Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

My weather banner is not broken. It is sometimes off a few degrees due to a delay in the reporting station and the location of that station is usually a bit cooler during the day than my place. The banner presently shows 71F but I am actually 75F. A cooler day than normal, but I'm not complaining!

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

24th July to 9th August added.

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Hi Jack :). Just took time to go back through the thread. Been Very busy with new stuff here. PK-3 seems to have some pretty good roots despite the ant attack. Didn't see pics of the top, though. Has it leafed any, yet?
BTW: Congratulations on an outstanding thread :) ! It's been a real education, so far!
And PK-2 & PK-1 are looking awesome, great work!
Haven't seen recent pics for PK-4. Did it make it?

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

PK-3 is in the greenhouse, it had no top and so I decided to try one propagation technique on it. We'll see, how it works, in the worst case, nothing bad will happen.
PK-4 rotted. :(

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Sorry to hear about PK-4 :(. But for the condition the corms were in upon arrival, I'd say you've done an incredible job :drum: :) !! Best of luck on PK-3. Never realized ants could be so destructive to a nanner & we've got lots of ants here.... If I see any, think I'll use your diplomatic method for rapid relocations ;) !

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Oh yeah, I never gave nr.4 that much of a chance, but I hoped for the best. It had no roots and dare I say it no corm. It was bound to die sooner or later. Now I just have to make sure that the PK-3 won't rot either, as it is now wide open and kept in humid environment.

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Thanks for the update, I look forward to see how they do. If I were you I'd work out a future trade with marenmar for the "holy grail". (assuming you guys can ship to each other).

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Everything was taken care of. :D Marguerite also has some other grails. ;) It is cool how everyone of us from Europe has something unique and different, we can swap and swap and swap all over again. :D And the only thing we won't have are those cultivars grown abroad (Californias, FHIAs...)

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

oh good, I'll have to take some pics tonight (just hit 100F on thermometer in dappled shade here, this is always hottest part of the day. Have all the Ca.'s, as well as FHIA 1 " Goldfinger" and a couple if FHIA 23's their attempt at a Gros Michel type. I might not need both of those in a week or so, more on that later.:waving:

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

I've heard (from tropical growers), that FHIA bananas are inferior to any plantain grown widely in the topic, because they have high yields despite good quality of fruit and therefore local pantains are much more preferred by the locals. Not only because of superior taste. Dunno.

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

The two I mentioned aren't plantains goldfinger is a finger banana and the other the GM imitation. Both are highly touted . I'll know when I get fruit.

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

I believe that any homegrown banana will test exquisitelly. :D But in general this is what most of the people from tropical market say. Except Hundurans of course. ;)

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

*bump*

Picture Update ?! :bunchonanas:

:-D

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

OK, update there, sorry guys, I don't have much time these days. :(

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

I know youre Very busy so Thanx for the update :) !! That's some great growth for one summer! Didnt see PK-3 though. Is it still alive? Although, shouldn't matter much with 2 plants as big & healthy as PK-1 & PK-2 are. You've done an outstanding job :) !!
You seemed concerned with growth stopping. A similar thing happens with Gingko Biloba trees. It's normal for them to put on a lot of new growth, one year, then no growth the next year - even under identical growing conditions. Nobody has found an explanation for that, either. Gingkos have been around since the Jurassic period. Strange how some plants act.
I'd say good luck But what you got was more from skill & experience. Super job, hope the weather & stuff works out great for you!!

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Thanks Eric, I hope so too, but nights are getting chilly already, just like yours, so it's one race til I get enough pots. It owuld be maybe foolish to try and overwinter them like this, what is your opinion? PK3 rotted and died, I pulled it out to save the baby, but the rot was there already and removing infected tissue didn't help. :(

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Well, at least that's 2 super healthy ones out of 3 :) !! I'd say "out of 4" but PK-4 didnt stand a chance without roots & about no corm.
If those 2 healthy PKs were mine, I'd probably over-react - I'd pot them up, bring them in, & put them under bright lights in a sunny, warm window. As far as cutting off leaves & over-wintering dormant, I wouldn't be willing to take that chance. I've noticed, from experience, that even in a cool room (10-20 degrees C), potted dormant bananas may lose leaves by spring but seem to have a better chance at re-starting as the weather warms up. Also, unless, the leaves start looking bad, I dont water them cause they're growing slow and I dont wanna risk corm-rot.
I'm no expert but I would (if they were mine) pot them, give them as much light as I possibly could, keep them warm, and give them Very Little water or food till spring. I never risk "dormant" with plants that small.
Btw, I know all about that "Race" :(. Been running my a*s off too :eek: !! Saved my Australian Fern tree, last night, but it had already lost 2 fronds - still has 4 huge healthy ones, though, yay! Will have to rush to save Diefenbachias, nanners, elephant ears, etc.... Got some colder weather moving in :(. Good thing i've got lots of plastic pots!

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

BUMP Jack!
:lurk:
any updates, new pics?

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

Soon. :D THey're breaking the dormancy outside. So far, 0°C has been the lowest low but I dare for more this year. Without any significant problems of course...

Re: Musa 'Pahari Kela' (Hill banana)
 

So, breaking the dormancy... well, time for the update, ay?

First of all, let me apologize to all who have been PMing me and anxiously awaiting any and all progress. I've been a busy bee these past months and had only little time to work in the garden... thus fell ashamed of showing the "progress" my plants've achieved.

Let me however start by some observations:
In April, when the soil was still kinda cold (it wasn't warm at all, bad winter of 2010 in Europe), I was sort of willing to conduct a first test. Hoping for and seeing some low temps in the morning (-3°C ~ 25°F) and highs of 4-6°C or 38-42°F I decided to plant the smaller, weaker, more stunned PK.
Unfortunatelly, during planting, I found out that it's roots were dried up from maybe 65%. Regardless of that I planted the naner in theground and let it grow. Following warm week forced the pup into putting out a new leaf.
However than the horror came. Cold front literally tore the leaf apart and the rest was finished by 2 consecutive days below 0°C or 32°F. I was let the pup be and it came back 1 month later. The P-stem was somewhat mushy, but it wan't rotting (to my surprise). However the plant was so stunned by what I exposed it to, that it grows at snail's pace even today. Still not having sufficient root structure.

Then there are other veggies growing all over the place now, taking necessary nutrients.

Pix will follow, when I clean up the place a lil bit.

And then about the other pup:
It grew strongly in April (kept it inside for nights and during the cold streak even the days) and in May it was planted in front of a south-north wall, facing the south side, along with raspberries.

It's grown nicely up until the heat wave of July came (95+°F). These temps caused PK to stop growing at all and restart the growth once the temps have been cooler.

This leads me to believing, that it's not very suitable to hot summer and cold winter climates.


Pic: (its height can be estimated from those blue things hanging on the wall at 180cm~70in).






No pups. Neither plant has brought any pup, so this limits my experiments a lot. :(