venturabananas

I have a mat of Goldfinger bananas that has bloomed twice and is about to open a third flower. The first two inflorescences have not produced female flowers and so no fruit from them. They start with some weird looking flowers and then make typical male flowers. The third bud looks very skinny, too, and I bet it is going to fail to make fruit also.

The question is this:
Is this plant failing to make fruit because it has had a tough life, experiencing boron deficiency, or could it be that this plant is a somatic mutant generated by the TC process?

I know the plant suffered from boron deficiency and I solved that problem by supplementing boron. And I know that flowering and fruiting in plants in general can be affected by boron deficiency. And I know that the flower bud in bananas is formed long before, sometimes months before, it emerges. So in my plant it is possible that these problems are still showing up, months after I corrected the boron deficiency. But I'm wondering if that is likely.

Anyone know if boron deficiency can cause the absence of female flowers in bananas?

I figure I'll let a few of the younger p-stems that did not experience the boron deficiency flower and if they too don't have female flowers, then I'll conclude the plant is a mutant and dig it out and replace it. I'd rather not have to do that, but it has to earn its keep by feeding me.

Weird flowers:
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Skinny bud:
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Eventual male bud with normal male flowers:
[IMG][/IMG]

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Richard

I hear from a lot of people in San Diego growing Goldfinger with the same problem. I have never purchased them for nursery stock. I do have a plant or two that are offspring of one that Tony gave me a few years ago.

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sunfish

All my buds produced bananas. I did have 1 skinny bud,like Mark's and it made fruit

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Tony,Thanks

venturabananas

Interesting, good to know, and makes me feel a bit better about my failure!

I know Tony's Goldfinger is bulletproof and delicious (thanks Tony!). Andy (BadPun) has grown some tasty ones here in Ventura. If I end up needing to replace mine, I'll get a pup from one of them. The one I have is from Home Depot -- got it before I knew anyone growing bananas.

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venturabananas

Update: This mat of Goldfinger is getting the axe. It has produced 4 buds and all have been the same -- lots of flowers but no proper female flowers, so no fruit. The last bud was very large and was produced by a 10' tall p-stem. I've had the leaf tissue analyzed and there is no micronutrient deficiency in this plant. All the 10 or so other buds produced by different varieties in my yard over the same period of time have been normal, i.e., have fruit-producing female fingers.

I have to conclude that this particular plant is an off type, i.e., a somatic mutant. Along those lines, it is also not quite right for a normal Goldfinger, which is normally a stout, upright plant that doesn't lean much or need to be propped. This one is skinnier and always leans significantly when it has a bud. FYI, I got this plant from Home Depot, and I can't recall for sure, but they most likely got it from La Verne Nursery, since that's where most or all of the banana plants at my local Home Depot and Lowes come from.

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