geissene

Hi everyone

I just wanted to share another success story. At the end of May, I received a few corms from PR Giants. He was very helpful and explained to me the process of rooting bare corms. Basically don't overwater, give them plenty of warmth, occasionally check for root growth, and no sunlight is needed initially.

I know that many people on this website use all kinds of special soils and love rooting plants in sand but I decided to see how they would fare in generic topsoil which I had in abundance from a previous yard project.

Here we are, a month and a half later and all the plants have nice fresh growth. Perhaps I didn't break any speed records but I really don't want these plants getting too big until next year since they will have to come indoors over winter.

Hope everyone has a productive summer!

Erik G



Corms:


Mid-July Growth

Manini:


Patupi:


Raja Puri:


Namwah:


Viente Cohol:

sputinc7

They are just a plant. If you put them in some kind of loose dirt and don't drown them, they will grow. Maybe some ways are better than others, but healthy corms will sprout if treated like a plant. The main advantage that I see from planting corms in sand in pots at first is ease of checking for rot and growth.
Kudos for being your own person and going your own way. (and admitting it) If it works, it ain't wrong.

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If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

PR-Giants

Most bananas can tolerate being planted in many different mediums, so my comments are focused mainly on the variegated corm.

I grow thousands of these plants and all plants being shipped are planted in a generic potting mix because of the lower weight for shipping. My loss rate in this generic potting mix due to rotting was about 35%, those numbers came down substantially after switching to the AGP pots but it's still extremely high when compared to the near 0% loss rate using sand. Many of the rotting bananas from the generic potting mix can be saved after a thorough cleaning and replanting in sand. Now there are much better reasons for using sand other than just the loss rate but most folks only concentrate on clearing the first hurdle.

Many times folks can get a better understanding by looking at photos. I just took this and it shows a banana that had failed in the generic potting mix was then cleaned and transferred to sand about a month ago to recover. It's recovery was evident this morning when it showed new growth. Soon this beautiful banana plant will get one more opportunity in the generic potting mix.

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PR-Giants

Looking great, congratulations.

This is what it looked like a few days before you got it.

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geissene

Thanks everyone!

Wow, that is a wonderful recovery for a plant. Totally agree that proper soil is advantageous. If my plant started to look that bad, I was going to switch soils.

I am really surprised by how much less white there is on my new leaves compared to how it looked before in that photo. Less white is good since then I won't kill it from sunburn! haha

Nature is amazing!

drobbins

Nice looking plants, congrats on getting them started.
I'm considerably south of you in North Carolina, I'm curious what you're going to do with them in the winter once they get big. So far I've only messed with basjoo which can survive my winters but I might want to try something else.

Dave

geissene

Thanks Dave!

That is a good question, and I'm still working on a final overwinter plan.

Most of my pups will be about 3 foot tall when the first frost hits my area. I can then put the pups into 5 /10 gal pots and bring them inside. I will try to juggle keeping 4 or 5 pups in a 'sustain' condition (not growing fast but also not dying). I have a small grow light (300W LED) and also have a large window with good sun exposure in winter where I can fit 2 pups. I may rotate the plants between the window & grow lamp postions every week. From my experience, don't expect a lot of growth indoors.

With plants that are 5 feet and up, I will try storing bare root in my unheated basement. I might even leave one non-basjoo oustide if I have enough insulation to attempt covering it.

Last year, I managed to keep a dwarf orinoco, velutina, and viente cohol alive with the sustain method. I also had a larger dwarf orinoco survive bare root storage in my basement.

Thankfully most of the plants pup freely so I will have extras to 'experiment' with.

Regards,

Erik G