Originally Posted by mskitty38583 (Post 52247)

lol! ha ha were all nuts to grow nanas in places that they :"arent" suppossed to grow in. dont hide in no cave, come out and stay awhile. newton didnt have any concrete evidence about gravity and hes really qouted now. lol!

Originally Posted by Mauro Gibo (Post 52061)

Hi, damaclese !
Why do people go to Las Vegas? To try their luck, right ? Even knowing that you can't beat a machine, you will still try. And as a result come home dead broke. Well, I've decided to try my luck with this very, very slim chance. Maybe one in a million. To graft a banana pup. I'm really embarassed that I saw a little smoke and thought that it was a big fire. But, still, something inside of me tells me not to get disheartened. Is my experiment a folk tale? I've asked myself a thousand times. To tell you the truth I don't know. But I'll sure find out, by next spring. God willing. I'm sorry to be such a big mouth, I should have done my experiment in silence...
Here is some words that keep me on my track:
"Those who speak know nothing;
Those who know are silent."
These words, I'm told,
Were spoken by Lao-tzu.
If we are to believe that Lao-tzu
Was himself one who knew,
How is it that he wrote a book
Of five thousand words?
This is just an excuse for my big mouth. Thank you for supporting my theory, although there is so slim a chance. Bye, for now let me hide in my cave until I get more concrete proof of my experiment.

Originally Posted by Mauro Gibo (Post 50753)

Today at 10:52 PM
Dear friends and fellow plant growers of the Banana Org. Forum. After weeks and months of meditation in my cave, here, in the Far East I have decided to come back to the forum and expose my mystical experiments, theories and my Taoist phisophy. My theme is yet the same: Grafting Banana Specimens.
First of all, Greetings to everyone !
"Man follows the ways of the Earth,
The Earth follows the ways of Heaven,
Heaven follows the ways of Tao,
Tao follows its own ways."
That means that I will always follow my own way of grafting banana specimens no matter the hardships or contradictory point of views of my fellow botanists through out the world. I would like to repeat the words of the 3 Japanese Nobel Prize winners Mr. Nambu Youichi, Mr. Kobayashi Makoto and Mr. Masukawa Toshihide: "The most important thing to achieve your goal and success is the spirit of never quitting, no matter how difficult your experiment may be!" I intend to follow their teachings and never quit my grafting experiment until I get a new banana cultivar through grafting which still is considered impossible by many botanists and experts in biotechnology. Especially those who dedicate themselves to the tissue culture of the banana plant. Up to now, through my way of grafting banana shoots of different variety I have succeeded only in getting variegated species. I have not yet achieved my goal of getting a new banana cultivar of unchangeable identity. In the former threads I have said that I would not stop bugging the Brazilian Government Controlled Research Centers about my question. Is there really a method of grafting banana plants by the native Brazilians which we yet do not know of? Do the Brazilian farmers have an ancient stone age, simple method of grafting bananas, or not? Here is the second reply of my questions:
" Não existe nada a respeito de enxerto nos manuais técnicos sobre
bananeira. A prática que está referindo, não é enxerto e sim desbaste. A
retirada de brotos evitando a formação de touceira é muito importante,
pois evita competição entre plantas e aumenta o tamanho do cacho da
planta que fica. Existem outras explicações para obtenção de cachos
grandes no Vale da Ribeira. A primeira é que lá se cultiva banana
Nanicão ou Grande Naine que produzem cachos grandes. A segunda é que, em
algumas propriedades faz-se uma boa adubação e menejo da cultura, o que
ajuda a produzir bons cachos." Sorry again, it is in Portuguese not English, but here is a simple translation of the original:
In the Technical Manuals of Propagation Bananas, there is no information about this practice. The practice you have inquired about is called rough-hew. We leave few suckers to avoid grouth competition among them, which is very important, so the banana plants can produce larger bunches of bananas. There are other methods to obtain larger bunches of bananas in the Ribeira Valley, Southern region of Brazil. One of them is that they grow the Nanicao or the Grand Naine cultivar. The other pratice is that they fertilize the soil properly and apply the adequate management for the banana plantation to obtain good and bigger bunches.
I am not yet satisfied with the answers I've got, but I think it is time to stop bugging the Rearch Centers of Brazil. I do not want to annoy them anymore. That, only, I shall quit! But I will still continue my naive experiments for my own satisfaction.
I have decided to return to the forum today and open my big mouth, because I am very happy. I am not afraid of the coming cold winter and my banana specimens aren't either. I checked my plants and saw new suckers coming out of the ground. They are healthy and beautiful. That means that I don't have to wait for the spring to come like a pregnant woman anymore. My beautiful pups were already born, what shall I call them Chironex? Pups, Mutts or Mongrels? Half-breed banana pups?...
I'd like to speak a little about my philosophy: My Tao Te Ching, "The Way of Life":
"Everyone says that my way of life is the way of a simpleton.
Being largely the way of a simpleton is what makes it worth while....
These possessions of a simpleton being the three I choose
And cherish:
To care,
To be fair,
To be humble.
When a man cares he is unafraid,
When he is fair he leaves enough for others,
When he is humble he can grow.
...See how fine the palaces
And see how poor the farms,
How bare the pesants granaries
While gentry wear embroideries
Hiding sharpened arms.
And the more they have the more they seize,
How can there be such men as these
Who never hunger, never thirst,
Yet eat and drink until they burst!
By Lao-tzu, harmony with nature, posted by Mauro Gibo.
I'm sorry, but I have to leave now. My banana babies wait for me. Thank you for taking your precious time to read my thread. Here is an ancient saying from the fareast to my friends of the forum:
Above all, I hope I don't buy the hate of the American ladies, especially the ladies of the forum.
Best things in life: Live in an American house, eat Chinese food and have a Japanese lady as a wife.
Worst things in life: Live in a Japanese house, eat British food and have an American wife.
Please forgive this simpleton with a big big mouth.
Bye for now. Once again, forgive me.

Originally Posted by Richard (Post 55828)

Mauro,

It would be very helpful to all readers if you would dig up your plant and identify which parts of the corm your new pups are propagating from.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by damaclese (Post 55843)

Dear Mauro,
Its so good to hear from you! a delight always thanks for sharing. could we have some pictures of those banana grafts? It would be ever so helpful in the learning process. Funny thing i was just thinking not more then two days ago as to what had happened to you. I was thinking that perhaps we had frightened you away with are interrogations regarding your grafting experiments. Keep posting i find your threads highly interesting. Its nice to have the varied cultural aspects of the different people that post here on the ORG. Chill or be chilled! Paulie

Originally Posted by chong (Post 55830)

Hello again Mauro-san,
Even a picture would be very helpful for us on the outside.

Arigato!

Chong

Originally Posted by Mason (Post 77050)

There has been a lot of debate about if it is possible to graft bananas. If there is some actual proof for either side, could someone please post it.

Originally Posted by chong (Post 77079)

I don't know if there's a way to answer your question. Unfortunately, in this case, at what level do you say that one side or the other is right? Academia might tell you that it's impossible, but people like Mauro say that they've seen indigenous people in Brazil may have been doing it for centuries. From my point of view, I believe that, strictly speaking, there both truths and falsehoods from both sides. The problem is proving facts and to what degree. It would be like answering the question of "If a tree in the forest falls down, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" If you answer, "Yes", or "No", would that be enough? How do you go about proving either one? The truth is that it does, because you can prove it by comparing and reasoning. But under the parameter, "and no one is there to hear it", proving it to be a fact, or non-fact, is impossible. (To differentiate: fact is experienced and/or observed; truth implies revelation which is accepted by reasoning or faith.)

So then, whether grafting bananas is possible or not, boils down to whether you can believe it, or experience it. Having said that, I believe that it is possible.

Originally Posted by Mason (Post 77104)

Well, it wouldn't be hard to prove. If you try it and it works, then it's true, if it doesn't work, it is not true. Personally, I have never heard of anyone doing this and I see nothing about on the internet.