bananalover

Here are my misi luki came in tody with the free plant. I feel so much better knowing there are good sellers like this one!

tropicalkid

Was it the same seller from the previous event, or another seller?
tropicalkid

bananalover

This was a different seller. The first seller knew I was confused about the plants I had gotten which were really his dwarf cavendish but because I was confused he was going to just let me go on believing they were not his until I finally got it all straight. Finally I said, " Did you send two dwarf cavendish instead of one? Did you send two extra plants and did you just stuff shredded newspaper in between them? If that is you I need a refund." He said yes he "thought" they were his and would give me a refund. Geez, some people.
Anyway, I love this seller here and will buy from him again whenever he has anything I am wanting but sure wouldn't buy from the other again. It pays to treat your customers right if you ever want them to buy again.

Bananavilla

Those 2 plants above are still puney and spindly in my oppinion. I wouldn't consider them "quality". They look like the stuff that bananagarden.com was pawning off on everyone. All stretched out from growing under minimum light conditions.

I would bet my $$ that you are between 3 & 4 years out from a bloom on those two plants. Wanna bet the amount of $$ that you spent on them on it?? lol
Mike

bananalover

I am not sure why you consider them puny. Seems a little bit of a predjudiced opinion if you ask me. Not everyone can buy yours, lol. They look pretty good to me and I don't really care how many years they take to bloom. I don't spend very much at all on my bananas they seem to grow well and without to much work or added fertilizer(I don't use anything expensive). I love to just watch them grow, if I eventually get fruits well that is just an added benefit. I don't need them to be perfect or grow like the best bananas ever grown, I just love how fast they grow and how nice they look. These look real nice to me already. I'm happy and that is all that counts. If anyone would like to know the seller they can email me and I will let them know.

bananalover

Besides, if I grew them under 'better' conditions who is to say that they wouldn't do just fine. They are still pretty young. What is a " quality" plant anyway? One that cost a lot to begin with? Are there " quality" bananas and "cheap" bananas?

JoeReal

For me, quality plants are those that will most likely survive and grow vigorously when I get them. The quicker they grow and the earlier they fruit, that is quality to me.

Poor quality plants are those that would need a lot of baby-sitting, special care and ideal conditions. If given a choice, and their prices, it would depend on what my circumstance and current state of mind, but would gladly go for a higher quality plant if the price is right. When a cultivar is newly acquired in my collection and rare, the most important thing that it is alive when I got it in my hands, and if the quality is poor, I can tide it through using my knowledge and skills in plant growing. I have even made a plant grow out of the worst banana seller that I have ever encountered, these are the sellers from TyTy nursery who shipped to me tiny banana corms that are rotten. I have to build a special chamber to resurrect them from the almost dead conditions. I kept it almost sterile, warm, very humid, and always applied fungicide when trying to grow them. Here's the "Lazarus" chamber that I made: http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/Albu...&a=31143051&f=
I spent more time and resources the financial value of which is several times more than the price difference between high and poor quality plants. But sometimes, I just have to go for the poor quality plants because I love challenges, and when after several tries become successful, that would be a priceless experience.

Unfortunately, not all plant growers are like some of us who would have above-average knowledge and skills, would love challenges of growing them in marginal climates, pushing them above their limits. Surely the poor quality plants would most probably end up quickly in the landfill or compost heap in the hands of average homeowner. Most people would not have patience to wait that long either, nor have the care and time to do the extra special things to care for poor quality plants.

But poor quality plants are inescapable facts of life, life may simply hand you the worst stuff, but you can take the challenge and learn how to properly bring these poor plants to fullness. "Sometimes" I would go for them at a price that they are supposed to be valued, but not always, it just depends if I will be busy with other things at the moment. We have various goals or purposes of growing plants, and sometimes our goals changes with time.

GATrops

JoeReal-What a great design! Thanks for sharing it.

Bananavilla

Joe pretty much touched on everything except also throw in the mislabling factor. How many of you have received little TC sprouts that turned out not being what you ordered? Or you are still waiting and waiting to find out just what they might be if a bloom should ever emerge.

I did the whole gardenweb/online swap thing years ago and I can tell you that I must have sent 3 truck loads of bananas to the dump. Eliminated everything that either didn't bloom when it should have or was just clearly not what I wanted. To me, in a relatively small growing area it is worth the couple extra $ to get a big Fat plant that I know will live and from a trustworthy grower.

Joe, how many plants do you have that aren't what they were supposed to be?

I know what I have and it allows me to quite accurately predict what the plant is going to do. This is especially important when you are growing in a marginal climate to begin with. I guess if you are in south florida and your plants grow on autopilot you might not care and plant out anything and everything, but for me here the piece of mind alone is worth it.

Mike

bananalover

I agree with JoeReal too. However there is no way you can tell just from on picture of a plant if it will grow well or not. I do know these will grow better than those dwarf cavendish I recieved(which was my whole point in posting). Mislabeling can happen with any company and there is no way you will know until later on.
To say that just because I bought them off ebay they might be bad just shows me that you are saying that for some other reason other than what the plants look like. Another member told me that Misi Luki had leaves spaced apart some, that the stem grew between the leaves. Do you have a Misi Luki Bananavilla and do they do this with yours? Maybe the spindely appearance of mine is normal for the species?
Anyway, anyone can see that these are perfectly healthy plants, they may not have cost me $20 but I am very please with them for what I paid for them.
Just so you know, even if they turn out to be another species(which I doubt since I have seen posts from this seller before and he seems to know what he is doing on your own site B-villa)I would still be happy with healthy banana plants for the low price I paid!