opinions
 

does this look like any basjoo why or why not??? i got it last year as a t.c. i will be the first to admit the leaves are wide. it was labled japaneese fiber banana.. no red midrib on top..but midrib on bottom is pinkish ..this thing has survived well its first winter.it has the original stalk. the leaves are not very pointed on the end and are wide... any good gueses?? no red marks on juvenile leaves like rajapuri (still super wide).. i may have to open up the leaf to show how wide they are..thats the leaves are folded in half. i know most common basjoos leaves are long and slender. this thing came from a tissue culture last year and took off in colder weather and survived the snow and wet Ga winter. less damage to original p-stem than anything i had last year. it just pups slower than anything i have.it will grow but it seems to have a rest period in hot weather. it feels really waxy on the top leaf. the size thickness and shape of the leaves are different from anything i have.. i really must stop buying banana pups...i beleive i wont buy anymore tissue culture plants.

Re: opinions
 

definitely not M. basjoo. M. basjoo is waxless and has winged petioles. The red midrib is not always present though. Without a flower its hard to say what it is.

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Just looking at the pic, I am with Gabe... Also, from the pic, my guess would be 'Ice Cream'. But then again, hard to say without bloom.... Nice looking banana, though, whatever it turns out to be...

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i removed one of the big stalks from the mat in hopes of getting this thing to flower.... now i have a flag leaf from the unknown.. soon i will have a flower then fruit..this thing is a little over 5' 5'' in height it has a yellowish midrib. it has extra wide looking leaves. here are recent pics.



i may just say to hell with any other cultivar i have growing and just focus on this thing. it was the first banana to start growing in the spring. believe it or not it grew from a small pup last year. i basically treated it like basjoo because thats what it was labeled as..i chopped it low and its still is gonna fruit??? this year im not gonna protect the newly separated stalk and see if it will establish itself and fruit for next year.

the powder stalked banana has grown past the fence..is almost twice as tall as me. the tallest unfurled leaf is is growing up to a service line and i still dont see a flag leaf.

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I have the same attitude as you Ron. Collect many and concentrate on the few that do best for your local condiditons.

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hey ron I have the same plant.everything you said identical.I got mine last summer from home depot,"Japanese fiber banana".Unfortunately mine was in a bad location and flooded this winter and never came back strong,just moved it last week,I am very interested to see your flower pics.I had decided it was a basjoo because last year when it did pup they were about 12 inches from the main plant,but as always there is no telling what I am really growing.Keep me posted on this plant. thanks -Brad-

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The guy down the road from me had a similar experience. He planted a lot of supposed Basjoo from one of the big stores and they all look exactly like your plant now.

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What about dwarf orinoco?

Those leaves are stacked in tightly on fat trunks - looks like a "dwarf something-or-other" to me.

Just my non-expert guess.

Russell

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yeah,i knew someone had to have the same plant.. it came from a lowes last year..it was a small pup when i got it.. i still have the label and the picture on the little container. im thinking this thing is dwarf O.... the leaves are so broad i was thinking raja puri at first but it has no red spots on leaves anywhere.
it pups sparingly,and i have never had a pup come up any further than 6 inches away from any stalk.i never got a water sucker,they all seem to come directly from the same corm.. the mat is really tight and its hard to separate pups and get corm let alone roots. the flowering base is not so fat either(not as fat as the other cultivars i have)...look at the bottom pic and see how close the stalks are.

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here is a picture of the flower. i made sure to try and get good pics of this thing and document its growth habits. i looked all over the net to try to compare my leaves with some of the photos of banana growers...all i get are pics with severely shreaded leaves. some of the varietes i search for give the same pics...some of the pics show only the flower or the fruit..


here is a wide shot of the whole plant.im not a pro photographer but i try to get a few good pics. well as you can all can tell by the flower its not basjoo.

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Wow, those leaves are just massive. You must have really slow winds, because they are not shreaded too much.
Good luck on the flower, any chance of surviving the winter? (I mean bunch)

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these leaves seem thicker than any plant i have. they are slow to tear the leaves are thicker shorter and broad. i have a taller banana plant which will tear like tissue paper untill it dries. its probably because the leaves are thinner and longer. they dont really shread like pics i have seen on the net.

as for fruit,my bunch probably wont ripen. usually people in the middle ga area harvest bananas as late as mid november.depending on when we get a hard frost.

this one got a late start because i probably did more harm than good by wrapping it. i had to chop it so low. maybe this time i will cover the top of the p stem not just wrap the sides. maybe the cold wet snow or rain wont get in and rot it out. if i can root the stalk that i separated, i want to experiment with it. last year i had to root the pup i separated from this plant..pups have little or no roots..just get enough corm for the pup to survive and grow roots.

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Dwarf Orinoco is what I was going to suggest as well.

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I'm not saying it is not DO, but my RP does not have red spots--that flower should help identify it.

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ok i was narrowing it down to dwarf o ... but untill i see some fruit im not throwing out raja puri sure do appreciate that comment..like i said before it does seem to have wide leaves dosent it?

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here are a few pics of the terminal bud opening. female flowers showing here.

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My raja puri is about the same height, but the pstems are so fat that you can't get BOTH hands around them. They are growing in the shade too.

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i will need to take a little longer to i.d. but i feel confident that i will get it... soon after the fruit is fully set and and they get some shape. i'll see how the plant behaves. then i will take a good guess. :2758:

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orinoco




Raja Puri

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Hey ron hows the plant doin? Bananas getting big yet?

Re: opinions
 

nope they are not getting really big..i think its dwarf orinoco the fruits are real small and has sharp angles.
the p stem on the fruiting plant and all others was under 5 feet tall.. approx 4 1/2 feet for the fruiting plant.