Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Hey All - So I have absolutely no experience with a flowering banana and I have a couple of questions. Any input whatsoever is more than appreciated.

I got this Dwarf Orinoco last year at the end of summer, overwintered in my garage and put out this spring.

Low and behold, today I noticed a flag leaf (after a very skinny leaf popped out) which I guess would explain why the mother wasn't putting out more regular leaves. The pup seems to be growing quite fast though.

It certainly seems like there isn't enough leaf mass to create the necessary photosynthetic power to put out a flower stalk, let alone fruit. And, unless we have an unusually warm and long last 1/3 of summer, I don't think there is enough time to produce anything of substance even if leaf mass was appropriate.

My questions are thus:
1) are my above assumptions reasonable?
2) Should I leave the mother and just watch what happens (what I am inclined to do), or
3) Should I cut it out now and maybe give more energy to the upcoming pup(s)?
4) Should I just shut up and listen to all of you highly experienced banana growers:-)

I am most interested in the long term performance of the plant, although watching a flower form now would definitely be cool

Thank you very much for any suggestions!!

Big pup is in front of the mother p-stem.



Closer picture of the pups.

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Looks nice and congrats on the flower! I would leave it alone and enjoy it. The main plant won't die back until it gets cold outside.

In the tropics, it takes Orinoco fruit 100+ days to be ready for harvest after flower emergence.

Erik

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Hey Erik - thanks for the input, greatly appreciated. 100 days of appropriate weather from now on is most certainly very unlikely here, however, who knows these days. Maybe I will move it into my greenhouse later in the season and see what happens. Cheers.

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Bananas never cease to put on an engaging show:lurk:

So this is the next thing to come out of this plant after what seems very much like a flag leaf to me.

And you can see what I think is a pre-flag leaf in the third pic, below and to the left of the flag leaf.







Now I don't know really what to expect from this plant, however based on my somewhat limited research, I assumed the next thing to emerge would have been the flower. However, it looks to me like it is another leaf? A post flag leaf??

Is this normal? And, just curiously, what should I expect to emerge from it next?

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

I agree .... this is not normal. The leaf after the flag (???) looks to be a normal leaf; Although the mid rib looks to be extra big. Keep posting pics to the plant. .... I was looking at enlargement of the pics to figure out if the big leaf was in fact after the flag. .... I think something happened to the plant and caused the supposed flag to be a deformed normal leaf. I've never seen this before.

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Thank you. I will post more pics as it progresses.

I must admit, I was very surprised when a 'flag' leaf showed up because I have only had this plant for 10-11 months or so, and a good chunk of that was in the garage with basically no foliage. I am pretty sure (not 100%) it was a pup cut from the mother spring 2019.

Anyway, it will be interesting to watch for the next month or 2. :cool:

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

Hmm.. ill be curious to see as well what emerges!

Re: Potted Dwarf Orinoco flowering question - newbie
 

So, here is the next leaf to emerge, looking more normal but still somewhat unusual?

The tallest leaf in the pic is the 'post flag' previously posted and the one below and to the left is the newest leaf. The 'normal' looking banana in front is the biggest pup in the pot.



You can no longer really see what I originally thought was a flag leaf in this photo as it has mostly dried up.