ryan

Hi Ryan,

Could you send him my reply as follows:
Dear Christian,
Thank you for the detailed email - we find this very informative.
Actually, there were 3 albino banana babies from 3 different mother variegated banana plants at the same time. Pictures are available on this thread, including the bunch of recently-harvested variegated bananas.

The first one died when it was about 10 cm tall, trampled by my Pomeranians. The mother plant for this first one had 4-5 small variegated babies. The mother plant never flowered, as it was transplanted twice in a year.

The second one died when it was about 30 cm tall, broken by my dogs when they fought. This albino had alot of blackness on its trunk, and I had to remove the sheaths of the older leaves (where the blackness is). That is why the trunk was pretty thin. The mother plant for this second one has 2 babies that grew up quite fast. The mother plant did not flower either - it was actually the child of another mother plant that did flower at my place.

The third one is, thankfully, still alive as in the photo. It is about a metre tall now. The mother plant just finished flowering and bore the biggest bunch of bananas so far (among 3 that flowered and bore fruit). This albino is the first baby. There is another baby forming, but I can't tell right now if it is variegated. Hopefully, this baby is variegated, and can take over feeding the albino as the mother plant will be dying soon.

As for the danger of the wind, it is not so windy here, and the banana plants are in the middle of the garden, surrounded by other large plants and a trellis. My dogs are much more dangerous to smaller plants. I feed the bananas quite regularly with bone meal.

Regards
Eric Leong