Musa rajapuri

[vaindioux]

Hi

I am a little bit north of Atlanta in zone 7 a/b. About 3 weeks ago I purchased a nice 5 feet tall Musa rajapuri, planted it and it's just sitting there doing nothing.
The bottom leaves have dried out and the top leaves are fine.There is a curled up leaf in the center since the day I bought it but it doesn't come out.
Other bananas I planted at the same time have pushed one or several leaves (Tall orinoco, Ensete,Musa basjoo).
Is it putting roots down?Is is still too cold for it (Low 55 high 85)?

Thanks a lot

Patrick

[pitangadiego]

Give it time.

[Jack Daw]

OK, since the thread is open already, I would like to ask you something.
About 3 months ago I got from a friend in Switzerland 2 bananas: Musa 'Dwarf Brazilian' and Musa 'Raja Puri'. Both are doing well, even though Raja Puri had no leaves when I got it and it's corm was as big as that of tullip.

Now it's going into puberty and I would like to ask:
Is it typical for Raja Puri to have small (Cavendish like) spots on its leaves? The spots are grouping along the midrib and there's also one thing I haven't seen on other Raja Puris. Mine shows slight red color on the pstem.

Could anyone help me with this one?
The pup was a water sucker when I got it and it still is, grows quite well, considering what it came through. It has small corm and hasn't been fertilized yet.

Pics:

[sbl]

That doesn't look like my Raji Puri--I have seen pictures of Dwarf Cavendish that have red spots on leaves like that. My Raji Puri and all the pictures in Wiki are all solid green leaves.

[Jack Daw]

Originally Posted by sbl

That doesn't look like my Raji Puri--I have seen pictures of Dwarf Cavendish that have red spots on leaves like that. My Raji Puri and all the pictures in Wiki are all solid green leaves.

Even extremely young plants (only about 5th or 6th leaf)?

[Jack Daw]

OK, I looked very carefully on the pics in the wiki and found this one from Dombo...
You can clearly see on the leaf the remains after the spots (dark color in the green) in younger age.
Dunno whatto think, anyone can clarify?



Also Dombo has a picture of young, freshly sprouting sword pup of Raja Puri.
It has purple-red color on it's P-stem edges....

[ewitte]

The one I have which is supposed to be raja puri had red on it when young. Right now the leaves are completely green.

[Jack Daw]

Originally Posted by ewitte

The one I have which is supposed to be raja puri had red on it when young. Right now the leaves are completely green.

Nice, ewitte and sbl, thanks a lot for your help.

[LilRaverBoi]

Well, I've never had a Raja Puri, so I can't help with the latter discussion. As for the original question....I'm sure it will begin to grow soon enough. It's probably working on a healthy root system before growing new leaves. Sounds like it has ample foliage to provide it with food. The temperatures should be just fine as long as it's getting sun part of the day. Some bananas are hesitant when transplanted, but in due time I'm sure it'll perk up.

[Jack Daw]

Originally Posted by LilRaverBoi

Well, I've never had a Raja Puri, so I can't help with the latter discussion. As for the original question....I'm sure it will begin to grow soon enough. It's probably working on a healthy root system before growing new leaves. Sounds like it has ample foliage to provide it with food. The temperatures should be just fine as long as it's getting sun part of the day. Some bananas are hesitant when transplanted, but in due time I'm sure it'll perk up.

The former question was from 2007 and I guess it has been answered already.
By time.

[LilRaverBoi]

LMFAO...sorry. Didn't look at the date. That was quite the bump, then, huh? Hell, their naner has probaby gotten huge and possibly fruited by now!! My bad!

[vaindioux]

Hi

It was me that posted that originally. My Musa rajapuri grew huge shortly after I posted that in 2007. It has since given me bananas and I am in the process of spreading the pups, I have now 3 mats of M. rajapuri.
Here is a pic of it last year.



Thanks again

Patrick

[Jack Daw]

Originally Posted by vaindioux

Hi

It was me that posted that originally. My Musa rajapuri exploded shortly after I posted that in 2007. It has since given me bananas and I am in the process of spreading the pups, I have now 3 mats of M. rajapuri.

Thanks again

Patrick

Oh yeah, Rock'n'Roll baby. I would just have a question on you. Did your pups have that red on the leaves when young and that red on the petioles when totally small (please read my previous posts)?
Thnx.

[vaindioux]

Originally Posted by Jack Daw

Oh yeah, Rock'n'Roll baby. I would just have a question on you. Did your pups have that red on the leaves when young and that red on the petioles when totally small (please read my previous posts)?
Thnx.

Honestly I don't remember. But I will keep an eye on the next pups and will let you know if I see red in there.
Here is an answer I got a couple years back from "Go bananas" the nursery that sold me my Musa rajapuri and Musa grand nain. I asked them how to differentiate them and they answer the following:

While it is true it is very difficult to determine the variety of these bananas while beginning their fruit cycle, you can tell as the fruit develops.  ( especially if they are getting adequate amounts of fertilizer with high potassium )  The RAJA PURI should be  a stouter plant with shorter fuller fruit while the GRAND NAIN is your grocery store variety and should be full sized and milder in flavor.  
The problem with growing them in Georgia is they will probably not get the same size or shape that they would in a more tropical setting... so it makes it more challenging.
I hope this has been of some help.

This probably does not answer your question but I want to hint to you what was hinted to me often. "Until you see a flower and bananas(The fruit), your bananas are going to be hard to I.D."

Good luck

Patrick

[Jack Daw]

Originally Posted by vaindioux

Honestly I don't remember. But I will keep an eye on the next pups and will let you know if I see red in there.
Here is an answer I got a couple years back from "Go bananas" the nursery that sold me my Musa rajapuri and Musa grand nain. I asked them how to differentiate them and they answer the following:

While it is true it is very difficult to determine the variety of these bananas while beginning their fruit cycle, you can tell as the fruit develops.  ( especially if they are getting adequate amounts of fertilizer with high potassium )  The RAJA PURI should be  a stouter plant with shorter fuller fruit while the GRAND NAIN is your grocery store variety and should be full sized and milder in flavor.  
The problem with growing them in Georgia is they will probably not get the same size or shape that they would in a more tropical setting... so it makes it more challenging.
I hope this has been of some help.

This probably does not answer your question but I want to hint to you what was hinted to me often. "Until you see a flower and bananas(The fruit), your bananas are going to be hard to I.D."

Good luck

Patrick

Thanks Patrick, I think it really is Raja Puri, 'cause my friend got it from another friend of a reputable plant distributing company as a gift, so I guess it will develop more Raja Puri characteristics as it gets older.

[LilRaverBoi]

Sweet! Thanks for the update and pictures! Looks like things are working out well for you and your RP!

[Simply Bananas]

My young raja puris have the red blotches.

[BadPun]

Had a question about my Raja Puri so I decided to post here rather than start a new thread.

I planted my Raja Puri about 2 months ago and it's really starting to take off. However, I'm concerned that one of the two pups is a water sucker: it puts out leaves approximately 2 or 3 times as fast as the mother shoot, the leaves are a bit rounded, and the most recent leaf is actually lying on top of the mother shoot's crown.

From what I've read I can a.) leave the water sucker and both plants will grow fine but at a slower rate or b.) remove the water sucker and pot it to start a new plant.

I'm fairly ambivalent about which option I should go with at the moment, so I wanted some opinions. Also, is this a water sucker as I'm supposing?

You can see the big new leaf of the shoot I'm guessing is a water sucker up on the mother:


Opposite side looking at what seems to be a sword sucker? Also, I never noticed this before but it looks like each subsequent leaf is about 50% bigger than the former; obviously that kind of growth is not sustainable, but cool to see it in this clockwise fashion:


View from above


Thanks in advance-

Andy

[Jack Daw]

One of the pups is according to my opinion a sword sucker (the one with narrower leaves), but the other one seems to be water.

I would remove that water sucker and let it live someplace else. It has its own small separate root system, so it shouldn't be such a problem to remove. Other than that, I noticed, that your pups had a little purple and red on it when young, so I'm assured again that mine really is a Raja Puri.

There's no need to kill the pup, even if it is a water sucker. Should you still hasitate to pot it, just go around the neighbourhood and ask people, whether some1 wants a Raja Puri banana.