Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

FHIA-2 MONA LISA BANANA PLANT - EXTREMELY LIMITED - 2 SIZES AVAILABLE

According to Oasis tropical in springhill Florida , they have 22 Mona lisa TC.
Now if im correct some members had horrible situations with this nursery.

Can anyone verify that the have the real deal ?.
I would like to order afew but dont want to receive BS TC from these folks.

Thanks Ed..

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Ed --- you would be better off dealing with a nursery like Going Bananas.

Or Encanto farms - Jon, who used to post on the forum, is the owner.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

My Mona Lisa from Going Bananas is the second slowest plant I have.

Is there a better source?
Yes I see California.
Is pitandiego getting any better performance ?

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Ed, what characteristics do you find desirable about the Mona Lisa?

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

This is an excellent question.

I only procured Fhia 2 for the purpose of propogating for resale.
Having things grow at 1/2 speed is annoying, the honeymoon is over.

Where are you at edzone9 ?

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

You need to quit peeing on it and give it some ash.. Mine is catching my SH3640, Goldfinger I have in a pot.. :^)

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

In the PR study

avg bunch wt.
01 - 52.1 lbs
02- 32.1 lbs


plant to harvest
01 - 339 days
02 - 331 days


days to fill
01 - 103 days
02 - 103 days

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

With all due respect, and I know you're trying to be funny, I've only applied urine to that one through fertigation.
None of my other bananas are complaining at the care they receive, all on the same fertigation schedule and zone.
Same prep on the pits, same amount of horse dook.

namwah and Fhia 17 on either side are making regular growth and on time to flower in the spring, if not this fall.
Fhia 2 is looking like NEXT fall.
Runt of the litter.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Kieth ;

I guess all the hype , pertaining to the great taste,disease resistance .
So im curious , but if its a slow grower than im not interested .

Thanks all for the Help , Ill stik to the 3640 , the one i got from dan is growing at a rapid pace & its a great looking plant !.

Cant wait to buy more 3640's..:08:

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Dan sent you a PM about the 3640's i still want them :08:

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

I don't recall reading anything reliable suggesting the FHIA's taste better

than their parents, and doubt the Mona Lisa tastes better than a Williams.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

St Augustine Florida ..

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Glad to hear your 3640 is winning.

According to Keith's numbers the #2 should be on par with other plants.
Yet IIRC Nick said his #2 is also slow.

What gives ?


Oof, St Augustine, so close yet so far.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

True true.

In reading about Fhia cultivars I was surprised to see that local peoples preferred familiar tasting bananas and that anything " different tasting " met with resistance, regardless of other characteristics.
Hence Fhia bananas would have to taste similar to cultivars they intended to replace.

At least this is my educated guess .

Sorry about double post, can't copy/paste quote into first.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

I believe their goal is disease resistance, increase yield, and acceptable taste.

I never read anything about trying to improve the taste.

Most here rate a banana on cold tolerance, speed, taste, and maybe yield.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

My guess is climate and growing conditions, the study in Fiji 2010 had better results than PR.

It really doesn't matter how well a banana grows in a different climate than yours, unless you're

planning on moving there. That is why I think there should be an easily accessible database on

the Org, where members can pool their individual data for the benefit of other members in a similar climate.

This idea would not benefit me, I have the UPR data, but it sure would help many other members.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

The one FHIA-02 (Mona Lisa) I have (from Going Bananas) looks like the real deal, but is also one of my slowest growers. Yes, probably something about the climate, as all AA and AAA varieties I have are slow for me. That said, I only have one of these in my small yard, and it's not in a great spot, so I have a poorly designed and unreplicated experiment. Not much better than hearsay. Which I think would be the problem with an Org database -- poor study design, little replication, and probably a lot of misidentified varieties. That said, I'm interested in the concept, but personally would use it with several grains of salt!

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

well said and it should be obvious that most of our members, myself included, are growing under suboptimal conditions.

As Tony pointed out, even ay the individual level.there will be variations.
Even between pups from the same mother.
ie. My row of his moa where conditions are identical for each plant yet bunches have ranged from 25 fingers to 2, right next to each other.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

I believe the concept could be functional with the correct person (Mark) leading the way.

If it was started with a single cultivar with few data points, maybe the flaws could be addressed early

enough for it to be useful.

Mark, you've been growing long enough to have collected an adequate amount of useful data,

but I'm sure there are less experienced members that search the Org. for data that you've entered.

It would be better if it was more easily accessible.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

I found this rookie comment very humorous and sadly inaccurate.

My experiments mainly focus on Root Development, which I believe to be the most important

part of growing bananas. The Pot Experiments are extremely helpful to how I grow in the field.

First, it sets benchmarks on the best that I can achieve, with the goal of growing a

90 % bunch with 10 % of the effort.

The experiments are simple, just coarse sand and a nutrient source.

TBL, useful data is good.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

I agree that it could be a useful tool if done right. The key elements would be somehow being sure the varieties for which data were provided were correctly identified, and having the same data recorded in the same way. For example, some consider a banana to have bloomed when the bud is fully emerged, others record when the first hand is visible.

Re: Mona Lisa Banana Plant.
 

Same plant, same size pot, same nutrient source and rate of application ?

What else ?
Something more specific than zone.