'Hua Moa' freakazoid sport
 

I remember seeing something like this on eBay awhile back, some messed up 'Hua Moa' tissue culture sport, this seems to be something similar. I found it at a local nursery among a few normal looking 'Hua Moa'. Has anyone else come across these, or something similar?

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New to me. Gabe, ha' come you always come across the cool banana's? You lucky dog.

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strange and very beautiful!

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because he lives in a banana friendly environment....yes gabe you are very lucky!

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Man, I gotta go banana shopping with you Gabe. I only find beat-up half-dead bananas that are nothing special.

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I am actually in Colorado for the summer and found this at a local nursery in Denver!

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Hua Moa in Denver? Holy moley!

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in denver,co? wow! im impressed! its a awesome nana. ive not seen one like it. gabe what is it genetically close to in reference?

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It is a Hawaiian traditional variety, AAB, and very similar to some other Polynesian cooking varieties. It is in the Popo'ulu subgroup of AAB Hawaiian traditional varieties. The other subgroupss are Iholena (3 available in the US) and Maoli ('Aeae' and 'Ele'ele' are both Maoli types).

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Just for comparison, on the right is a normal formed 'Siam Ruby' of the same size, the other 'Hua Moa' at the nursery had the same form as this 'Siam Ruby', with about 3 large leaves.

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Sounds like the effects of hormone growth inducement, under favorable conditions.

The landscape on the outside doesn't look very much like HI. Are you still in CO? I was curious because if you are in CO, I would be impressed that a local nursery would carry Hua Moa there. Usually it's Basjoo, other Cavendish, etc.

Is that a bottle of "Superthrive" on the windowsill to the right?

Re: 'Hua Moa' freakazoid sport
 

see above.

ya, that is Superthrive, I've used it before, not sure if it really does anything, but someone gave it to me so I'll mess with it.

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:bananas_b Leave it to Gabe to find a freakazoid Banana Plant in the top of the Rocky Mountain Range, Dude you truly amaze me with your knowledge and Eye for Bananas. Congrats on the find, and thanks for sharing.

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:2732: Hmmm, I wonder if that thick stemmed leafy creature will reproduce true or if it's a one-timer.

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cool!

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Looks like it got growth regulated

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That's what I thought too. Looks like someone put a little bonzi on it! I thought about doing that with a few of my ornamentals, but the darned stuff costs too much.

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I can assure that this one was growing in the exact same conditions as the others that looked completely normal. To me, it appears to be a sport from TC. In TC, plants will sometimes mutate, this one is displaying some interesting growth traits that lead me to believe it was not caused by an outside factor.

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Gabe,

I got one from a Florida member. He said it was a tissue culture mutant, and there were quite a few of them at a nursery near him. This is the banana that keeps making aerial roots (sp?) He also had one that pupped that was identical. Mine hasn't pupped, but keeps wanting to fall over once it makes those roots along the trunk. It is a really pretty, different looking banana.

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Ever thought of adding soil to the point that the p-bulb is an inch below the soil line? I think the reason it's doing that is that most of the nutrients are on the upper layer of the soil, then below that there is not much nutrients. Or the lower portions of the soil does not get aerated, or conversely, even watered, at all.

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I have potted it lower twice now. It is the only banana that I have had this problem with, so I was thinking it must be something to do with the plant itself....but it could be the potting mix I suppose.

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Gabe, have you gotten any new leaves on your Hua Moa? Are yours growing like a fan - sort of 2 dimensional?

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It's growing fine, but the leaves grow in the double spiral like any normal Musa.

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This is the picture of the other one....posted here a while ago. If you click on it you can read his description. As I recall he said that the nursery where he got it had about maybe 20 of them...he only bought a few.

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Wow, that is weird!:ha:

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I just bought a dwarf 'Giant Tanna' from the owner of that 'Hua Moa' and thought about inquiring into one, but already bought a regular form from Sandy recently. It is pretty cool, though!

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This is just a thought.! Isn't there a condition that develops when you clone from a clone for many generations?. I believe this is called repplicant fading. The genetic material begins to degrade or differentiate from the original geneoms paturn?. For example a human cell can only divide five to seven times then the cell dies this is primarily due to the gene fraing at its ends. If my observations are true this is a good example as to why cloning is a negative in the long run. we are alwas talking about biodiversity
So I asked this question how is Tc synonymous with biodiversity?.
I think it's important that if one is going to go mucking around the genome that we fully understand the nature of these genetic variations. If 60% of the world depends on bananas for their starch this is an important food crop. This may appear not to relate to our little hobby but in fact it does these tissue culture labs are making plants of an inferior genetic quality. Without regard to the consequences to the world's Food Supply. I know this may sound alarmist but really consider the consequences

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It is true that if you keep using the same line you will get an increased rate of "off-type" mutants. However, this is most commonly seen among the retail end of the science that sell to nurseries in bulk. The people who do research or produce the plants for farmers (such as the lab I work for), know this can be a problem and take the needed actions. In our lab, we only subculture a line 5 times. If we run out material, we go collect a fresh field grown sucker before re-culturing any of our old stock that is at its limit. This greatly reduces the occurrence of off-types and keeps our lines uniform.

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thats good to know gabe but not all labs are that scrupulous!