Lilith

No Jason, that is a monstrous and vicious Anamea "Raspberry Ice" hybrid pineapple bromeliad. Its about 6 ft tall and has a spread of almost as much. I had absolutely no idea that it would get that large, or I would never have planted it right by the pathway. Its armed and dangerous.

__________________
11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--

NanaNut2

Chong,
I live in the Puget Sound Area as well, no outside gardening available in my condo. I've found that light, heat and humidity are the things needed for all my tropicals. Have you been to Indoor Sun Shoppe in Wallingford area? They have some great flourescent light fixtures, perhaps higher wattage than you have. I've gotten most of my lighting there. Also, Home Depot has some outside spot lights by Lights of America pretty cheap, you just have to defeat the day/night feature, and instead of hardwiring, attach it to a bared extension cord. I'm no electrician and had no trouble with it.

A couple of thoughts. First, if your humidifier is pointed right at your banana, you could be having the same trouble I had last year when my cold mist humidifier was close to and pointing at my bananas and palms. Namely, the closest leaves would wilt, shrivel, turn brown and die. I had to move the humidifier across the room. That could also explain the fungus/mold you got on your plant.

Secondly, even though your light is flourescent, it does carry some heat. If its only 6 inches above your nana, the heat could be causing your top leaves to wilt (if that is a problem). And that close, you don't get much light spread to the rest of the plant. Could you get a larger fixture? All my light is 'imported'. I don't get much sun either with a large overhang such as yours and my place is set at a funny angle in respect to NSEW. I'm at my top allowance for lighting fixtures on this old aluminum wiring. I'm afraid to put in more lights fearing I will set the place on fire ... lol. That limits the number of plants I can have.

I keep my place 76 deg F and above at all times. Hard on the power bill, but comfy for all my plants. Perhaps 72 deg. F is too cold for much growth.

I've just ordered a Siam Ruby from Wellspring100 on ebay. I'll let you know how well the plant does in here. I always lose some color growing indoors.
NanaNut2

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NanaNut2

MediaHound

Yes mine survived, it did great actually. I pulled several bunches off it since, my Red Kru is a fast grower and profuse bloomer, probably the most productive of all the kinds I grow.. up there with Apple (Manzano).

Next time your in the area, your more than welcome to stop over.
I've stayed at that Marriott, I was staying there actually when the feeder bands from Hurricane Wilma started coming ashore back in 2005. Ahh.. but I digress!
I wonder if more light would help as well. They like it intense! That might give it the energy it needs to pull through.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

jason

Wow it looks just like a variegated screw pine,,if you ever get a chance google it ,,they look exactly the same ,,amazing,anyways very nice plant!!!!

MediaHound

I'll post a pic of my variegated screw pine shortly, was looking for it earlier but its on another computer... they are nice! Spineless, too!

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Taylor

Here mine is 1/1/08, looking great:


Here is mine 3/3/08 looking worse, but I think it will make it until spring(2 months after first pic:

Lilith

It looks great, Taylor, but it doesn't look RED.
None of these look red.
I think this banana is a big disappointment so far.

__________________
11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--

STEELVIPER

I think this musa needs direct sun for the red colors to come out. Mine is a small tc, but as i acclimated it to the sun light, i have noticed the red start to show. Seems to me the less sun light the more green etc.

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mm4birds

seems to me that sun makes the red color come out, as I have see my zebrina lose the red during the winter in my greenhouse only to regain it during the summer when it is moved outdoors. Same thing happens to my ensette maurelli. Acclimate it to the sun slowly otherwise the leaves will burn.

simon_c

Hi Gina,

Your Ae Ae looks awesome. Unfortunately its pretty hard to cultivate here in the tropics because of the harsh equator sun.
I also have a Siam Ruby, it came from Thailand. Right now I cut off all the leaves because a few weeks ago, there was a prolonged dry spell and the leaves were getting burned. I am hoping that mine will survive this treatment. I'll post some pictures later. Its not pretty after all the leaves were removed. :-(

-simon

chong

Hello,
Thank you for responding. I located your pin on the map as being in Kent, WA. That's about 7 miles from Lakeridge, due west of Coulon Park and the south end of Lake Washington. Would love to invite you over, after my remodeling on my house is reasonably completed. Besides, right now, my plants are nothing to look at yet. Maybe in mid-summer.

I don't think that the plant is bothered by the proximity to the light because the affected leaf stays green even when the mid-pstem has turned dark brown.

On suggestion by others, I even added another lamp with a 60-watt halogen lamp. And the outermost pstem has over an inch of very dark brown spot in the middle, bur the leaf is still green.

Last night, I stopped at Lowe's and McLendon's and bought two types of fungicide, neither of which is the one that Jason suggested to use. He recommended "Halt Systemic", but neither store carried them. I called Home Depot and they didn't have the either. The one from McLendon's is made by the same company that makes Halt's. The problem is that their active ingredients are different.

Nevertheless, I wanted to try them last night, but because I was wearing contacts, I couldn't read the labels even with reading glasses. Before I could remove my contacts, my wife called me for dinner, so that was it for last night. I'll try again tonight.

Thank again.

NanaNut2

Chong,
The map is not entirely accurate, but I am close to Kent. One time when I checked my pin, it showed up in the middle of Puget Sound off Federal Way ... lol. I actually set the marker at an intersection close to home. It seems to wander around a bit.

It sounds like fun to get together, and mid summer would be nice. Have fun with your remodel!

NanaNut2

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NanaNut2

Zacarias

I'm curious as to why no one puts or is a sodium or metal halide light in their house or is that a no no?

Lilith

Our "rumpus room" actually has 4 huge 24inch x 24 inch metal halide lights in the ceiling to simulate "natural daylight". They were installed by the woman who used to live here so she could sit at her computer and bask in the glow. She was fairly eccentric.

The room is large, about 20 ft x 20 ft and also has 4 other windows that emit quite a bit of light.

We NEVER turn on the metal halide lights for two reasons:

They increase the temperature of the room by easily 10-15 degrees, maybe more, because they generate a ton of heat, and they are electricity drains. If I wanted to, I could grow anything my little heart desired in this room under those lights, but my electric bill would probably be about $1000 a month (its already between $400-500 in the summer...we have an all electric house and it costs that much to cool it here in the Florida swamps)

__________________
11/2008 Outer Banks Marathon 26.2, Kitty Hawk NC--3:50
2/2009 5 Points of Life Marathon, 26.2, Gainesville FL--4:00
4/2009 Boston Marathon, 26.2-- 4:38
10/2009 Marine Corps Marathon, DC, 26.2--457
1/2010 Houston Marathon, 26.2--3:55:09
2/2010 5 Points of Life Marathon, Gainesville--415
Halloween Day 2010 Marine Corps Marathon, DC--
2/2011--Austin TX Marathon--