bigdog

Here is my Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis (I hope they rename it something easier to pronounce and spell!)(Thanks, Eric!). I just brought it home from the greenhouse a couple of weeks ago. The winds have beaten up the greenhouse-grown leaves up a bit, as you can see. This was formerly known as Musa itinerans var. gigantea (wish it still was known as this...), and is supposed to grow 40 feet tall in the wild. It is also supposed to be pretty cold-hardy, and tolerant of water-logged soils. This sounds like a good banana for the Southeast, given our wet winters. Just how cold-hardy it turns out to be remains to be seen. This was a pup, dug over 6 feet away from the mother pseudostem.



Pseudostem closeup:



My camera was fixed yesterday (really nothing wrong with it, I had just royally screwed up the settings!), so I can take more pics if anyone wants to see leaf closeups or anything. The thing I wonder about is how big of a bed should I dig?? If pups are going to come up 6 feet away, then...pretty big!

MediaHound

Might want one of those bamboo barriers one day!
It sounds like a longshot now, but wait till these take over your house!

Anyway, these are pretty impressive photos! Nice addition to your collection, I'm sure. W2G

bigdog

Here is what it looks like today, two months later. It is pretty fast-growing, unfurling a week every 5-7 days, and it is getting some nice size to it. I sure do hope this one is cold-hardy, because it is my favorite banana (er, right now, that is...ask me next week). I think it's holding onto eleven or twelve green leaves at this point too.



And look what I found yesterday. A pup! And it is pretty close to the mother pseudostem. It seems there are "traditional" type pups, and then there are the long rhizomes that send pups out a couple of meters away. This one, obviously, appears to have come off the corm.

Randy4ut

Wow!!! Grat looking banana... Frank, if you look close enough at the pup, I believe I saw a collar on that pup... If I am not mistaken, the tag on the collar reads as follows: "I Belong to Randy Armstrong... My Address is:... please take me to my master..." If you are ever ready to let someone adopt, let me have first crack at one, will ya? BTW, take a look at the pic comments in your photo gallery...

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bigdog

Randy, I didn't notice that collar you are referring to...I'll have to check it in the morning! As far as your comment goes, if the next pup emerges 60 miles south of me in your backyard, I may raise an eyebrow, lol.

The leaves on this plant are getting huge. It is an impressive banana to stand next to! I just have this sinking feeling that it won't be very cold-hardy. I've learned that this variety of M. itinerans grows in the valleys and ravines in the Xishuang province, not at high elevations (500-1000 meters). Still, I definitely have my fingers crossed that it will make it here. I'm not digging it up in the Fall.

Randy4ut

Keep us informed on how it handles your winter.... Keeping at least a pup potted for next year if it doesn't handle your winter???

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