Chironex

The issue is that AeAe's are somatic chimeras, not genetic. They are classified as periclinal chimeras. The challenge lies in the cellular structure of the cells causing the unique variegation. Due to their arrangement, tissue culturing of this banana has proven to be incapable of reproducing the variegation. Many have tried, only to have what appeared to be variegated leaves revert back to all green. Some become all white, that are incapable of self-sustaining photosynthesis.

If you use the search button and type in: periclinal
You should find these threads for a more detailed analysis of the challenges. I believe BigDog had a very complete post with comments from Gabe, and others.

Whomever unlocks the secret of being able to TC the AeAe and remain phenotypic, will be sitting on a gold mine!

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Scot

Dalmatiansoap

Yeap,
kind of plant I can only dream on....

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https://abnb.me/AXJty518xib

Kylie2x

That alone will help keep the price up...LOL
I talked to Martha today~mgmg9495 and she does have some that are not listed on ebay and will indeed sell them for a flat rate.. just FYI...

Ueberwinden

As for bringing plants back from Hawaii, you take plants out I have done it. Inspection is required, and you would be advised to check with your local extension office before trying it. Each region of the U.S. is different. I can ship just about anything into my region, we really don't have strict agriculture requirements. But I shipped bananas to Arizona last year and they have their own requirements. I also shipped Brugmansia in to Sonoma, California and there are different requirements depending on the time of the year. It just happened to be late summer/early fall and during this time of the year they require a bettle certificate. So you can't just move plants from state to state. I received a call from the USDA in California on a Saturday inquiring if I had that beetle certificate so they could forward the shipment on. I found out that in that region the post office works hand in hand with the USDA, but I'm sure you can understand why. They can also enforce stiff fines if they so choose, but I have never heard of any being issued. I have received a letter of interception from a package coming to be from Thailand. It was taken in San Francisco and destroyed. So be careful not to "waste" perfectly good plants and get in trouble. Call the USDA and find out their requirements.

Michael

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White Horticulture
Rare, Tropical, Unique

momoese

Maybe a contest where the winner/s get to pay that nice low price for a pup?

Gabe15

That's mostly true, but they were slightly successful. After 4 years of culturing they got 7 stable variegated plants. I have also heard other stories of success, but with interesting results. So far form what I have gathered is that it's possible, but actually easier and cheaper to grow the pups out in this case. It's possible that a technique could be discovered to overcome the issues too, but its hard to experiment without much material.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.