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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 1:09 am
by stevelau1911
Here are the ensete maurelii plants from yesterday, and they are really filling out their pots well. The larger one is already on par in diameter to the one I had back in 2011 by around December which I failed to over-winter due to perhaps lack of light.

They may be short, but the stems exceed 2 inches in diameter.
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Here's the musa basjoo which I intend to move to another spot since the Asian pear trees are already starting to get up above 5ft in height. I broke my steel re-inforced shovel getting the other one out, so I'll have to test how well my steel broad fork works on this one. The corms are over 1ft deep.
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 4:15 pm
by needmore
Steve, here is the one you sent as of this AM

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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 7:30 pm
by stevelau1911
If 2 relatively cool months can do that, it will probably be a monster after another 3 months, and weight a lot. It also appears that they can draw more energy out of the ground as opposed to a 5 gallon pot, so I'll definitely get mine in as soon as it cools down a bit.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sun Jun 23, 2013 10:45 pm
by needmore
Hasn't really been cool here, pretty steady in the 80's for quite a while. That has been outside since the day it arrived, don't recall when that was but there has not been any frost since you shipped it, only in the ground for maybe 3 weeks or so but was in full sun on the deck for the several weeks it has been here.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:10 pm
by needmore
Steve, this basjoo was mush to the ground in early April and come back this much so far from no winter protection.
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 1:47 pm
by Alan_L
Steve: go buy a $30 "breaker bar" from Home Depot or similar. It has a "chisel" on one end and a flat knob on the other. You can pry anything out with this and not risk your more expensive tools.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Mon Jun 24, 2013 2:06 pm
by needmore
I find bananas quite easy to dig but I've heard other people say what a chore it is, I wonder what I'm doing wrong? The ones I dig out are planted in holes I've dug and filled with potting soil so in the fall it is quite simple to plunge the shovel into that soft soil and get under the banana what is causing the severe tool break? Maybe my native clay deflects the roots up to stay in the potting soil but I've dug some very large ones and the roots have never been out of the potting mix.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Wed Jun 26, 2013 2:27 am
by stevelau1911
I have breaker bars, but they just aren't long enough to pry out a banana plant over 1ft deep with roots as far as 2ft deep. I broke my shovel before I get my steel broad fork, and I think this is adequate for taking out a banana of any size.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2013 12:59 am
by JWH
Something not good is happening with both of my basjoos, the last couple leaves have come up with large dead patches, one is coming out now thats really deformed and has lots of dead spots. The weird thing is all the pups look absolutely perfect.

We've had alot of cold and rainy weather after I planted both the basjoos back in early may.

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The pups look great!
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2013 12:36 pm
by Alan_L
stevelau1911 wrote:I have breaker bars, but they just aren't long enough to pry out a banana plant over 1ft deep with roots as far as 2ft deep.
Mine is longer than any of my shovel handles. My point was, if you're prying enough with your shovel to break it, then you should be prying with something like this instead.

Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Thu Jun 27, 2013 11:14 pm
by JWH
Mekong giant is putting out another pup.

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Musa sikkimensis 'bengal tiger' bananas is starting to grow nicely. Beautiful new leaves.
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 12:42 am
by JWH
The maroon color on my Sikkimensis really darkened today. Maybe it was the intense sunlight or heat?

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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Sat Jun 29, 2013 3:28 am
by stevelau1911
I think I found the true limiting factor for my ensete maurelii bananas. They don't look very big however when I picked up the pots, it was like a bowling ball as they have already taken over the pots. I just found it to be very unusual why they would have hardly made any progress in the last 4 weeks, but after taking them out of their pots, it's pretty obvious that they were under-potted already.

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It definitely doesn't look root bound from the base of it, but I knew that there was something wrong when the growth slowed down as it got warmer.
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I think all the rainy weather may have masked the problem, but I noticed that Brad's leaves were getting progressively larger while mine were staying the same size so they went into the ground today.
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 3:56 am
by stevelau1911
Here's a good size to be by the end of June on maurelii. These are a bit over 6ft at the leaf tips. Most of their growth is typically done in July and August so these things can become enormous. I'm guessing that these are on their 3rd season.

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Borneo giants are still relatively small, but they can get enormous by the end of the season too. Unfortunately mine died along with most of the species of elephant ears I had last year.
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Re: Musa mekong giant running banana plant

Posted: Tue Jul 02, 2013 2:16 pm
by Alan_L
Nice planting -- that papyrus I see there can get pretty large by the end of the summer too. Is that a neighbor's garden?