Musa itinerans recent photos
 

I thought I would take some pics and post of my Musa itinerans mat and how it is progressing this year. The largest pseudostem is about 9 feet tall, so I could get a flower next year! That would be fun. The 2nd largest one is about 7 feet tall, so I guess that one could flower next year as well.




Lots of pups this year. I counted 13 the other day. They will break the soil surface, and then some will just sit there for sometimes months. Others will shoot up right away. The mat is starting to fill out nicely! Strangely enough, I STILL haven't had one pup come up in the yard! Just a matter of time though, lol.


Here is my 'India Form' that I planted out this June. It has one nice pup as of this picture. Since then 2 more have popped up.



Definitely 2 of my top 3 favorite bananas...right now anyway!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Looks Great! Are you overwintering those outside?

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

They look great!:woohoonaner:

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Awesome Bananas Dog! Put me down for seeds or a pup of the India form when you have an extra to spare. I have to feed my sickness and the only thing that seems to sate me is rare bananas!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Hi Frank,they look fantastic!
Does the Indian form keep the red midrib when it gets larger?or does it dissapear?

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

You have had some Amazing growth rate their Frank, I am especially interested in the itinerans var. itinerans because I recon that would be well worth a try in the UK what was your lowest winter temp. And haw would you compare it to Basjoo for growth rate and hardiness

Thanks Tony

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Pete, yes I am overwintering these outside. The three largest pseudostems in the picture came back this spring, and 2 of them were completely unprotected. I put a bag of leaves over the biggest one.

Steve, unfortunately the 'India Form' loses most of the red midrib as it gets older. However, I was looking at the newest leaf, and you can still see the red, just not as vivid as on younger plants.

Tony, lowest temperature here at my house was unofficially 7F (twice). Officially, Knoxville recorded somewhere around 10-11F, can't remember which. As of now, I would say that it is at least as hardy as Musa basjoo, and grows faster. This is just a second year mat!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Looking good!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Frank,

I'll have to look at mine when I get home this afternoon. After looking at your pics, I'm not sure mine is var. itenerans afterall. The undersides of the leaves on mine are blushed red like your pics of the India form; however, I do not recall the midrib being so red. Mine is pot-grown so that could account for some of it. I'll try to post a pic of it and let you see what you think. Yours look very nice, though.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

its really beautiful, amazing!
thanks for this beautiful pictures :D

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Scot, it'll be a little while before I'm willing to let one of these go, but I completely understand your addiction, lol. Don't worry, it only gets worse!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

I wish I knew how to quote more than one person in one message. Somehow, that skill has eluded me for many years now, lol.

Brent, the midrib isn't very red at all on the var. itinerans, which is in the first 3 pictures. Sure, you can tell a little bit of red on the underside of the newest leaves, but that fades quickly to green. 'India Form' is the only one that I've seen that has the markings on the top surface of the leaves. I'd be glad to look at a picture.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Beautiful plant and great pics. Congratulations!
Cassie

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Frank,

Here's the one you id'ed for me back in the spring as M. itinerans v. itinerans. Let me know what you think.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

It's definitely Musa itinerans, but I'm really not sure about the variety. I talked with Dr. Hugo Volkaert while in Thailand, and he said that he could show me 20 different varieties of Musa itinerans.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

This is the one I originally purchased as Burmese Blue. Too bad that's not what it is.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Brent, have a look at this it looks the same as yours; I can’t speak German I wonder if its hardy, looks similar to franks too.

Achims Bananen-Forum.de :: Thema anzeigen - Musa itinerans var. guangdongensis -Blaue Burmesische Banane

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

the owner of this plant has his own website Bananenzentrum Karlsruhe - Bananenzentrumand there you will find temperatures till -7°C (19.4°F) for this musa.

an other interesting site will be Bananen, Anregungen u. Tips. with nice and impressing pictures (look for Impressionen >Bilder)

to translate some words use dict.cc | Englisch-Wörterbuch | German Dictionary

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Hi Embudu, I have been looking on German sites for a couple of weeks,
The language is a big barrier but at least the Latin names are the same,
I particularly like the Achims forum its very well presented and the quality of the plants is excellent.
I’m trying to learn a bit of German so hopefully that will help.
Thanks for those two links I’m going to have another look at them tonight.
:bananas_b

Tony

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Some one has just told me about this:woohoonaner:
Here is a Babelfish translation for any one who is interested.:lurk:

Translation result for http://www.bananenhobby.de/Bilder2008.htm

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Ralph's site is excellent, I've traded plants with him a couple of times. glad to see the Germans are as mad as us.

by the way Free Translation and Professional Translation Services from SDL is very useful

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

replace the words Scheinstämme by pseudostems and Umbaung is a misspelling for Umbauung and means shelter or in this case winterprotection. bepflanzt means planted, Stauden is the whole bananaplant or perennials, Sprösslinge can be replaced by shoots, matschig(en) = rotted or muddy, Farbtupfer means spot of color

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Thanks Embudu, It's a bit hard to read because it translates the words and leaves the grammar all back to front but you get the gist so it's better than nothing.
my grammar is back to front anyway:ha:


Tony

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

I've seen those sites before. Ralph is a madman. LOL! One thing I'd like to point out on his site, is that Musa itinerans v. guangdongensis is not 'Burmese Blue'. 'Burmese Blue' is probably not even in cultivation yet, but a few could have it. It grows a pseudostem almost as tall as var. xishuangbannaensis, around 30-35 feet tall. Var. guangdongensis pseudostems top out at around 4.5 meters, according to Hakkinen's description. Another thing, is that var. guangdongensis has a clumping habit, not a rhizomatous habit. The one in the picture on the German forum clearly has a rhizomatous habit.

One other thing...Ralph's Musa itinerans 'Yunnan' banana is actually Musa yunnanensis. He has pictures of it flowering, which made it real easy to ID. Interestingly enough, he has another banana correctly identified as M. yunannense (well, should be yunnanensis) that is flowering as well. It looks identical to the other one!

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Frank its worth pointing out that although in the wild these forest bananas grow very tall because there competing for light, when grown in the US and Europe they will flower at half the recorded height of that in the wild and some times less then that,
For example

In the wild Basjoo will flower on a 5 meter stem some times more, for us 2.5m?
In the wild Yunnanensis 10 meter stem, for us 3 meters. Look at Ralph’s picture it doesn’t look very tall to me.
I bet the same could be said of Xishuangbannaensis whenever we get the chance to try it. I just don’t won’t people to be put of trying them because of the height they attain in the wild

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Hi Frank,
What pictures do you mean exactly, on what page are they?
I am having a little trouble in my collection trying to positively identify my species as I got the tags mixed up last fall,...
So I'm looking for positively ID'd pictures of the species and varieties.
Regards,
Remko.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

You are correct, Tony. We can't expect to get the same height in our temperate areas that they do in the tropics. I think the biggest factors are rain, heat, and humidity. Their rainy seasons are ridiculous! We are lucky to get 2-3 inches of rain in August, and sometimes get less than that. They measure their annual rainfall in meters, lol, whereas we measure in inches. It's not even close. The humidity can frequently be 100%, and temps will stay in the 90s consistently all summer, spring and fall. Then there is the organic matter that falls continuously onto the forest floor, feeding the plants. The soil is usually quite poor in the tropics, with some exceptions, so the plants need this continous supply of organic matter.

Musa yunnanensis won't get 10 meters. It maxes out at about 5 meters in the wild, according to Hakkinen's description. That Ralph got a flower on it is pretty cool! He must've overwintered that in the greenhouse, no? I did notice that it was a fairly small pseudostem to be flowering. Nevertheless, it is definitely M. yunnanensis and not M. itinerans. The male bud is very easily distinguishable from M. itinerans.

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

I got to thinking about this a couple of years ago after a visit to Kew gardens in London Frank, in the Temperate house they have had Basjoo for many years but on my last visit I noticed they had planted two stands of Basjoo outside in front of the temperate house, those inside and the ones outside were all flowering the ones inside were flowering at 3-4 meters but the ones outside were just over 2 meters,about average for outside in the UK.

I got my information on the height of those bananas from the Nature products site, not the best place to gather your information from:ha:

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

Hi Frank, i have used the Babel fish translator to try and find out how Ralfe had protected yunnanensis, But he does'nt mention it ,I would have thought though that he would have kept it frost free somehow.
The translation is'nt perfect but the pictures are exellent.:lurk::nanadrink:

Translation result for http://pflanzen.plusboard.de/musa-yunnanense-bluete-gegen-musa-itinerans-yunnan-bluete-t4863.html

Re: Musa itinerans recent photos
 

on his site Bananenzentrum Karlsruhe - Bananenzentrum you will find an answer Bananenzentrum Karlsruhe - Bilder von meinen Bananen - Bananensaison 2008

by the way Roland updated his site Was zuletzt verändert wurdewith an Maurellii documention and a video of his bananagarden