bencelest

Mskitty:
Finally I found the right type of soil for my plants. It's been very healthy looking plants they turned out to be.

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Banana Nut

chong

This is the second batch of D. Lady Fingers in late April 08 from the same Seller. The Seller sent it Parcel Post, instead of Priority Mail as advertised, so the USPS kept it for two weeks before delivering it:



I guess the cost of shipping was too much for the two if sent Priority Mail. He paid over $20, even with Parcel Post. I wished that he's called me first, I would have agreed to pay a little extra.

Here are some new photos:
This is what the last two DLF I got from eBay looks like now. These photos were taken last Sunday evening.


A shot showing their relative sizes. Starting from the foreground left is Thomsonii, right is Balbisiana. Middle row left is Siam Ruby, right is DLF from San Diego that came as a short fat corm with no leaves, just a spike - posted pictures of this with the Ty Ty Gold that came with it. Back row are the subjects.


Close up of the larger of the two subjects. Notice that the height is severely diminished, where I had to cut down the rotting tips, starting from the bent leaves and gradually layer bay layer down to where it is now. But Friday morning, I saw a little spike of the right showing. Then on Sunday morning, the one on the left showed up, plus the main plant finally pushed out from the mid height, offsetting the prior leaf which was still rolled up and getting black. Boy, what a very nice belated(by a couple of days) birthday surprise for me this was. Maybe that first one was actually even there on July 2!

Notice that there are smudges of red (claret) appearing on the leaves. The small one in the middle foreground is the DLF from San Diego. On the left, is the Siam Ruby that I've had problems with last late fall.

I bought the small one from the grower in San Diego because he is a well known member of the CRFG. And I wanted to have something to compare to, as the eBay Seller didn't seem to know much about banana statistics.

Richard

How strange. Both plants would fit in a USPS triangle-tube. The cost of sending the tube priority mail across the country is about $8.

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chong

To his credit, the corms were 7" - 8" diameter. And they were over 24" from root to where he bent the leaves. And the roots probably shriveled somewhat over the length of the trip. After seeing them in daylight, I wasn't too terribly disappointed. Particularly, since I now have 6 puppies overall. Their growth is much better in the green house compared to the ones outside, even though the ones outside are in larger pots and started out as bigger plants.

bencelest

So overall, you are in the positive side of the deal because of the new pups.
You mentioned you have a greenhouse now? How will you heat it up during winter months. Just curious because I plan to enclose my pergola plat with glass before winter sets in. I now have the materials but don't have the time to install.
I am glad your ladyfinger looks very healthy. I am beginning to think that this plant is going to be problematic.
I think all the problems can be solve if we have a constant high temperature instead of the roller coaster tempts we are having.

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Banana Nut

bencelest

Chong:
I took a picture of my lady finger this morning. Here she is . Notice the faint blotch of red on the leaves? As you will notice it is still recovering from the winter cold evidenced by those partially browned leaves.

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Banana Nut

Richard

Benny, Congrats on acquiring the glass! Be sure to consider warm air circulation in your plan.

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chong

Yes, as disappointed as I was when I received the plants, with a little effort on my part, they bounced back then one of them gave me a bonus. Like I said earlier, I wasn't too terribly disappointed after seeing them in daylight because of the large sizes of the corms. Plus, I saw that there were still a lot of live roots. Obviously, I consider the two new pups as a bonus.

My greenhouse was built as part of my house in 1977. It is a lean-to style on the south side of the house. It is 11ft wide x 21ft long x 16ft high at the peak. The floor of the greenhouse is on the same level of the lower floor of the house. Upstairs, a full width sliding glass door on the south wall of the dining room leads to a balcony in the greenhouse at mid-level the full length of the greenhouse. Right now, I just have 2 1500-watt portable heaters located in the balcony, and another 1500-watt in a 10-foot plastic covered section of the lower floor. That plastic covered section is my "ICU" for sensitive plants, where I used to place newly acquired bare-rooted plants.

I'm trying to get the gas company to run a service to my property. I have a 110,000 BTU gas boiler that I can pipe some of the hot water from to heat the greenhouse properly. It will probably take between 12,000BTUs to 15,000BTUs to keep my greenhouse at 65°F(18°C) when the outdoor temperature is 23°F(-5°C).

What sizes are your glass panels? When my former employer was remodeling our office, they removed 8 5-ft x 10-ft insulated glass panels. I jokingly asked the window company if they can dispose of them in my yard, and they said - sure. They broke 3 of them, and I told them that I didn't want those, so they delivered the other 5 to my driveway. I'll be using them to enclose any plants I may plant outside this summer.

bencelest

Richard. I have that in the back of my mind but not this coming winter. But I'll think of a way to warm up the inside of the pergola.

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Banana Nut

bencelest

Chong:
"I'm trying to get the gas company to run a service to my property. I have a 110,000 BTU gas boiler that I can pipe some of the hot water from to heat the greenhouse properly. It will probably take between 12,000BTUs to 15,000BTUs to keep my greenhouse at 65°F(18°C) when the outdoor temperature is 23°F(-5°C)."
Please explain by having a gas boiler you can heat your greenhouse by piping some hot water there. I can't picture in my mind how you are going to do it. Will you have some sort of a condenser to run the hot water to it ?

I bought me a glass greenhouse as Joe Real posted here from Costco a while back. I don't know the measurements yet but I will adjust as it comes. I got me a number of used glass bathroom doors from recycling place here very cheap which I intend to use.
I will improvise as time goes on.

Lucky you you got some freebies.

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Banana Nut

bencelest

Here's how my pergola plat looks like as of 7 9 08

The PP is at the background

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Banana Nut

bencelest

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Banana Nut

bencelest

I've taken out some pups to plant them in other areas too. It's getting to be overcrowded.

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Banana Nut

mskitty38583

what are the little purple flowers under the nana?

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bencelest

truly I don''t know Mskitty. I just buy them at Costco as a present to my wife when she complained that our yard used to be so beautiful because of the flowers I planted. It's annual all I can say.

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Richard

Looks to me like trailing petunias.

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mskitty38583

they are very pretty!

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bencelest

I googled petunias and sure it is petunia. Thank you Mskitty.
PS: I don't get lock out anymore.

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Banana Nut

chong

Remember these Dwarf Lady Fingers:


Well, they now look like these. The fat one from above is now the three-in-a-pot in the middle of the photo, the skinny one is on the left, the one on the right is also a DLF from a different source in San Diego:


However, the tall skinny one is sporting a red upper midrib!

None of the other three, nor the one from San Diego has it. Has anyone out there, who has Dwarf Lady Finger, ever seen this characteristic in their DLF? I am inclined to believe that this skinny one may be a M. Basjoo?????

Opinions, please.

Thanks.

Chong

chong

This is what the first 2 Dwarf Lady Fingers, from the same eBay Seller, look like in 07-20-2008:

No red upper mid-rib.