Truly What?!?!
 

Last year I bought a Truly Tiny Banana plant from Well Spring. It did very well for me all summer long and managed winter inside by the window like a champ--my Orinoco didn't do nearly as well. This spring (I must remind myself that we still have a few days to go before summer), I was surprised to see tell-tale red on the leaves. I mentally refiled it under "Super Dwarf Cavendish" and that's ok. Its job is to look nice in a big pot in the yard, while still being small, not to be anything specific.

This past April, I had $10 in Amazon Gift Certificates burning a hole in my pocket and I had a second barrel bottom planter to fill with a mini banana plant, so I found a seller on Amazon selling Truly Tiny Banana plants for under $10, price + shipping (StrawberryDeliveryDotCom, for reference, spelled just like that). Much to my surprise, I opened the box to find two banana plants instead of one, both tiny tc plants, naturally, with roots that wouldn't fill a thimble. I called to ask if my order had been mixed up with somebody else's and was told that they sent two due to the small size of the plants.

April 28 was the day I opened the box. Today, they are about (or a little over) 18 inches tall. They are bigger than last year's sdc "Truly Tiny" and bigger than my tc Veinte Cohol, which is close to a month older. (In the Veinte Cohol's defense, it was attacked by a duck.) Presently both Truly Tiny plants are in the same planter, but I intend to fix that as soon as I can get a third barrel bottom planter in that size.

I read on the Wiki that the Brazilian Truly Tiny Banana plants have a "vigorous growth habit," but I think I need some reassurance that my two little plants are what they are supposed to be and that I won't have a 25 ft monster that I can't bring in during the winter.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Those 2 are going to need another month or 2 to get enough corm to show their true self.. Now they still look like a typical T/C.. :^)

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Ok. I will keep an eye on them for another month and post more pics in July or August. :lurk:

Of course, if by August, they are six feet tall and growing, we'll know they are Truly Something Else. :D

Meanwhile, I'm floored about how fast they are growing. They are passing everything I have. I'm surprised they aren't making vroom noises and bothering the neighbors. (Six weeks or so out of the shipping box and they are taller than, though not as thick as, the "Truly Tiny" I bought last year.)

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

My Truly Tiny keeps putting leaves out and is still only about a foot tall. It is full of leaves that just don't seem to add to the height of the plant. Truly Tiny. I've had it for over two years now, it also just sprouted a pup about 3 weeks ago.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Does it/did it have the red on the leaves like my other Truly Tiny?

This is the one I got from Wellspring last year:



It's grown quite a bit from it's tiny tc starter plant size, but slowly, not the way the other two are growing at all.

When it comes to the two in the photo on my first post, I've been hoping quite seriously that I didn't get somebody else's plants in since I first opened the box and found two instead of one. Yeah, I know...I'd be the first person ever to complain about getting a second banana...

It's just that I've been so careful when it comes to making sure everything I get will fit inside my house in the winter and this is getting weird.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Mine doesn't have any red in it. But if it was outside in direct sunlight, maybe it would. It just seems happy sitting in my east window getting morning sun.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

The window may be the reason for its slow growth. I boot mine out of the house in the springtime once it gets warm enough, but if yours seems happy and you're happy with the growth rate, I wouldn't change anything.

My older Truly Tiny didn't have any red until this year. From what I read on the wiki, it sounds like there are two cultivars being sold under the name and one is a Super Dwarf Cavendish. That's why I'm assuming the one with the red leaves is SDC, since that's a Cavendish trait. I just know nothing about the other cultivar from the Dwarf Brazilian. It would be nice if I had that, but nothing about the two new Truly Tiny plants seems Dwarfy to me.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

The center spines on the leaves of my two mystery bananas (Truly Tiny?) are turning red. Nothing else on them seems to be.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Are the petioles open or closed?

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

The petioles are very short at present, so there isn't much to look at--I imagine because the plant is so young. They look to be open, though, from what I can see.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

If it helps, I've seen the seller carrying Truly Tiny (what I ordered), Basjoo, and Raja Puri. Perhaps others, but I can't verify what others right now.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

First one looks like basjoo or rp, second looks like sdc or maybe dc

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

So like I thought to begin with, they sent me the wrong order. Rather than fix it when I immediately called, they made up some excuse for why there were more trees in the box than there should have been. (This was a different seller than the one who sold me the SDC as a Truly Tiny last year.)

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Dont hold me to that 100%, first pic could be a tt, but it already looks pretty stretched between leaves.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Ok. I'll hang on a little longer before I become Truly Worried about how to fit these in the house in a few months.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

I wound up under-watering a little bit during the worst of the beginning of our dog days (2x per day was not enough). Plus, we have some leaf burn (the uv was so bad one weekend, my lettuce and cucumbers also burned up). I moved all my bananas to the protection of the porch and all have been recovering nicely over the last two weeks.

But...between the time I posted those pictures and the beginning of the dog days, we had a strong change in the growth habit of the two Truly Tiny plants. Leaves are growing closer together and the red has gone away from the center spine. I don't think the two of them have increased in actual height all that much from the posting of the original picture. Not the way they grew after I first potted them.

In a leaf or two, I'll post more pics. I'd rather the sunburn go away first.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

A year later and the bananas don't look that different from the pics I posted. I'd update with new pics, but the camera isn't working. The SDC Truly Tiny is starting to pup. The mystery twins have pretty much stopped growing. I may need to repot. I never got a new half barrel, but I may have the big one because my Veinte Cohol failed in the last two weeks it was inside for the winter. I forgot to turn the heater on just one time and I couldn't stop my beautiful 5 ft plant turning to mush. I'm waiting to see if the corm will give me any pups before I do anything drastic.

I still see red on the center leaf spines of the mystery twins. (Editing to note that rereading this thread, the red went away by August last year so it might have something to do with adjusting to light?) No splotches on the leaves and no red on the pseudo stem. I swear I saw a banana like that the other day, but I don't see one in my browser history. It can't be a Rajapuri or Basjoo (the other types the Amazon seller carried) because of those red spines. At the same time, it's not any of the flavors of Truly Tiny out there. (If the red stays.)

Any ideas? Also, any thoughts on what I should replace my Veinte Cool with? I'm half thinking Dwarf Cavendish or Williams Hybrid, because the SDC pretty much said, "Oh, you left the heater off? I didn't notice." Same with the mystery twins. The Veinte Cool took it too personally.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

Just by looking at the pics, they almost look like Basjoo to me. You'll know soon that's for sure.

Re: Truly What?!?!
 

They certainly shot up quickly in their first few months, but they've been 2ft for a while now. But Basjoo is possible. I never really accepted that the order was right when I ordered one and got two. I think somebody who ordered two of something else got one Truly Tiny.