sandy0225

We usually go every year but opted not to go this year. It's not really geared much towards my size of operation! They show a lot of large equipment that wouldn't fit into my potting area, and watering booms that wouldn't fit in my small greenhouses, etc. And chemicals I can't afford to even use, or wouldn't want to because you'd need so much protective gear.
I've also learned that just because something is prominently displayed at the OFA also doesn't mean it will sell well next year. My Salvia Argentea that I have 20 pots of just sitting here was prominently displayed at several booths last year. I can't hardly give the stuff away this year.
Agristarts, and Liner Farms and Rancho Tissue Technologies usually have booths there are good sources of banana liners.
All in all it's a good time though!

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

xavierdlc61887

lol my bad should put AEAE :P

Gabe15

Agri-Starts actually tried to TC 'Aeae' for over 4 years, and after all that time were only able to produce about 7 variegated plants from TC.

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

xavierdlc61887

yeah i was kidding though...u told me its pretty hard to Tc that since they all turn out all green :P anyways it was just a point that u were making that any kind could be TCed and gotten paid for it..... i was just messing around since thats pretty messed up :P

Rmplmnz

Does anyone have anything to report on the fruit of Siam Ruby.......after the novelty wears off...taste is king for me:-)

Tropicallvr

That makes sense with a plant like 'Siam Ruby' where it was a really limited plant, hard to find in the wild, and selling for a high price.
Cutting out the middle man would probably be even be more profitable(TCing yourself), but it would be alot more work it seems. Looking foward to trying some TCing myself in the near future.

coconut chris

I am curious What the fruit is like
I have a few in the ground near the river about 3 ' tall
I know very little about this pretty plant

damaclese

Unless i missed the thread iv red repeatedly from other members here on the Org that to date now ones had the Siam Ruby fruit i cant member who said it but i think that 4ft is been the tallest that any one has gotten to my Siam is about 2ft tall and is about 6 months old it needs allot of light but so far my SR doesn't like allot of direct sun light but as i live in the high desert of NV sunset zone 12 are Ultraviolet light is high on a good day so most bananas burn easily also it dose aper to not have a large canopy of leafs maybe another indicator of why they don't fruit easily this is all speculation on my part Gab would you care to comment on any of this? this is a Reference to another thread on growing under lights but i have the SR under a predominantly red spectrum light and its not growing all that fast I'm going to move it under blue light soon and see if it responds like my green leafed guys do the more i study this light thing the more iv come to realize that its the single most important component of successful culture i fully intend to get my SR to fruit if i do all let you all know also my Plant has some unusual markings on it it has white and yellow dots that aper as the leaf ages don't know what thees are as of yet but it mite be a reason my Plant is growing so slowly. Just throw Observation i can tell they don't have a large amount of chlorophyll however the blue light stimulates chlorophyll development in the green Bananas so again all see if the blue light doesn't help a bit sorry if iv straide a bit off topic but i think this is relevant to this thread

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Helping to foster understanding for the learning disabled

Gabe15

I have heard 2 main different accounts on the origins of this plant, one which suggests it is a seeded wild variety and one which suggests it is a edible seedless variety. To date, I have not seen any plant fruit, heard any reports of it fruiting or even read any characteristics of its fruit. However, it is fairly new to the market and shortly it should become clear what it is. I am sure it has fruited many times and someone knows what it is, but that information is not widely known yet.

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

harveyc

There have been reports of drug companies "discovering" plants in rainforests with the potential of use in drug manufacturing and have patented these plants, thereby restricting even native populations from using them. I don't know how much of that is true. Sometimes legends get made up by people with a bias against corporations, etc.

Plant licenses have become more widely used in the past couple of decades. A plant patent expires in 20 years but a license can last forever. I know of some stone fruits and a citrus subject to plant licenses. In the case of the stone fruits, a fairly large family grower (Jim Ito) and packing house discovered some sports and reproduced these and began marketing them with good results. They then licensed the new varieties to other growers and these growers could not propagate the plants and were required to market all of their production through Jim Ito. This was very restrictive but the individual growers still did very well because of the reputation Ito had developed for the varieties. It was a win-win situation. A recent citrus variety was licensed with similar restrictions to a California packing house. I believe there are table grapes with similar licenses.

I believe for a patent to be enforceable the plant must be labeled. I don't recall seeing a patent number on the Siam Ruby I had purchased. I certainly did not execute a license agreement.

I'm curious how anyone can be demanding a royalty on Siam Ruby.

I'm no lawyer. Just my $.02.

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Gabe15

There is a company that holds the license to 'Siam Ruby', unfortunately I forget who it was. At the OFA Short Course over this past summer, they mentioned it had the highest royalty payment percent of any new horticultural ornamental plant in the US, something like 20 cents per plant (maybe up to 30...I can't quite remember) for cheap plugs. Agristarts and other companies are allowed to propagate it but they pay the royalties to the other company.

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

Chironex

Yes, some wine grapes and table grapes have royalties due when sold, and one must enter into a non-propagation agreement. Many of the cultivars developed at Cornell are this way. So too are grape varieties developed by the U of MN, Elmer Swenson and several others.

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Scot