DaveE

Does any one know what year, or approximately what year, Dwarf Orinoco was recognized / Discovered?

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Abnshrek

Yeah, it might be hardy. Did it come from the Orinoco, and what was it crossed with that the fruit isn't as good the taller original?.. Good Q? Dave :^)

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DaveE

Anyone?

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Abnshrek

guess that's a tall order Dave :^) lol going once.......

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Gabe15

Bananas, inherent to their nature, aren't really discovered in the way other plants would be. Any edible banana plant has almost always already been in the possession of someone, and if they spot a mutation, such as dwarfism, they will propagate it. So anything other than modern hybrids or otherwise deliberately created plants are extremely hard/impossible to track down when they came about.

'Dwarf Orinoco' is just a smaller version of a taller Bluggoe subgroup banana. Dwarfism is one of the most common mutations, it was not crossed with anything, and at least in my experience the fruit is the same as the common tall one.

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

DaveE

Gabe,

So it doesn't matter where and when the mutation occurred (Dwarfism) any later plant that displayed the same characteristics as the original mutation would still be named after the original mutation?

I came across what I believe is an Orinoco at a local nursery. It came in with a group of standard size plants last year, but flowered in a 15g-20g pot at approximately 7' tall with half a dozen good sized pups. So, if this is a plant from a standard size Orinoco mat, would it be considered a Dwarf. Or could it have flowered at a lesser height due to environmental stress?

Dave

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jeffreyp

truely tiny is another example, it was a mutation of the tall brazilian banana at the truly tropicals nursery in boynton beach, florida.

Gabe15

Don't get too caught up in the names, they are just labels, and they don't necessarily reflect the true nature of the plant. For every banana that is commonly available, there are countless more closely related varieties, and for each name you know for them, nearly every different place it grows has a different name for it. So a dwarf 'Orinoco' may have arisen multiple times in multiple places, we may be calling them all the same when in fact they are different. But these kinds of things are impossible to track because millions of farmers have been growing billions of bananas for thousands of years.

In the case of your plant, it is in a container so of course its going to be shorter. You cannot compare plants in containers with plants in the ground. True dwarf plants are genetic mutants and will be smaller in any circumstance compared to its larger counterparts.

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

DaveE

Thanks Gabe, that answers my question.

.

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cherokee_greg

My dwarf orinoco

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Greg zone 9 Fresno,CA
http://gardenjot.com/garden/view/1980/Gregs-Banana-Farm

Abnshrek

Here's my Dwarf Orinoco that gets a half day of sun.. :^)

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hammer

very nice banana plant. all of my orincos did not make it during dormacy they rotted when i planted them.

Abnshrek

Hey Dave, I broke out the trusty measuring (I wanted to be just like you) stick and my last leaf was 2 inches shorter than the previous. :^) Another leaf is 3/4's out and we'll see if the trend continues. It has a full 5ft of P-stem. :^)

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DaveE

Lets see how many leaves are reduced in size before the flag. The Orinoco with all the fruit that I came across. Had a reduction of leave size on at least five leaves.

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Abnshrek

Here she is.. :^)

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DaveE

She is looking very good my friend! I have my fingers crossed for you.

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