went indoors but stayed in their pots
because of insufficient light, lack of water and nutrition they basically stayed the same all winter and were very slow to start growing in the spring(probably lack of water and food)
i bought another banana plant during this season with three stems
when they went inside this past fall they were re-potted into larger fabric pots. the real momentum picked up in these plants over the winter! (biggest pstem for me so far)
which brings us to where we are now.
my biggest plant and possibly the second biggest, i want to give larger fabric containers and continue with my heavy feedings.

fruit by fall?
:woohoonaner::woohoonaner:

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

lined up all the pups in a row for a pic
starting to move them out of the shade slowly

the mother plant put out a couple new pups already

the musella lasiocarpa has grown rapidly

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Looking good!

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

some pics from a couple years ago...

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

some pics from this morning

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Do you have any ideas what varieties you have?

Marcel

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

the first pic in my most recent post is Musella lasiocarpa

the other bananas i thought were all DC
(currently. had musa zebrina but killed it :( )

there were 2 parent plants

one does seem slightly more compact, shorter fatter
the other is more slender in shape and taller

so i am not really sure

DC was a guess to begin with

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Awesome pics.........:08:

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

bit too much food for the smaller ones

just right for the others. pic doesnt do it justice but lots of roots appeared in one day

new additions
lady finger


tangent

the pups are much larger than any of my own
i think i will take the sellers growing advice!

did some re-potting today(fri)



finally done (saturday)

new pup


splitting stem

this leaf is 44" by 21"

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Whooo. Looks great

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

its day one of a five day blow... east winds peaking on saturday at over 40 knots on the lake
leafs are already getting torn and temps aren't great either
time to bring the plants inside i think

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Only a low of 7C for me so im gunna risk leaving things out for another week or two, as its supposed to warm back up a bit.

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

now its sunny out and i want to leave them out longer

i was hoping to get more of a 50% inside 50% outside ratio

what to do :nanarobot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lrftqT5pPg4

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

yeah i might do the same

i think i will pull them up close to the house and tarp them off somehow

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Ya some sensitive ones I may shuttle in and out but the big guys are too much work and only get moved once!

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

here they are against the house

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

Your plants look great!

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

tarp set up for the next couple nights
i need another rope to raise it and keep it from flapping
luckily the wind died down a bit
i put a running bowline around each windowsill and tied into the deck

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

6C / 43F when i woke up this morning

Re: bunch of banana pics
 

bananas seem ok but re-arranging things allowed animals to access plants

i had roughly put back the sugar canes before the pic but they were strewn all over

well all the plants are inside.
i waited a little too long as you can see by this emerging leaf:

a few scrapes here and there but they made it down alright


the bigger ones were heavier than i was expecting


the biggest two had to be propped up on an angle so the leafs can unfurl .. some of the others may have to be put on an angle through the winter depending on how much bigger they get
the pic doesnt show the angle very well..

here they are once everything had been moved in:

dont worry i watered them after these pics were taken!

.....

oh man what a day!
went to the beach to fly the trainer kite with my nephew
and found banana plants!
the marina at bluffers park had a few small banana plants on their gas dock over the summer
i wondered what they would do with them come fall...
well they hacked off the leaves, dug them up and threw them in a brush pile!



i tore off some of the outer leaves because they seemed to be starting to rot...
one of them i may have peeled too many layers off because it seemed a little floppy after. cut it down a bit?
put them all in one container because i am already pressed for space in there
put it in the path, so it will need to be pulled out whenever i go in there

i think it may be basjoo (total amateur guess based on this one leaf)


things have started to grow again since coming inside
the big bananas on an angle have been trying to right themselves..
i have rotated them once so far to combat this and to facilitate the next leaf unfurling


it has only been a few days since they were found and already some good signs
new leafs emerging


not going all that great this winter
everything has stopped growing
had spider mite and scale problems
bought predatory mites and squished scales for a week or two
seemed as though everything was good but they came back
planning on putting some time in squishing and replacing bulb
hopefully i can get them moving again before going outside
last year at this time they had momentum...


little update 10 04 2016
vegetation is looking sparse compared to when things went inside
these two havent grown in months

the two biggest leaning in the back
they havent grown in months either
nothing like last winters growth

these two plus some of the other smaller plants are still putting out small leaves

this pic shows the difference in light colour between the hps side and the fluorescent shop light side

so may 21 2016 i brought the plants outside
kept them in the shade longer this time
last year they got pretty scorched by the full sun
this year only my tea plant got scorched


this one had some rot..

i peeled a lot of layers off.. i was worried i had peeled too many off

it is starting to grow.... my mom propped it up for me


the plants werent looking that great after this winter especially the musella lasiocarpa

it did not grow any leaves over the winter
completely dormant and leaves died back
but it is now pushing out a new leaf


here is my dumpster find:

the little ones from JP

the plants seem happy now and i should probably start fertilizing


end of june and here is haw they are doing

separated some pups today
JP's mystery banana
here they are before

some little roots on there.. good sign
pups with pups

in a few weeks i might separate more off
after...


here are the separated pups freshly potted up


here is a pic of part of the yard (more banana plants out of view)


update21 08 2016
the pups are gone ... stolen? taken by raccoons maybe? i was away for a week
anyhow things are coming along nicely although i know this is near peak
the weather will change soon