Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

I'm giving it its own thread because I am still astonished at how quickly this monster grew in such short time!

The updated photos were actually taken in late Aug/Early Sept. I just didnt get around to posting at the time.

First pic was taken in May when I got it. As anyone can see , its quite small! Not even a full foot high(?)



Here in July it was about 3 feet?? Or something.




And by August/Sept.......




It's taller than me!

Inside for the cold weather--



FYI, I'm about 5'2 and I'm standing on cushions to make up for the height of the pot!



Practically hitting the ceiling...

Yeah.. WTF? LOL.

If I dissapear ya'll know that plant ate me for fertilizer :lurk: :ha:

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Really nice! I bought one from one of the TC Nurseries in Florida and planted it directly in the ground. It did pretty good this year but just about every leaf got chewed on before it unfurled. The last 1 1/2 leaves were looking marvelous as it was 82 degrees in Charleston thru Thanksgiving. Then Monday, Tuesday and Wed of this week overnight lows were around 30 and the winds were legit gusting to 50 mph which led to a reality check as my banana world came crashing down. It was a sad sight and not just the ensete. I might trim all of the broken and destroyed leaves (all of them), pot it up and bring it inside.

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Just out of interest is it still in the small pot in the third picture down?

If the plant eats you as fertilizer and performs well I think we may all swap to feeding ours human!!

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

is that a little shop of horrors reference?

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Oh nooos! So do you guys get cold(ish) winters? My sister lived in Charleston for a while, but I mainly just heard about the swampy summers.

Have you ever gotten yours to fruit? :)


Yep. The pot is actually huge. It just looks teeny in comparison to the monster :ha: I know I know, that is no excuse, as clearly it needs to be potted up! Which I will do this spring ^-^

:eek: :ha:

Beware of us nanner growers. If you get on our bad side, we will feed you to our hungry plants!

:ropingnaner:

You bet :lurk: ;)

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Great looking plant! What zone are you growing in? Do you use grow lights inside or just light from windows? Thanks for the update!

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Just cold enough to screw me up apparently. So yeah it was in the 80s all the way up to Thanksgiving day. Everything was growing away,, then this past week 3 nights dip in to the low 30s/upper 20s and the wind was atrocious. Really just sent them down the crapper. Now its 75 again.

Charleston is a tease....

And no fruit, really this was my first year really getting serious about these things. I have one or two that might give me some next year.

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Those daytime temps sound wonderful at least ! I wish. lol.

Hey there is this guy on you tube in North Carolina who gets his bananas to fruit. He's posted videos with his little tips and tricks. If you'd like I could post you a link :)

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Sure thing I watch Youtube like it's my job...

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Sandra, you are quite an attractive, woman. The plant is nice too:ha: Looks pretty healthy.

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Sundra, Aaron. Aaron, Sundra....

My work is done here.... ;)

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Whoops, somehow I missed replying to this last time.

I'm in zone 5--with plans to migrate back to FL someday(hopefully soon!) :goteam:

And I use a combination of both grow lights and natural. The Ensete gets some full spectrum light from a regular photo bulb. The others get doses of actual grow lights :)



Lol. :ha:

Here you go :


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qavoXEWbYEc

He has many other videos on his banana plants, and showing their fruits etc. Just do a search "banana" in his playlist. :)

Though I sure did cringe when he was chopping off many of the leaves! However, he does state that he knows people won't like it hahaa.




Aw, thank you :)




.

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Thanks for the link. I have watched ole Lead many times. He's about 100 miles Northwest of me near Columbia. Smart dude but damn a short video is over an hour.....

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

On Thanksgiving mine was looking great, pushing 4' leaves and super healthy, A 3 day cold snap with some 50 mph gust winds later we have:




I grew it from a FHN tissue culture. He and Lou Ferrigno (the plant not Doug and Carrie's neighbor) share the same birthday of June 10, 2020. I was going to dig it up but now plan to just mulch the hell out of it.

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Lol. Yep. Much as I love him, it's like "Dang, dude, you sure do ramble sometimes." :ha:



Ouch X_x

This weekend on mine I discovered a Secret Society of spider mites partying beneath two of the leaves. How they reached LOTR/GOT army sizes in such a short matter of time is beyond me. Do you think they have super powers!!?? I chopped both the leaves off. Now I gotta watch the rest of the plant like a hawk!

Doug and Carrie...it took me a moment. Ah, good ol King of Queens :lurk:

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Yep I had a visit from a spider mite family or two this weekend,they were drawn to the grow light and once found were happily bathing in neem oil mix!!!

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Me too. I've been spraying the remaining leaves with a spray containing neem oil. That sucker is way too huge bring into my shower!

Too bad because I've great luck in the past with plants, just rinsing off the stupid mites in the shower. Wash, rinse, repeat-- several times over a course of a week or so. No more mites :woohoonaner:

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Another update :D

The spider mites got out of control,( :gifs_rojo:mad: ) so I chopped it all the way down, removing all those big beautiful leaves (weep weep) and leaving about 4 or 5 inches of p-stem.)

And...it's doing GREAT. (I admit I was a little surprised it bounced back so easy, especially in the cold dead of winter here lol)


The first pic is about 2 weeks after I chopped it down, growing happily.
The second is about a month or so. It's nearly two feet tall now, including the leaves. :) Yipeee. :goteam:

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Nice! It's well on its way now

Re: Ensete Maurelli Madness
 

Glad to hear and see its doing so well but keep an eye out for those little critters!!!!! I seem to won the mite battle this time.........famous last words....