mrbungalow

I sprouted this a month back, and came from Seedmans selection. Labeled as "musa nagensium true form". It has never shown much vigour, and new leaves coming out are thin, deformed, and sometimes lacking green colour looking like some kind of pathetic "Ae-Ae". I only managed to sprout 2, and the other one also shows similar weakness. All my seedlings are under a high-power growth light.



The soil is the same as I use for all my other seedlings, and these exhibit no signs of disease or deformities.

Any tips/ clues as to what the problem could be?

Erlend

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chong

Hey, Erlend,
Maybe you and that eBay guy have the same seed source! LOL

Seriously though, personally, I don't think it looks too bad, that a little more heat and humidity won't cure. A lot of times seedlings start out like that. Or, what kind of light spectrum does your light system put out? Maybe check with your light fixture supplier to find out if your light a appropriate for bananas. And did you use any kind of growth hormones? Like GBA will do that. A lot of times, plug plants grow similarly in the first 3 to 4 months, or more, because of the hormones the labs use. I have Dwarf Orinocos from TC that look like that now, only bigger and taller, since it's been 14 months since I got them from Agri-Starts.

The Dwarf Nino was also the same, until last July after I transplanted them in bigger pots. Last July, it would be the second year I've had them from A-S. Before that, the leaves had pointed tips. The leaves that developed since then are now rounder at the tip.

Back in 10/27/2006, Barna posted some photos of M.Nagensium, including what looks like a seedling. (Musa nagensium seeds for reference ) And yours looks something awful close, except for size. The coloration is even somewhat similar.

Tropicallvr

The last batch of Musa cheesmanii have done the same thing. I first noticed on one of the sprouts it produced a leaf first instead of the thing that the first leaf grows out of, and it was variegated with a yellow stripe. It is now on it's 5th leaf and so far and has broad strokes of variegation, and sometimes the midrib is on the side of the leaf. It is a total mutant, and about half of the dozen M.chessmanii seedlings are showing a little pin striping variegation. I thought it must be some genetic variegation at first, but now they seem like some tweeked out plants.
Now that I look at your picture, the variegation is alot different than mine.

mrbungalow

It's strange. These are the only seeds that have displayed this here. All other factors have been the same for all the species I have sowed. Light, soil, water, fert etc.
Mark Hall on the UK Oasis mentioned magnesium deficiency, but I still think it's strange that only these 2 would miss it.

I think what I will do is to give them some "Palm-booster" and see if that remedies it. Can't give up!

Tropicalvr; where did you buy your last batch of Cheesmani?

Erlend

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Mark Hall

Tropicalvr Do you have a picture of your seedlings?

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

mrbungalow

An update: Looking at the seedling today it has produced a much better leaf. Nice and broad, with nice colouring. Hoping that it's going to be OK for now!

Erlend

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Tropicallvr

I haven't taken a pic yet, but I will when it gets some size. I have a ton of banana pics piling up, from Mexico, and here in the US, but I'm still can't post since I'm not online. Starting to miss being able to surf the net when I want.
I got the seeds at ortanque seeds, and after I discovered that there were some variegation I went and ordered 200 seeds, but now I'm less impressed with the most colored one since the leafs are getting weird shapes. It should be interesting to see what a full grown plant looks like.
Did your plant lose the white coloring now?

Mark Hall

Erland hows that seedling comming along ? it must be 4ft tall by now.

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