Kevin2685

Here is my dwarf Orinoco
Tried to grow this indoors as a house plant for a year and it barely grew
Put it outside this spring and now it is doing much better and produced like 5 pups

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Currently growing

Musa basjoo
Dwarf orinico
Variegated dwarf namwah
Aeae
Patupi
Veinte cohol
Musa lasiocarpa (golden lotus)
Musa velutina
Raja puri
Mekong giant
Double cavendish
Super dwarf cavendish
Truly tiny
Musa laterita
Ensete maurelli

Mark Dragt

I did the same thing with a Yruly Tiny. Kept it in my garden window for two years, then brought it outside this year. Now it is in a big pot and growing like crazy. They do love the outdoors. Yours looks great!

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Mark's Banana Forest Paradise

cincinnana

Yep.........That is what they do..........!!!!!
Growth looks amazing.

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cincinnana

Since you moved them to bigger digs .....I suspect a flower next year july/august.

Put the plant in a container 10+ gals or bigger...this year so you will have new established roots for it to overwinter. Then the plant will consider to flower for you next year.
My cycle is about every three years for this plant.

The plant will profusely pup in a smaller/stressed/hobbled container, but if you move it to a larger container it will start the pup cycle.

This is how I do some of my ,hostas/ferns/ariseama/and other high value plants if I need to stimulate them.
Your aeae as well...will respond to these conditions.

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Kevin2685

The pot it is in is bigger then 10 gallons I believe. I was just thinking next year of putting it in the ground. I don't even know how I'm going to get it out of this pot unless I maybe cut the pot and remove it that way. cant remember how many quarts the pot is I want to say like 80. Let me look at it in the morning and see if I can tilt it and look on the bottom lol.
I think this weekend I'm going to remove all but one pup.

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Currently growing

Musa basjoo
Dwarf orinico
Variegated dwarf namwah
Aeae
Patupi
Veinte cohol
Musa lasiocarpa (golden lotus)
Musa velutina
Raja puri
Mekong giant
Double cavendish
Super dwarf cavendish
Truly tiny
Musa laterita
Ensete maurelli

siege2050

If its anything like tall Orinoco, which I believe its just a mutation if I remember correctly, it should sleep quite well under your house in the crawl space or in an attached garage etc. as long as it stays about 40/50ish in there if it gets too large to handle indoors. As many pups as it appears to be putting out, you are going to have a pretty good collection of them in a couple of years, and will have to store them dormant in winter lol. My tall Orinoco usually only put out a couple of pups per pstem each season in the ground. The flowering one is putting out 3, but probably because its fixing to die after this flower.

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Mark Dragt

How do you prepare your plants before putting them away? Leaves, roots? Just want to get it right. Some of my plants will fit through the garage door while still potted. No problem there. But the taller ones will have to come out of the pots. Any advise would be great.

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Mark's Banana Forest Paradise

Kevin2685

Yeah it's a really tough plant. Mites got to it this last winter almost killed it. Stopped growing and started looking ugly. I got the mites under controlled and it started growing again. Decided I would see if they really are kinda cold hardy so
Put it outside when the nighttime temps stayed at 40 or above. It did well it was never outside for over a year and I just put it out in full sun it never even got sunburned. I'm going to try overwintering it in the ground next year as I will have more plants soon then what I know to do with. I think if I protect it enough it will be fine in the ground. It will be a fun challenge.

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Currently growing

Musa basjoo
Dwarf orinico
Variegated dwarf namwah
Aeae
Patupi
Veinte cohol
Musa lasiocarpa (golden lotus)
Musa velutina
Raja puri
Mekong giant
Double cavendish
Super dwarf cavendish
Truly tiny
Musa laterita
Ensete maurelli

siege2050

I was very nervous the first time I stored them, but it works very well. This does not work on all varieties of course, I dont think the cavendish types will store without the pstems dying back to the corm from what I have heard. I plan on experimenting with Zebrina, and Enano Gigante this year as I am getting overpopulated with them, with the whole root ball wrapped to save moisture. I had a Zebrina corm that I though was dead survive completely dry in my 120 degree greenhouse most of the summer for 5 months and it is now re-potted and sprouting, but I dont know how tall one will get using this dry corm method by fall. But I have done this with Saba, Tall Orinoco, and the Ensetes, and golden lotus bare root with no wrappings. I just cut off all the leaves first with a cheap machete, then I just dig them with a shovel giving enough space to get all the corm, and this usually cuts off the roots in the process, watch out for pups that have not surfaced yet, sometimes they will appear away from the pstem a bit. Be very careful with your shovel, I broke 3! lol. Then I let them dry in the shade for a day to get the excess moisture out of the root ball to prevent rot of any kind. But I have noticed that most tropical roots, tubers store fine in plastic bags damp with a few holes in them, Its just a precaution. Then if you have a tall variety like mine, you try not to break your back carrying the 100+ pound pstems and root balls to the place of storage lol. Just store them in a dark place that does not freeze, I would close the house vents if you store them in the crawl space, maybe check for mice damage once or twice if they have a way to get in there, and then in spring after danger of frost is over, dig a hole a little deeper than the original burying depth of the pstem to provide stability, and plant them. The neighbors will most likely stare at you strangely when you plant these tall green sticks lol. I was worried about how much to water at first, but we got record rainfall and it rained for day and days and it did not hurt them at all. It took about 3 weeks for new leaves to start emerging after the roots became established, but growth is very rapid after that, and mine became leafed out very quickly. I left a partial leaf on one of them as an experiment, and it was a bad idea. Its the only pstem I had issues with and it choked. I had to cut the leaves out to get it started again. So with Orinoco at least, I would not leave any leaf surface at all on the plant, just the pstem. If you grow them for ornamental purposes, this is a great method as you get an almost instant banana look in a month or two, while the hardy types like Basjoo are still struggling to get some height.

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