51st state

My 2 year old Maurellii is now sufferring from 'strangles' (the leaves are irregular in growth, lopsided and wont open up properly)
I've read and absorbed the excellent posts on propogation of these, but does anyone know will the pups be 'strangle' free or is it a genetic defect that will occur again in the pups?

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xyzzy

Whenever mine do it, it is because I have allowed them to run short of water for a while. e.g. on purpose over winter, then suddenly started watering them. It is cured by more water and a bit of fertilizer, but be patient. If that doesn't work, restricting light as well, e.g putting under a tree for a month helps.

Your may not be the same thing of course.

If it is a Maurellii, it will not produce pups except occasionally as the parent dies following flowering and at no other time. Ensete do not produce pups except occasionally immediately following a flowering. They grow too high to bring indoors long before they flower, so unless you have access to a giant greenhouse e.g frined at a botanical gardens, it will not flower in the UK.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

51st state

"MORE WATER"

is Devon missing out or something??!!! Wiltshire's positively sodden...

I agree it could be inconsistant conditions, I pushed it on early in the greenhouse and fed it like crazy. I have taken off a couple of semi open leaves to free it up but no joy. I read a previous post on here that suggested it was a genetic defect.
No they won't pup on their own but there is an excellent post on this site somewhere describing in detail in photos how to propagate Maurelii by splicing the corm.
Its got about a month to sort itself out before I get the scalpel on it.

nice Rajapuri by the way
Kev

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xyzzy

No, Devon's a swamp too, but I thought it may have been in a greenhouse till relatively recently.

Your plan to split the corm sounds exciting. Do let me know how it goes! Good luck!!! I really would like to know how successful it works out.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

51st state

found it

Ensete Maurelii propagation?

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xyzzy

Wow, that's great. I'm going to try that with M Itinerans next spring. Normally I give my too big ones away to a nearby botanical garden and keep just growing the pups, but the next one to get too big will be used for this experiment.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

Mark Hall

I could be wrong but I think this method of propagation only works on Ensetes as Musas send up pups naturally.

A second opinion will be helpful.

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Time Flies like an Arrow.....Fruit flies like a Banana.

xyzzy

Maybe, but my M Itinerans are awfully slow producing pups, preferring to just grow up and up and up instead, and the leaf base structure is still similar, so I can't see any reason it shouldn't work for Musa if it works for Ensete.

I'll post what happens, but that wont be until I next have problems with height (when I usually give them away to the local botanical gardens 1/3 mile away).

Normally there would be less reason to bother with Musa admittedly, but it would reduce the number I have to pass on as outgrown the garden.

Above the 5ft wall is ivy to about 8ft, but anything higher than that gets destroyed by wind in winter and M Itinerans doesn't like losing it's leaves in winter. In that respect I find it more fussy than most types, so I need them under 10ft to be able to move them under te cherry trees for protection.

What I have been doing is only keeping pups, but as they seem to be only producing 1 pup every 2 years, pup requirements are not meeting my needs.

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There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.