bigdog

I just wanted to share a couple of pics I took today of my Musa yunnanensis mat, and compare it to last year. This is today, July 27, 2008:




And this pic is from October 11, 2007. It is bigger now than all of last year, and about 3 months left in the growing season.



I could have posted this in the Cold-Hardy Bananas forum also. This banana has turned out to definitely be a winner in zone 7a (although this banana hasn't seen zone 7a temps, but several zone 7b temps). It took several dips into the high single digits last year, and I did not protect it one bit. Not even any extra mulch! I highly recommend it to you cold-hardy banana enthusiasts looking for something other than Musa basjoo or Musa sikkimensis. Keep in mind that I live in a southern zone 7a, and we only average one day with a high temperature below freezing per winter.

And also, this is the banana that most nurseries are still calling Musa itinerans. I have discussed it with Toby of rarepalmseeds.com, and he has changed the ID on his site. Markku Hakkinen described this banana officially in Novon late last year, and positively ID'd this banana as M. yunnanensis. Agri-Starts sells this banana as Musa itinerans still (I know because that's where I got this one originally!), as does banana-tree.com and others. This misidentification will probably continue for a long time to come still, unfortunately. The more we can get the word out now, however, the better!

Frank

natedogg1026

Frank, Nice mat! Looks great. Wonder how well they'd do here in 6. Protected of course.

__________________
Banana's are a safe addiction. Right?Maybe I need classes.

Dean W.

Nice mat thanks for sharing the pictures and info.

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Dean

Tropicallvr

Nice mat Frank. Do you think it's the third hardiest banana after M.basjoo, and Musa sikkimensis(and hybrids)?

bigdog

Kyle, I would actually put it fourth, if you aren't counting Musella lasiocarpa (5th if you are counting it). I would tentatively rank them from most cold-hardy to least cold hardy as follows: Musa basjoo, M. itinerans var. itinerans, M. sikkimensis, M. yunnanensis. I'd put Musella somewhere in there around M. sikkimensis. The only reason I rank the others higher than M. yunnanensis is that they come back from the old pseudostems, whereas M. yunnanensis has not (yet).

Thanks! I don't think a bloom is going to happen this year, but I'm considering protecting one or more of the pseudostems in this mat to try and get one next year. I might have it, M. basjoo, and M. itinerans all blooming next year!

magicgreen

Frank, thanks for the photo!
That mat looks great!! I HOPE to have a mat one day!
I remember the thread on this plant last winter, and you were so right about this ones
winter hardiness!

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(Started growing bananas July 2007)
(Zone 6)

griphuz

Hmm, if you click on Musa yunnanensis on the RPS site, you just get Musa itinerans,....what's the deal with that?
Is the seed itinerans or yunnanensis?
Regards,
Remko.

bigdog

Yeah, Toby just didn't change the name on the other page. It is Musa yunnanensis.

tony palmer

Frank, in the UK we have been trying yunnan for several years but unfortunately they have prove to be a no goer for us, the stem doesn’t survive the winter and our summers are to cool for it to attain any height growing back from the corm.
I think that is one of differences between the UK and US when it comes to hardy bananas
We need some of the stem to survive, but with your wormer summers you can get away with it if only the corm survives, although we both need the stem to survive if ever we are to flower them.

bigdog

Tony, the stem hasn't survived yet for me either, but its vigor when it sprouts makes up for that. Some in zone 8a have reported stem survival, and one fella said that his gets to 20 feet! Mine keeps gaining size with each passing year, so maybe I'll have a stem survive in a year or 2. But I'll probably need to protect a stem if I ever want a flower, you're right.

Can't imagine what it might look like now if it was growing in good soil. The soil it's in right now was amended upon planting, but not that much, and not over a wide area, as you can see in the pictures. The surrounding soil is clayey, rocky, acidic soil that isn't very fertile. This is one of the least picky bananas I've grown, as far as soil goes. It did have some leaf curl problems last year, but nothing this year. I've donated one to UT Gardens, and they have theirs in some excellent quality topsoil that is heavily irrigated, so I'm curious to see what it does next year.

Frank