andy17

Hello everyone,

I'm currently growing a TC FHIA-03 and I've seen a lot of deep pink and plenty of wax on the leaf petioles, which runs down onto the pseudostem. The primary color of the pseudostem is bright-green. I was curious if anyone here has had any experience with this variety and what they look like when they're baby plants still. I know for example the wine splotches on AAA's like Cavendish fade as the plant becomes more mature and full-grown. I thought maybe this is something similar? Thank you!

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Foxhound

It sounds like everything is doing good.

From my research the FHIA-03 is in the Bluggoe/ Orinoco family.

I am currently growing a Namwah and BJ. and it sounds like you've got something good growing for sure.

Can you post pictures? Without that I don't think much of an identification can go down.

andy17

Hey Foxhound,

Thank you for your reply; I really appreciate it. From the FHIA ID key, it’s shows FHIA-3 as bright green with little spots or coloration. Growing next to the Kokopo they look almost identical. It’s become more and more noticeable as they’ve grown to the point I’m beginning to wonder if there was a mixup. It’s encouraging to hear it may not be an issue. ID is definitely best with pictures, I will post some when I get home later today. Thank you again!

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andy17

Here's the image:

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pitangadiego

Definitely has no pink as an adult plant. Don't recall it being that pink at a pup, but many things have red or pink in the pups early.

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Foxhound

I know it's kind of off topic, but could you send a picture of your Kokopo that's next to it?

I have a "Kokopo pup" that looks a lot like a DC and it's starting to get some spots on the leaves that look like wine stains.

Also have a "VC/ Veinte Cohol pup" that looks extremely similar to the Kokopo and has light wine stains aswell.

Thank you in Advance,

Foxhound

Hey Pitangadiego, by chance do you still talk to Chironex? I saw some bananas on the wiki that he added and was curious about the growth after 15 years. I know that's kind of an insane ask, but worth a shot in my eyes.

PR-Giants

It would be more accurate to say the FHIA-03 is not in the Bluggoe/ Orinoco family, but does have the progenitor ' Gaddatu' that is from the Bluggoe subgroup.

BJ is in the Ney Mannan subgroup not Bluggoe.

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Foxhound

The internet doesn't portray tone, so just letting you know I'm not debating anything. The Musa flowchart clearly shows the lineage, but I got the classification information from the Honduran Foundation For Agricultural Research.


"The hybrid FHIA-03, which was developed in 1987, is a dwarf
cooking banana of the “Bluggoe” type." - FHIA

http://fhia.org.hn/descargas/Program...ids/fhia03.pdf

PR-Giants

You read a sales brochure and made the mistake of thinking it was classification information.

When the FHIA-03 was first introduced it was widely rejected by the consumer because of it's inferior quality compared to the 'Bluggoe'.

It's not a 'Bluggoe' and it's not even similar to a 'Bluggoe'.

There's an African folk song that states "it's better to eat an FHIA banana than to starve"

The FHIA-03 is not even close to the quality of a Bluggoe and the only people that might think they are similar are people that have never tasted both of them.

FHIA info is typical American propaganda, they are promoting a banana that the vast majority of people do not want to eat.

The FHIA-21 brochure is even funnier.

"The hybrid FHIA-21, developed in 1987, is a French type plantain."

Everyone that has eaten an FHIA-21 knows it's not a plantain, but I'm sure there's someone in the world that's never eaten one that might believe it's a plantain.

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Christopher777

Make sure the plant has adequate light - bananas like bright, but diffused light; avoid direct sunlight, which can burn the leaves. Regularly monitor watering to keep the soil moist but not waterlogged. Use fertilizers rich in potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen to support healthy growth. Monitor plants for pests and diseases to ensure optimal growing conditions.

Best regands Christopher 😊

andy17

Thank you for your help with this, I have been wanting to reply sooner. I'm not sure if anyone else has issues with extremely long connection times, but sometimes the site is nearly impossible to use because of it. Today it's moving fast and I'm able to reply quickly. I suppose after 6 months or so, it should outgrow it? Given it's a TC, it always makes me a little concerned that there was either a mix-up, or a mislabel.

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andy17

Absolutely, in fact, that is what I had originally planned on doing. The issue I ran into with it was the website was moving so slowly for what seemed like weeks, that I decided to wait until I had a better connection.

To be honest, I don't know much about Kokopo or its genetics. The lineage of banana cultivars is one of my favorite aspects of growing and collecting them. However, information on this cultivar is really scant from what I've been able to find.

From my understanding, AAA cultivars or cultivars that have AAA parentage, will often show wine stains in leaves. Gros Michel, Cavendish, FHIA-2, FHIA-17 all show them from what I've seen. According to the Bananas.org wiki, it shows VC as having AA genetics, so it seems entirely possible to me that I could have some wine stains when young. This thread might be helpful:

Wine splotches

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andy17

This is the kind of chart I love studying as a Biologist. Might I ask where you found such detailed information on the parentage of FHIA-03? Thank you for your insight. Would it be possible then to have some coloration when the plant is young? I also know that region and environment can have a huge impact on morphological characteristics like height and coloration.

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andy17

Is the quality of FHIA hybrids so bad? They are often talked about with relatively high regard like FHIA-1 and 2 and SH-3640 in the US amongst hobby and backyard growers. Having the opportunity to grow and eat varieties from all over the world, the commercial offerings must pale in comparison. Like how people react to grocery store bananas after growing their own. I do know that all of the FHIA cultivars are bred to be commercial varieties, and usually, when something is bred for commercial production, significant sacrifices are made in taste, texture, and complexity.

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andy17

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andy17

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andy17

There's a slight difference between the two, but it's not night and day. It's enough that I constantly wonder if they're actually the same cultivar.

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PR-Giants

As with most things in life, the more you know the less affected you are from propaganda. Most US hobby and backyard growers are very limited on what varieties they can grow and if they eliminate the top quality bananas because they are unable to properly grow in a non-tropical environment the lower quality bananas can appear better. This is common with high quality fruit grown in poor environmental conditions.

If one looks at the recent propaganda of the Gros Michel being better than the Cavendish some cursory research will quickly shed light on that. Anyone that goes back and reads the papers the US government produced 130 years ago will see that the Cavendish was the preferred banana for US importation but growers switched to the Gros Michel because it was much cheaper to ship due to it's thicker peel. The Cavendish cost more to ship because the fruit was more easily damaged during shipping. A perfect example of this today is the plantain, it's peel is so thick it can be thrown into a truck and piled high with no protection. 130 years ago there wasn't trucks or pneumatic tires.





Banana breeding has been going on in the Caribbean for over 130 years and the only advantage the synthetic bananas have had over the landrace bananas has been in yield and disease resistance.

The French and English both focused on fruit quality with disease resistance while the Americans (FHIA) focused on disease resistance and yield so it was never a surprise to see poor acceptance with the FHIA cultivars.

A better question is why do the US hobby and backyard growers grow the FHIA cultivars instead of any of the other synthetic cultivars in the world?

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PR-Giants

I'm sure it was published in FHIA documents.

Both of your plants look exactly like what I would expect a young dwarf namwa to look like, definitely not a Kokopo or FHIA-03.

If you really want an FHIA-03 message me, I've got plenty of them.

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