chong

Two and half weeks ago, I called Going Bananas, and requested them to ship the three Veinte Cohols that they were holding for me since September, last year. At the same time, I inquired on the availability of Sweetheart, Niño, and others. The person I spoke with checked their records and said that, indeed, they are holding three Veinte Cohols for me since September. A couple of days later, I went to my Credit Union and got a cashier's check for an order of 2 Niños and a Rose from GB, and mailed the check that same day.

Yesterday, I received an email that they'd shipped the 2 Niños and Rose last Monday, 5/11, and will be shipping the three Veinte Cohols next Monday, 5/18. If they can send the recent order in a few days, I wondered why they couldn't have been all shipped together because I would have thought that VCs could have already been prepared while they're waiting for my check to arrive for the new order. Though after eight months, the VC could have grown so big that they may have needed an EZ-Digger to dig it out.

The Rose (the tallest one, in the middle) and 2 Niños arrived today and here is how they looked:
This is right out of the box, not sunny, but no rain -


This was taken several hours later, as I had to pick up my grandson from school, then pick up my son and take him to work. By this time it was raining and the temperature must have dropped at least 10°F -


As a gage, I placed the Fiskars trowel behind the Rose to give a size reference. Overall length (bottom of corm to based of uppermost leaf petiole) of the Rose is 11.5", the leafless Niño is 10.5", and leafed Niño is 8.5". Distance from the bottom of corm to soil line is about 4.5". I hope that the VCs are bigger than these. After all, they should have grown at least a little bit during the last 8 months.

Magilla Gorilla

Is the Niño the small little banana in the markets here in the states? I have never purchased from them before but your plants look nice. Good luck with them and have fun planting!

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Andrew

chong

Thanks Andrew,
The Niño could be the "Baby" bananas that can sometimes appear in popular supermarkets, though usually they are readily available in Asian supermarkets. I do not know for sure, because I have not personally grown the Niño before, much less gotten fruit from one.

According to some banana literature, the Veinte Cohol is a close relative of the Mini Banana that Chiquita markets. As reported in a newspaper in AZ, the Chiquita Mini Banana is of the Pisang Mas variety. Pisang Mas is called Sucrier in most places, and is called "Amas" in the Philippines. See attached file.

Attached Images

VeinteCohol.pdf (581.4 KB, 22 views)

Bananaman88

Good luck with your plants, Chong. Keep us updated with pictures!

musaboru

Chong, I really like how you post pictures of what you get from mail order.

I thought that the baby bananas from the Asian supermarkets were Manzanos for some reason, not that I ever tried Manzano before.

Bob

Come on #49!!!!!

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harveyc

I'm #37, I believe and I'm still a ways out, so you're probably got quite a wait, Bob. Katie told me a while back that they were shipping some corms and that others would receive tissue culture plants, but that the lab was having trouble with this line. I wouldn't be surprised if its the end of the year before I get a plant, or maybe next year. I'm in no hurry, I guess, but it would be nice if things were more predictable. I'm sure they're doing the best they can.

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Caloosamusa

Thanks Chong,

The pictures and information is greatly appreciated. I'll let Don know you like your new aquisitions. Best wishes!

Bob

Thanks Harvey, I have more than I can really handle now. This was by design so I'm in no rush. Still I'm always thinking ...maybe this variety will be the one.

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Gabe15

'Nino'/'Pisang Mas' is indeed a type of Sucrier, meaning it is in the Sucrier subgroup. This is the "Baby Banana" seen in the markets. There are lots of different types of Sucrier, most of the differences are horticultural, the fruit generally all look and taste very very similar. Also, many plants that are considered to be the same variety may differ slightly from region to region.

'Viente Cohol' is not necessarily closely related to Sucrier, that table just shows that they both have an AA genome, however the AA group is polyphyletic and that table does not designate the subgroups which are monophyletic.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

alpha010

...Gabe lost me at "Nino/Pisang Mas"

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LOL! My house doesnt exist on the member map!


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chong

Okay, here's the good news part, so I got my three plants today as promised. But, boy! are they SMALL! That's with a capital "S"! So much for an alleged 8-month old pup. These are even smaller than the Niños I got from them last week. As I said earlier, I wondered if they actually tagged and saved/reserved the 3 plants that were slated for me back in September? Or, did those go to others, then I got put back on the list? I am afraid that I got the answer that I feared today.

harveyc

I was surprised when you said that they had agreed to hold your plants until next spring. In my online chestnut business I sometimes have customers ask me to hold product for them until later in the year but I don't get compensated for that service at all (I lose money, actually, due to shrinkage), so I have discouraged it and am going to establish some strict time limits this year since I easily sell all that I can produce anyways.

I know you're disappointed but I'd prefer to be in your position than mine. The ol' bird in the hand thing.

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chong

Okay - Show and Tell Time!

Here are what arrived today, after 8 months of waiting (from the time they first offered to send them to me, 09-28-2008, reminder - I ordered in mid-February2008 and I was #13):


Can anyone imagine how big they were back then?

On the other hand, compare with Benny's:


And then with Austin's:


I can see that this is going to be one long, anxious summer for me.

harveyc

Skip the anxiety, Chong, and ship them to me!!!

They don't look so bad to me, they are sword sucker pups and not little TC plants like some have received (and like I'll probably get).

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chong

No, not too bad. But look how much bigger what the other two got, can you imagine how small these were back in September, if these were indeed the ones they saved for me? Had I accepted them back then, I don't think that they would have survived here.

Remember this? Read my third paragraph statement. Veinte Cohol

And this? (I just replied to Joe's old post?) Veinte Cohol

Note: PM sent.

harveyc

Still, those corms are pretty fat and there are lots of roots. I predict at least one of those is going to get big pretty fast!

PM replied!

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chong

You sly dog, you!

bencelest

I am with Harvey Chong.
Remember they are in business. Their time is money. Just because they promise you to hold your plant for 8 months you expect to take care of it water and fertilize it for no compensation for their time. I am sure they replace " once was yours" with a new one that is available when you ask "it's time!" to send mine to me.
Have an understanding with their part. Put your self in their shoes.
Remember, every day, there are 'hundreds' of orders they are taking care of.
If I were they, I would not promise anyone that I would be taking care of their plants for free. And for 8 months? When I am paying uncle Sam taxes for my license, income taxes, business license, city license, etc.... for a mere $20 for a plant for 8 months?
Have a heart Chong!

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Banana Nut

chong

What if I asked for my plants in December, and they did not have any because they gave my plants away? What would they say then? Threaten me with "We can't guarantee live delivery because of weather?" You speak of compensation, you forget - I didn't ask them for it. They offered it to me - and in no uncertain terms, and it was up to me to tell them when I want them. I can post their email here, if you want. Compensation was never an issue outside of the amount they said I needed to send them, which I sent them the following day. Most businesses will cash your check when they're ready to ship or have shipped them. Is that not compensation? The fact that they cashed my check without delivering the goods. When you go to a store that has an item on sale, and they offer to hold the item for you on a lay-away plan and you accept, do they have the option to sell that item to another customer who wants it, and just replace it when you ask for it? What if there's a waiting list for that item, and new stock is not forthcoming until months after the term of the plan? Wouldn't it be better if the store asked the customer who is on the lay-way plan, whether it OK to give it to another customer with an assurance that a replacement for the first customer would be available no later that the term of the contract? At least give him the benefit of the right to first refusal. Or better yet, refuse the second customer!

Benny, you have asked a question that I have asked myself. Inspite if my humble beginnings, integrity is something I will not compromise. This is why, despite my humble stature, my millionaire classmates at De La Salle College considered me a leader, and treated me with utmost respect, to the point that they will entrust their cars with me for a couple of days, and sometimes as much as a couple of weeks. We had a 10-year old car then, but my classmates cars were no older than 3 years. And they entrusted them with me. This was a matter of trust. And I still live by it.

Yes, if I were they, I, too, would not have promised what they did if that were not what I wanted to do. That is precisely my point! Because, if that were not my intention, I would be compromising my integrity. How is that any different from what many are alleging about Ty Ty Nursery?

You speak of license, taxes and expenses, as if the three plants that I ordered were going to have a tremendous impact on their profitability. We're not even talking about a couple of Yugos here, you know. Sure, it's only $20! But why make a promise with ulterior motives, when it's so much easier to tell the truth by saying that if you'd rather wait until the spring, we can guarantee you your plants within a reasonable time. I deal with clients almost everyday of my life, and control projects costing from several hundred dollars to millions of dollars, and I would feel stupid if I would mislead a client just because his project only cost a couple of hundred dollars.

I am glad that you mentioned the price of $20 because at the time that I ordered, that was the price that was on their website. When I asked in August how someone who ordered in April would have their order filled ahead of me, when I ordered just a couple of weeks after you did, they initially denied that 1) the guy ordered in April, 2) I ordered in February, and 3) I did not send them enough money. I asked them to verify when they cashed my check, and they confirmed that it was, indeed, in February that I ordered.

Then I sent them a copy of the post made by one of our members here, indicating that he just received his order of 2 VCs, but that was because he'd ordered them "way back in April", they replied that they don't understand how that could have happened.

Having reached this point, the next best thing for me was to ask, "Now what?" That's when they told me that first of all there's a question of inadequate funds because their prices have gone up, and that I had based my order on an old price list, that the VC price had gone up to $25 SINCE JANUARY! You just now confirmed that the price at the time you ordered was in fact $20, just as it was when I ordered. And because, according to them, at the same time on January 1st, they removed VC from the Special Sale list, I needed to pay an additional $25. While I immediately agreed to pay them the amount, I asked them why they never told me this until now (in August).

When they did not respond to the question, I assured them that when I ordered my plants, their price list reflected what I paid at the time. Because, otherwise, how would I know what to pay? In addition, I told them that when I discovered months later after I ordered, I saw that they had raised their prices, I considered myself lucky for having ordered at a time before the demand had not been too great.

A couple of weeks later, lo and behold, I get this notice that they just sent the plant for customer #8, and that since I was #13, mine should be coming up pretty. Another week later, that's when they told me that they could send my plants, but that if I preferred to wait until the Spring, they would TAG AND HOLD THOSE 3 PLANTS WITH MY NAME. With that scenario, what was I to expect? I gave them my trust, complied with their demands, and they took me a fool.

I'm being asked to make allowances beyond what I've already made, which I feel any normal person would make. Is it wrong for me to relate my unpleasant experience, when I'm reading a lot of people criticizing and making fun of some companies that they've only heard of or read about? Then, is it also wrong for me to relate my pleasant experiences with some of those companies, just because people heard otherwise?

Finally, is belief more credible than experience? I'm not one to answer my own questions, so I'll leave it at that.