Rrobinson

I have several Musa Basjoo that are around 15 ft. and survived last winter (-10F) with some mulching.
I thought I was buying another cold hardy Musa Basjoo but noticed the pup has coloring in the leaves, so I am not sure what type this really is. It is about 5ft tall and has been growing since June.
Banana Gallery - What is this?
Thanks, hope I did this correctly
--Ralph

kubali

Welcome aboard,
pull up a chair and have some fun learning.

cincinnana

Welcome to the Jungle


Looks like an immature cavendish type pup at the base of a ????

I cannot tell.

.

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Mark Dragt

Welcome to the org. I feel good saying that your plant in the pict is not a Basjoo. If you can get it to flower next year that would help with id. Now you need to come up with a overwintering plan. That plant will not overwinter as easily as the Basjoo.

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Mark's Banana Forest Paradise

JP

Try adding your location in your profile. If possible, try taking a few pics of the pseudo stem.

Rrobinson

Thanks,

Added location to profile.
Added picture of pseudostem
Banana Gallery - pseudostem

--Ralph

JP

Looks cavendish-y... I'll look into it. I'd usually say DC but something tells me not quite... Something looks a bit different.

Rrobinson

JP,
Appreciate it.
I am mainly worried about how to overwinter. It gets to -10F or so here. I cut the Musa Basjoos to about 3 ft high last year and they bled for a while. Mulched with leaves, pine needles, etc. and put plastic over the leaves, then more leaves,etc They had a lot of pups. The next May the center looked dead and mushy, but the pups came back and grew to about 15ft. I had two dwarf Cavendishes in the sunroom that grew to about 2ft. Cut all the leaves off and put in the garage for the winter, dark and about 40F. Peeked at them once in a while and they looked ok. The dirt looked a bit dry, so put a little water in. Think that was a mistake. Spring time they fell over and were rotten and mushy near the dirt.

Not sure what to try this year. My wife wants to give up.

--Ralph

Rrobinson

could it be a "Gran Nain" ?
I found this picture that looks almost exactly like mine:
PlantFiles Pictures: Banana 'Gran Nain' (Musa) by Clare_CA
If so, how would I get it to survive the winter?
--Ralph

siege2050

Looks Cavendishy, but the leaves seem to be a bit long. I am getting overpopulated with Enano Gigante (Cavendish type) so i am going to try wrapping them up with no water in plastic and storing under the house. I hear Cavendish types desiccate, and die back to the corm when trying to go dormant, and like you said, rot is an issue if kept growing. I will probably end up with a mess. I would separate that pup as a backup in a sunny window until you find something that works.

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