Ae Ae Emergency
 

Hello to everyone, and thanks for accepting me into the forum.
I think the Ae Ae in which I planted is having a problem.I have seen other Ae Ae pics and they have darker green leaves.My plant initially had a good white and green variegation but it seems to be shooting weird colors lately.The plant is in FULL sun in very good organic soil.I feed it regular banana fertilizer every month.
This is my first banana since hurricane Andrew blew away my bananas in 1992 and now I'm trying to start over and I'm a little concerned about this one.Any comments or advice will greatly be appreciated.Here are some pictures....
Albert

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Looks perfectly healthy for a variegated banana plant (keeping in mind they do not grow as well as an all green plant) to me..although the variegation is not consistent with Ae Ae variegation..hmmnn...you sure it is an Ae Ae?

You received it from a reliable source??

Regards

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Yes!,they assured me it is Ae Ae.I bought the plant in a Ft. Myers, FL. from a reputable nursery dealer.Thats why I'm a little :confused: :confused:

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Is Ae Ae supposed to have pink midribs? I thought Ae Ae had different variegation with the grayish parts next to the green. Looks more like another type of variegated banana to me.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

The brown dead areas in the outermost edges indicates a little bit excessive fertilizer application. It can survive that, but I would withhold a little bit fertilizer application.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

It looks OK to me. It looks a bit wrong for Ae Ae, but looks alright as an unidentified variegated banana to me apart from a little bit of damage from the environment. Wind and or rain makes any nanas tatty, and if over fertilized the leaves will be thinner and less resilient because they have grown too fast.

Mind you, photos often distort colours, so I guess it could be AeAe if it looks different to your eye than on the photo.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Good call Mr Bungalow....I would bet less than even odds this is not an Ae Ae..pink midrib...unless this is some type of sport....look at the attached...

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Its a beautifyl banana, but I agree, my Ae Ae has never had pink midribs.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

B-boat

Remembered seeing this thing before. Found a pic of it in the Gardenweb forum posted by eggo, Mar 23, 07. It's a variegated Nam Wah.



Check out the same green/white radial pattern running straight out from midrib to leaf edge. Ae Ae is splotchy, like an artist's pallet. Also has same pinkish midrib. My Ae Ae doesn't have either of these characteristics.



Print pics of each and go beat on the nursery - good luck.

It's is so frustrating to deal with nursery folks that know only how to sell plants. Just bought a Jaboticaba tree from a longtime nursery family and they were surprised to see the list of different varieties of Jabbo's. He said "uhhh....I thought there was only one kind".

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

This a picture I found from someones photo gallery "bigdog".Looks like pinkish midribs:confused: :confused: .

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Mmmm! But that looks more like AeAe markings normally look.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

I miss those Lime Zingers. Every one of them disintigrated in the paper bag I had them in under the house. A real shame. Oh well.

I think yours looks different than AeAe also. Never seen yellowish variegation from an AeAe. Really nice-looking plant you have there though!

Mine does have pinkish midribs, especially when placed in full sun.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Although the coloring is not consistant with Ae Ae at all, the morphology is. And as the other members have stated, it looks like a common type of variegation found on other Musa. So perhaps it could be an Ae Ae sport? Somatic mutation could be the culprit, this is how just a handful of original plants became the hundreds of varieties we know today, in fact that is how Ae Ae came to be, so it would not be crazy to consider the possibility of a change in variegation pattern from one generation to the next.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Yes, There have been cases of pups of most of the variegated bananas reverting back completely to normal green, whilst other pups of the same parent plant are variegated like the parent. There are many half way reversions back with a lot of green and some variegation, so I guess a modified variegation is also possible, where some characteristics are passed on and not others.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Actually, after taking some closer looks at the original pictures, I retract my former guess and am now thinking it to not be Ae Ae. Reason? Ae Ae is a AAB, which is mostly acuminata and this shows in the leaf bases, on young plants the leaf bases gradually taper into the petiole and on older ones, although they are more rounded still taper to some degree. On the plant shown, you can see very pronounced rounded leaf bases that to not taper into the petiole at all, this is from balbisiana genes and thus mostly likely it is an ABB variety, you will notice this same character on Saba as well (a common ABB variety), and of course on balbisiana.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Nice!....I think if you add that "Potasium Nitrate" stuff, that should get the GREEN going.I live in Dade county,Fl.,but I dont know where to get that stuff since I dont use it.Good luck!

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

This is quite confusing. There are lots of websites claiming AeAe to be Musa paradisiaca, but Musa paradisiaca is I thought ABB. There are also sites claiming AeAe to be AAB, so does that mean there are two different plants both being sold as AeAe or have people been copying a mistake somewhere and reproducing it all over the place?

Can anyone enlighten me on this anomaly?

In the UK if you try to buy potassium nitrate you risk being viewed a terrorist suspect - not sure about the US? I use urea with a touch of iron and epsom salts to darken leaves.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

hey folks,

Look at the older leaves. They match the eggo pic exactly. Same radial pattern and red midrib. Very white/green form. The much larger new leaves show overfert bloom, and the change in coloration suggests variant development. Boy, a nursery that can sell an Ae Ae match without variation until it's in the ground has got it made, eh? Still INTC not their fault. I'll bet on it.

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

I spoke with the gentlemen owner,luckily!.He assured me it was an Ae Ae pup from a mat that he had,and I do recall seeing some tall Ae Ae looking plants at the his nursery.I am really confused now and a little dissapointed that I may have been taken advantage of.I really would no like to hurt anyones feelings so I will reserve on giving the name of the owner.
SHOULD I CUT THE PLANT??
Albert

Re: Ae Ae Emergency
 

Nooo....it is still a very nice plant..but definitely not an Ae Ae....

There are very few nurseries in Florida that sell Ae Ae...Going Bananas is so far back ordered that they will not take any more orders..the last time I spoke with Don Chafin he grimaced and said they are very hard to propagate/grow....