Pancrazio

I'm unsure if this post should go here or in container section, since I grow my plants 6 months in ground and 6 months in container.
However my first Veinte Cohol is blooming right now! That was unexpected! I would have preferred for sure a summer bloom, however I can't complain.



As far as i know this must be the first time blooms in europe (maybe? at least, i have searched for evidence if it blooming in europe in last two years and i didn't find anything).

I'd also like to thank the generous member who donated me the corms a couple of years ago. I'm unsure if he wants to be named!

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PR-Giants

Congrats & Good Luck!

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15,000+ Varieties

Cikas33

Great looking Musa. Keep us updated on progress.

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Cultivars and species that I have:

Musa basjoo
Musa Dwarf Namwah
Musa Fen Ba Jiao
Musa Ice Cream
Musa Pisang Ceylon
Musa thomsonii
Musa Dwarf Brazilian
Musa 1000 Fingers

robguz24

How tall is the p-stem? I'm hoping mine won't be too much longer.

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Pancrazio

The pstem is just 120cm tall. Keep in mind that i uprooted it twice, last winter and this winter, to grow it in pot till spring, so the stress may have had a role in keeping the plant small and inducing an early flowering (and naturally, reducing the bunch size/quality). In addiction, since I'm at latitude of 44N, my plant can be a little etiolated compared to the ones you can get. I used Dr. Fonsah paper to do my predictions on flowering size and i found that pstem circumference also seems a good indication of the flowering size.

To be honest I do think that Veinte cohol is as good as it can get when it comes to pot growing. 120cm is really a small plant, and can effortless fit in any room even with low ceilings. Plus, this cultivar is very quick to flower, and reaches flowering height in just two season at my place, starting from a corm.
There's nothing else, as far as i know, with all those good qualities. The only bad quality of this plant is its frost tenderness, but for indoor growing this isn't an issue.

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Pancrazio

A question for the experts here: do saving some pollen from the flowers make any sense?
I have this crazy fantasy of crossing this with my dwarf namwah... (at this point you probably already figured that I do know nothing about banana crossing, this is the reason why I'm asking! )

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Hammocked Banana

I've read a few good posts made by gabe, and it seems that nanners breeding is very difficult. Most bananas have either sterile male or female flowers or both. I wouldnt bother trying to save pollen. Nice Bloom though. I have generally seen pretty weak bunches from the first bloom of a VC, other than Keith's in PR. If you dont expect much, you won't be disappointed.

maesy

Cocratulation Pancrazio!

Unfortunatly my veinte cohol pup, that I ordered from Thailand didn't make it. Only the bangladesh super banana that I orderered as well started rooting.

Marcel

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Pancrazio

Thank you! Yeah, I read quite a bit about those threads, but without a comprehensive knowledge of the subject is hard to recall the specific issues of banana breeding several months (or years later). It's a pity that Gabe doesn't looks as near as active as once he was - I hope he more active breeding bananas. Right now, however, i just recall that Dwarf Namwah is a good pollen donor, so not the ideal mother for any pollen from my veinte cohol: but i don't have any dwarf namwah pollen now (and I'm assuming that there isn't any dwarf namwah flowering now in Italy).
My point is that a imaginary cross Dwarf namwahXVeinte Cohol is pretty much the perfect hobbyist banana, if it emerges with the right traits. Huge bunches, small stature, quick ripening, cold hardy (well, if you get lucky; otherwise you may get a slow ripening frost tender plant with small bunches but i guess that that plant would reach the compost pile soon, so probably nobody would notice).

Regarding my expectation for my bunch, right now i would bet on "whiter & die" outcome (I don't recall anyone fruiting a banana indoor without a special setup, which i don't have, and i don't see why my bunch should have a different fate), so anything other than that is a godsend. Still, this bloom is something interesting and funny during those boring winter months (you can understand me, I guess), and it provided my with very valuable information for my next VC fruiting. Now finally I have an height where I can expect to see my plant fruiting! So i can start to imagine some kind of timing to have them fruiting in summer.

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Pancrazio

I have been asked for an update. I haven't a recent pic, it has always been too dark; however, this is what I've got of the following days;



As for now, I have removed the flower, tried to eat it (well actually i did eat it), and i'm awaiting for filling. Wishful thinking! They didn't fill at all, and it's clear the reason: It's too cold and dark indoor. I have 5 leaves left, let's see.

Will post another pic if I get some good light.

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Hammocked Banana

Thanks. That bunch looks great for an indoor VC! How many total fingers?

Pancrazio

63 fingers. I can't tell if that's good or not because it is my first flowering. But my plants do cheat! They spend half of the year in ground, so if the bunch have developed when the plant was healthy and in full ground, this may have lead to some extra finger.

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maesy

Pancrazio, your banana looks superb!



Marcel

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"But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God,..."
(John 1,12)

Pancrazio

This is an actual up-to-date picture, but i had the camera set on "low resolution" so the picture was a bit on the small side... oh, well...



as you can see bananas didn't grow very much if at all in last month or so.

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