Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

A person I am acquainted with in a yahoo group, has told me that her Musa Manzano, aka Apple Banana has fruited 2 years in a row. Is this possible?

I was under the impression, from what I have read, that ALL bananas fruit once then die. Am I wrong, or is she feeding me a story? I checked the Wiki and there is no information there about this.

Leolady aka Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Each stalk dies after fruiting, but new pups grow up and fruit - so yes, every year is probably normal - just not on the same stalk.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Thanks pitangadiego for your response.
What you stated was my understanding. But she is trying to tell me that the same stem/plant has fruited 2 years in a row.I asked her if she was sure it wasn't a pup that has grown and fruited and she is emphatic that it is the same plant and that all her pups just die.

Thanks,
Leolady aka Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

I hate to say this but, she is lying :(

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Thanks for responding Patti. I just knew she was, but wanted to get info from others before I say anything to her about it.

I may not know a lot about banana plants, but I know there are always people here that do, and are willing to help.

This pretty much severs the "friendship" she and I had, because if there is anything in this world I can't stand, it is liars and thieves.

Oh well, on to bigger and better things. LOL
I hope you all have a beautiful spring and summer and MANY happy nanners.

Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Yeah, all bananas are 'monocarpic' meaning they fruit once per 'plant' and then this plant dies back to the corm. It is possible to have a mat of plants from one corm that has multiple pups on it that will fruit soon after the main plant does. So I guess it kinda depends on what she is calling the 'plant.' If she refers to the entire mat as one 'plant' (because it is one main corm) then she could be correct. If, however, she's trying to say that a particular pseudostem fruited, then continued living another year to fruit again, she's sadly mistaken.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

This is exactly what she has been trying to convince me of. I knew better but wanted to ask here first. She is also telling me that this plant fruits twice each year. Is that just another story?

I think she wants me to think that she has some sort of super banana or that it does this because of the care she gives it. Anyway, I didn't buy into what she was saying from the beginning.

Thanks for your input.

Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

If she has a Double Mahoi, THEN and only then will you get two bunches of fruit from a single pseudostem. But they come out at the same time....not a year apart. Manzano will not ever fruit twice on the same stalk. She's either confused or trying to pull a quick one over on ya (I'd give her the benefit of the doubt and just say she's probably confused in some way)...either way, one stalk will not ever produce bananas then live for another year to produce again.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

LOL I think this is way beyond confusion. Now she is trying to convince me that All Ensetes will produce fruit if they grow long enough. I told her that Ensetes are ornamentals and do not produce fruit and she claims hers do. I told her that if they produce fruit, they are not Ensetes. At least I think I am correct on that point. Someone please tell me if I am wrong.

I am getting pretty tired of reading about "all she knows" about banana plants, when I know what she is saying isn't true. At this point, I am beginning to wonder if she has any banana plants at all.

Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Well, they actually do produce fruit after they flower. However, the fruit are small and full of big, hard black seeds, so you probably don't want to eat them. Here are some pictures I found:

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Oops, my bad. It seems that I need to do some more research on Ensetes. I don't remember where I read that Ensetes don't flower or fruit. It more than likely was not at Bananas.org

Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Well, all bananas flower and fruit. Ensetes and many types of musas are considered 'ornamental' not because they don't flower (because they do) but because they produce seeded fruit that is considered 'inedible.'

Hope that helps.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Yes, that really does help. Thank you for clarifying that for me. It seems that I had better spend more time here, reading and asking questions.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Hey, we're all here to learn (well, except the experts that are there to help teach! (VERY APPRECIATED those of you that fit this category!!)). Anything I've gleaned in my time here I'm more than welcome to share...I'm sure others feel the same way! IMO, this site should always be focused as a 'learning community' for people to help develop their knowledge base on banana varieties, cultivation, propagation, etc. Therefore, questions are ALWAYS welcome!

Cheers!

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Hi Leo.
I have a bunch of that type of bananas in the yard.
They mat like crazy and pups will grow along-side the mother just as fast as the mother. Her husband probably cut it down after fruiting and didn't say anything.
Then the pup fruited and she's gullable enough to listen to him after allll those years....
I would do the same to my wife !! :)

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Maybe you should just let her talk, and nod, throw in a correction if she seems like she'll listen and not get mad, and laugh privately later if she doesn't. We do that a lot around here with customers in the spring..... sometimes they listen when you think they aren't, and sometimes they come in next year and say "how exactly did you tell me to plant those tomatoes? I didn't listen last year, but my neighbor did and his plants did better than mine. I don't want to ask him because he's a big know it all. I just want mine to beat his this year."

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Hi Sandy, It is always nice to hear from you.
This person and I only email back and forth so it is kind of hard to just throw things in. I have tried to encourage her to join here, so that she can learn more but she is like your neighbor and thinks she knows all there is to know about banana plants and others things too.

I have had really good luck with tomato plants. Last summer most of my Roma's had over 100 tomatoes on each plant. They get a gallon of water each, every day and I fertilize with Miracle Gro for tomatoes every 2 weeks. They are dusted with flour to get rid of tomato horn worms. The worms gorge on the flour instead of the plant, until they literally explode. An old trick my grandmother taught me.

Thanks for your input and I hope you have fantastic tomatoes this year.

Bonnie

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

I'm not saying your neighbor is right, I agree she sounds either confused or just weird.

That being said, for the enlightenment of the members here, I have heard multiple cases of a single pseudostem flowering more than once, or continue growing leaves after it has flowered, though I've not yet had the chance to see one up close or throughout an entire plant cycle. I know this probably goes against everything you thought you knew about bananas, but given the right conditions, I don't think its impossible. As is the case with the 'Double Cavendish', 'Mahoi' (which is actually a different, possibly extinct cultivar, from the common one sold) and a few others, multiple meristems/shoots may be within a single pseudostem. The 'Double Cavendish' can branch off into these multiple shoots either on the inflorescence which is the common way, or it branch on the corm early on which makes a weird split/compound-pseudostem type situation (or it can do both, as seen below). In the second, rarer, situation, it is conceivable that you could have one shoot within the pseudostem produce fruit, harvest that fruit, and either have another shoot be pushing through the pseudostem and produce fruit later, or already have a visible second shoot which produces fruit later. There is also a lot of intermediary weirdness that can happen with up to 7 bunches formed in some manner (thats the most I've heard of, but I'm sure more is possible). However, you couldn't force a plant to do this, it would have to be a mutation that occurred to cause it.

Here is a normal type of 'Double Cavendish' dichotomous type action where the branching occurs on the inflorescence and comes out of a single normal pseudostem (photos found in our gallery).



Here however, is an example of a case where the split occurred much earlier and resulted in a compound pseudostem with two shoots, each bearing a branched inflorescence. In this case, you could really conceivably have a banana plant fruit twice from the same pseudostem.


These photos are details about the 'Double Cavendish' serve as a model of what can conceivably happen to any banana variety if the right mutations occur.

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

Hey Bonnie,
Why not try and get a pup from her and grow it out in your conditions and see what it does.

Ray

Re: Question About Musa Manzano.apple Banana
 

My best thought is that something like Scott said is what is at play here (that was kinda what I was thinking from the start). And thanks again, Gabe for sharing your vast knowledge with us...very appreciated!

For the record, when I was kid, I 'saved' about 4-8 field corn plants from across the road from my house that were tilled up to put our garden there. I planted them in my own little plot back by our house and they later grew up to produce 6 ears of corn apiece. The corn across the field only produced one ear per plant. Not entirely sure what happened, but it was pretty amazing for a little tike like I was at the time (and my dad was pretty impressed as well).