summerandjosh

Top two pics taken 6/2/09
Planted in the ground, they had been living in pots for the last year. I cannot tell if I have a variegated or if the leaves are just acting funny. This one started off with just the leaves having a 'rippled' effect then once it grew quite a bit the leaves just seemed to not develop all the way once they were unfurled. They would either be torn or would have sections missing like they were never developed correctly.

Bottom two pics taken 8/5/09
They have been planted in the ground for 2 months and after a 2 week long battle with caterpillars (which I don't think is the cause of the weird leaves, because they were like this before the caterpillars) I was hoping the leaves would start developing all the way. But no such luck yet... Any ideas?

Middle pic taken today 8/26/09 to show how it only grows in one direction...

Any help/advice is very much appreciated, Thanks!

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Summer and Josh

jimmmy

I would assume that if they were growing normally when they were in the pots. then there may be some contaminant in your soil. often time contractors will burry all kinds of crap near or around the house that they are building. not to mention previous home owners may have done this also. etc. I'd check the soil with different test kits. lots on line.
jimmmy

summerandjosh

I never thought to check the soil, I guess because I have two other maureliis right beside it and they are fine, but who knows haha. It was growing funky when it was in the pot..the leaves were ruffled on the edges like in the 2nd pic. That picture was taken right after I planted them in the ground from the pots so I have no idea what could be wrong with it...maybe just a silly plant.

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Summer and Josh

Taylor

It's a variegated TC mutant. I wouldn't suspect anything in the soil really. I just recently saw one of these at my work at the botanical gardens on Monday. You just have a weird plant, could dig it up and try to sell it as a variegated E. ventricosum 'Maurelli' (since it is one).

ArchAngeL01

ill save that sickly looking thing and take it off your hands

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Brad

Jack Daw

Right, I think that the problems are caused by its variegation too (see pic #2).

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Bob

Was this plant variegated from the beggining? I have heard of bananas( and Ensetes I'd assume) developing variegation due to stress. Scot( Chironex) had mentioned a while back that he thought he could induce this. I have a basjoo that I overwintered outdoors last year that barely made it and is now variegated and stunted in a small pot.

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Bananaman88

Well, it could be variegation, but I think it is more likely that you are dealing with a nutrient deficiency here. Make sure that you are feeding with a good fertilizer that contains miconutrients in addition to the normal N-P-K. Many ferts. such as triple 10 or triple 13 don't have any micros and this can cause the affect you are seeing. If you could gather a soil sample and send off to your local agricultural extension agency you can find out exactly what you are dealing with. I've seen my bananas do this many times only to have the grow out of it when I started doing a better job with fertilization.

damaclese

I'm not going to state this as definitive but? i have had this same problem with my Ensete and its always been do to two factors one over finalization and two Dogs urinating on the plants do you have cats or dogs? and how often are you feeding? with what? and how much? other then the ruffled leafs and the obvious variegation they look pretty healthy to me from the pictures
many of my EV have ruffled leafs again i attribute this to over feeding i don't think they take quite as much food as Musa do the soil were they grow throughout Ethiopia and north easter Africa can be a bit depleted they grow over such a big area i don't want to say thats the norm but in the moderate high lands the soil is fairly poor and not much of it do to the rockiness and that its at the beginning of mouton ranges that border ether side of the great rift valley In all of Ethiopia only 20% of the Land is capable of sporting Crops i only state this as a support for my hypothesis that its over feeding
I forgot to mention they like a ph of 6/acid but min are growing pretty happily in 6.9

O and take that weed barrier off them they cant stand to be wet in the feet or in the crowns they rot easily never mulch around Ensete



PS i know thats way Nerdy sorry its the best i can do at 5AM in the morning

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coast crab

I'm no expert, but my understanding of variegation is that it comes from 2 sources - mutation and virus. If a plant is weakened or stressed like Bob's basjoo and maybe this Ensete, maybe it is viral.

I thought E. ventricosum 'Maurelii' was a red leafed form of ventricosum. To me this looks like a regular ventricosum with a dark midrib, accentuated by the amount of sun they're planted in. Mine is planted in more shade so this is very faint. Does red 'maurelii' turn green in the sun? Someone please educate me!

Russell

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damaclese

Yes unlike Siam Ruby which Get redder in the sun Ensete Ventricosum Maurellii turn Green with higher levels of sun Exposer
there mite also be a link to green leafs with higher Ph but thats unproven at this point but I'm experimenting with it

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LilRaverBoi

I was thinking it looks like it may have some sort of nutrient deficiency. Do you fertilize? My Maurelii was acting kinda squirrely but I fertilized it and the most recent leaf looks okay...so hopefully it's fine now. *crosses fingers*

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summerandjosh

This plant wasn't variegated from the beginning, it really started when it was in the 2nd pot (first I put them in). I started noticing that the leaves were growing/shaped funny and on some leaves it looked variegated. The plant wasn't really under any stress unless it just didn't like the winter stress - I left them in their pots and stored them in my shop, doesn't really get cold it's very well insulated but maybe this caused it.

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Summer and Josh

summerandjosh

I do have dogs but don't know if he would be urinating on this particular one (I have three right together planted side by side) and don't think he was able to urinate on them when they were in their pots. They were fenced off from the bananas and I really don't know if he could reach lol. I don't think it's over fertilization because really I need to fertilize them more and grow into a good pattern of fertilizing. I have fertilized them about 3 weeks ago with Miracle Gro Nursery Select All Purpose Plant Food Triple 10. I didn't measure how much, just gave them a good soaking; like I said I need to learn to be more precise with all this stuff. I was planning on fertilizing again tonight, I wasn't sure if every two weeks would be okay. What do you use? How often and how much if you don't mind me asking?

Also about the weed barrier - I didn't know they didn't like having it!? I've never read or heard that weed barrier would hurt them...How do people keep the grass off of them because I've read that they shouldn't have grass within 3 feet diameter of them. So is it okay to have weed barrier, just not right around the base, maybe a couple of inches away? Or should I just try to keep up with pulling the grass around them everyday? And absolutely no mulch? I've never read about that either...dang it seems I am clueless about all this banana stuff haha and I thought I was doing kinda good getting them grow at least a little bit. lol Thank you so much for your help, sorry for the response with a ton of questions, I just like having answers and if people are willing to help I might as well ask Thanks again for all the help, I appreciate it very much.

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Summer and Josh

damaclese

its not that you are clueless. not many people would agree with me on how to care for Ev's iv just made it my life's mission to learn every thing there is to Know about them
the mulch thing i learned the hard way (thats only for EV)and also about them being rot sensitive i killed a bunch before i figured out what i was doing wrong
I use K-Mag you can get it from Richard i don't know any were ells its powerful stuff i use about 1tsp per gal every 4 weeks some times i have to Waite longer i just watch the plants and see how they respond i don't have grass so its hard to say but id pull the weed barrier back at least 12"give that corm some room to dry out. i could talk EV all day but all stop here did that answer your questions?

PS if you want to know how to grow any plant find out were its from and what its like there then make it as close to that place as possible

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