Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Hi all! So I acquired a mystery pup from Akula last year. He had limited info on it, but had fruited it once. I believe he thought the fruits looked similar to Tu'u ghia, but he said they were very small. The one standout of this plant, is it has very long and very narrow leaves.. especially when young.Ive had leaves on this plant oveer 10 ft long, and they often break easily. The pups best represent this trait, and look like sword sucker leaves well into 5/6 ft of pstem. Ive enclosed some photos to start this process, and the flower should reveal more this week. The plant flowered at exactly 10ft of pstem, with a narrow trunk of 8inches in diameter. This plant also made it through several nights in the 20s this year with no protection whatsoever.




Long narrow leaves into maturity


Flowered at 10ft of Pstem. Elongated flower


Open petiole with a hint of red on the edge.




The pup in the foreground is nearly 6 ft of stem and exhibits the narrow leaves best.


Ok guys.. what do you think?

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Cool find, hopefully you can figure it out and it tastes as good as Tu'u ghia is supposed to.

good luck.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thank you! Anyone else have an idea? Lots of smart folks on here!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

I dont personally know, but its a beauty. Kind of looks like an all green version of Rose.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Flavor report?

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Doesnt look like Tuu Gia so far, wait until all the fruit is done showing at least before posting another photo, and of course leave the male bud on.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks Gabe. Are the skinny leaves a trait of any musa/family that you know of? Thanks again.. will post a photo when its set fruit.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Its just now fruiting so dont know yet. Akula said the bananas were very good the one time he fruited his, but i believe he said they were very small.. could have been growing conditions etc.
Donald, feel free to chime in here with any info!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

I harvested a mid to late September flower that was not fully developed but edible. Fingers at harvest were small and curvy and the fruit when peeled looked like the banana equivalent of baby corn. Perfect in every way but small. Taste was excellent. The peel when yellow and at peak flavor was noticeably thick when compared with a namwa.

A few pics of my bunch from this plant:









I sent a pup to Ty Taylor to grow and help identify it but he never got back to me and his participation in the .org dropped about that time. Maybe Ty will can add something helpful if he comes across this thread.

Smeash got his flower more than a month earlier than mine so hopefully he will get better quality fruit and can get better information from letting the bud run. I cut the bud after about a month in order to secure the fruit.

I think Smeash has a more favorable micro-climate going on at his place than mine as this plant is the weakest of my plants during the winter months and has shown much more winter damage than my other plants and that's using heavy frost cloth, Christmas lights, etc.

I got the original pup from Just Fruit and Exotics as a Raja Puri. It was a good size pup and not a TC. Obviously not a RP.

Hopefully with Gabe's help we can get a good ID this time around or at least narrow it down to a couple reasonable possibilities.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks for sharing Akula! Very interesting

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thank you Donald! Great info!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Gotta love a good mystery!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe? UPDATED!
 

Ok so I have let the bud run a good bit. Bananas are almost curved in a pinwheel format.Lots of spacing between sets of hands. Small fruit. Clean rachis.. white and yellow male flowers. Any guesses Gabe?

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Great documentation Seth!

The peduncle/bunch sticks out at an angle from the pstem rather than hanging down which should be an identifier. This was also present on my bunch. Bananas were curvy too and as I recall got more curvy as they filled/matured.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

I gotta raise my hardiness zone...

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks Donald! The only thing ive seen remotely similar is monkey fingers.. but not quite right for that either i dont think!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Hey Gabe! Don't forget this one!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks for the bump Donald.. I PM'd him as well when I updated the thread but didnt get a response. Maybe he's as stumped as we are!

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

It could be a Raja puri that mutated...

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

The closest thing I can figure is 'Brazilian', but there are a few things a little off about it. Hard to tell if those off-traits are environmental, or due to being a mutated off-type from tissue culture. If I had to choose one I'd say a tissue culture off-type is to blame for some it's weirdness regardless of base cultivar. But without knowing its exact origin it's hard to pinpoint what the base cultivar is, but I'd still lean towards 'Brazilian' or a close relative.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Does this mean Akula & Smeash get to name it? :nanadrink:

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

I was watching mine closely but sadly lost it this past winter. We had the coldest winter in history here in TX add 2 weeks with no power and I lost a few varieties.

I was reading my notes and I was really leaning towards FHIA-18 off type on this one. I know it was being tissue cultured at the time and would fit pretty well. With its pome genetics it would fit in with what Gabe thinks also.

I would love to replace mine and continue comparing it when one of you get an extra pup. Shoot me an email. I would be happy to buy one or trade for it.

Thanks
Ty

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks Gabe! Are the narrow leaves a prevalent trait on any other species that you are aware of?

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Thanks Ty.. good to see you back on here posting. That Texas storm was terrible and something I hope does not repeat itself! I would be glad to send you a pup. PM me your info and i'll get one out to you.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

I too would love to get a pup. I can pay for it, or do a trade.

Re: Mystery Musa! Gabe?
 

Unusually narrow leaves isn't a typical trait on edible cultivars, but can be a symptom of off-type mutation.