JohnC

Just came across this thread.

I too saw the same plants in the same nursery last weekend (it's not Home Depot, it's Art Knapps, a small chain nursery) and I can report that the ones I saw are *all* looking very sickly.

They are in a raised "table" outside the covered area exposed to the weather. The table is basically like a big washing tub with black plastic liner in it and the water is just standing still, no aeration or movement at all.

The whole thing is jammed full of all sorts of aquatic plants and the bananas are in about 1 gallon or smaller squarish pots and some are flopped over and basically floating like a capsized boat but the majority have their pots completely submerged.

They have a label from the wholesaler on them that has the conflicting advice on it.

Funny thing is they have a separate covered area where they have basjoos and lasiocarpes (sp?) sitting in pots on a regular counter looking pretty healthy.

I hadn't seen this thread before I was in there and I too spoke to the checkout lady and said as far as I know there are no bananas that can grow completely underwater and that theirs were looking pretty sick. I also pointed out the conflicting label. She must have been a different person than Sammy ran into because she seemed to take it seriously and said she would talk to someone else about it.

That nursery has a pretty good replacement policy which we've had to take advantage of rarely so I guess in the end it's going to work out for people but I hate to see the plants killed like that.

I should bring my camera the next time I'm in there and get a picture of them if they're still in the water table with the wholesaler info from the label to get to the bottom of it.

I know that most plants can be grown in water if there is very good aeration, you can grow just about anything hydroponically if you put aquarium aerators in the tank with it. I'm guessing a stream bed with good running water qualifies as aeration but a pond of stagnant water seems problematic.

I know there is a certain type of bamboo Phyllostachys Heteroclada that has an adaptation of hollow rhizomes to allow it to grow in semi wet areas but most regular bamboo would die in those same areas. Perhaps some bananas have hollow rhizomes or some other way of dealing with being submerged and others don't.