HMelendez

For all you members currently growing or grew the Beautiful, Majestic and Royal Manini!....



Which medium (best material) have you used or will consider it to grow the beautiful Manini?



Any input, advices and suggestions will be appreciated!......

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exovetek

If you are asking about a potting medium, then anything with good drainage and aeration. If they stay too wet when not actively growing in cooler winter areas, they will rot. Avoid Miracle grow "moisture control" mix. It has hydrophilic gel that turns your mix in to mud. Any good potting mix with extra perilite or volcanic pumice mixed in should do.

cincinnana

Congrats on your new plant.....


If any member treats an AeAe like their other banana plants then you can grow this banana plant.
Generally it is not the plant that fails but the doting gardener.....Me, guilty as charged.

Of the mats I have seen in Florida USA all of them are in amended sugar sand soil (the local consistency) .
These were mature mats with pups, in the ground.
The amendments are high in organic matter. The growers grew these plants just as they did the other banana plants they had.

The only thing special about the plant is the higher acquisition price..

Grow it like you stole it!!!

Here is a reliable guide that will ensure success.
.Banana Cultivation In Non-Tropical Climates

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HMelendez

Thanks exovetek and cincinnana for the comments!



I appreciate the advices, suggestions and definetley will apply them when I get my beautiful Manini!.....



I will do my best to "grow it like you stole it!!!".....LOL.....

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SocalYellowBanana

Anyone know of somebody in California growing the AeAe
Possibly looking into acquiring one if the seller wants to sell or trade
?????

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PR-Giants

I know many people in California growing the AeAe and there's also many people in Simi Valley growing them too. It's seems to be a very popular banana in that area.

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SocalYellowBanana

If anyone could please point me the direction to pickup one AeAe that would be really cool. I live near Los Angeles and Ventura County! Any Members living close by me in Simi Valley California???

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meizzwang

I'm not sure if they still have any left, but try giving California Carnivores a call. They do mail order. It won't be listed on their online catalogue: https://www.californiacarnivores.com/

SocalYellowBanana

Cool Thank you I called them their hours are Thursday - Sunday closed Monday's & Tuesdays.

Have a great day!

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meizzwang

With regards to Aeae and soil, I remember reading somewhere that pH might have something to do with the production of variegation in the leaves. I originally acquired my aeae plant from California Carnvivores (as mentioned above) and it was beautifully laden with white pigments, much like hmelendez's plant photographed here: Beautiful, Royal And Majestic 'Ae Ae' Is Flowering! . Come the fall time, the plant was given zero N, and very high P,K, and the leaves turned almost solid green with almost no variegation. The reason for the P and K was to increase solutes in the leaves and pstem, which hypothetically could give it better cold tolerance. At the same time, this may have also shot up the pH and instead of being slightly acidic, the soil may have become basic.

For reference, I'm in Northern California, so we have light frosts every winter. In late spring of this year, I added a 2" thick layer of rhododendron (acidic) soil around the root zone, and a month or two later, the new leaves started to color up again and show some variegation but overall, the leaves are still mostly green! It never got really white like last season when I first planted it in the ground.

In retrospect, it's a godsend because last year, every single leaf burned up and the plant looked like a wreck (it's in full sun), but now I have very little if any burning, and the plant is growing much stronger and faster than before. Here's some recent photos of my Aeae, taken 8/6/17:


The base of some leaves are very white, but that's about it:


Close up of some of the variegation, not very white like before, but still really beautiful:




New cigar leaf:


This plant doesn't pup up like the others, but I finally got 2 pups to show up. Get this, the first pup is much more variegated than the mother plant!





At this point, I can't explain if it has to do with soil pH or if some pups are just more mutated than others. Did the mother plant revert or get less mutated?

It also makes me wonder, there were comments that Aeae isn't tissue cultured because they don't turn out uniformly variegated in vitro. I think that would be the ultimate test to see if pH has anything to do with white pigment production, since you can closely and precisely measure pH when tissue culturing. My soil, on the other hand, is dynamic: there's a layer of topsoil from various sources and deep underneath is gravel mixed with native soil.

beam2050

if nothing else works paint it. good luck. beautiful plants

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Richard

Check out this thread:
Ae Ae propagation project

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beam2050

ok all kidding aside. I hope I can start somethin for you. help to know your ph level. soil acidifier for hydrangeas brings out the color of the flower. seeing as how many of your plants and I believe this to be one of them is situated high and in between concrete. so drainage will be fast and your not going to get the tanic acid most plants would get on flat ground or more open ground. so your ph level is probably high. like I said maybe I can start something.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Richard

Hydrangea contains the pigment in litmus strips. Acidic soil will turn the blossoms blue, alkaline soil will turn the blossoms pink.

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Tytaylor77

I notice added nitrogen makes my Florida and AEAE a brighter white! It could be PH but I don't think it's PH at my place. Try some nitrogen!

My AEAE is the opposite! It's very very white! I wish it had more green! Haha. It took it forever to get going. It's currently about 7' and looking great with 2 pups.

I have over 80 varities and AEAE is the most picky Musa I grow!!! 2nd place would go to Paggi!! By FAR the easiest variegated Musa to grow for me is the variegated dwarf namwa!! I'm serious! Easy as the green type! Great plant!

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