Search This Blog

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Bella Has a Peeper

I thought that I had accidentally killed Bella when I cut her in half. It took some time, but she began to grow again. She is still small and a juvenile as evidenced by her red splotches, but she is producing a pup. If you look on the left-hand-side of the photos, you will see a small, green spire. This is the beginnings of a pup, I believe.

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Mystery Banana

I got a little bored, so I decided to see if the mystery bananas were producing roots. What I discovered is that the shoots do not have roots. The large corm that the plants are shooting from has plenty of roots. I had thought to separate the two plants. If I do, I will have to split the large corm in half to make sure that I have enough roots for the shoots to live. As of now, I think that I might leave them both as they are, connected to the large corm. This saves me from having to find two places to locate my bananas. I may leave them in the pot this summer so that I can house them in the out-building during the winter. I guess I'll cut all the leaves off and cut the cigar-leaf in half if the plant grows too tall. The mystery bananas don't seem to be getting much taller. They are still producing leaves, but the leaves are on long, thin petioles which allow the leaves to droop downwards. The lack of erectness of the leaves makes the plant seem to not be getting taller even though the plant is still growing. At present, the bananas have produced 8 leaves. Assuming I can get the plant to produce fruit within 40 leaves, I am 1/5 of the way there. It would be nice if I could get Mystery Banana to fruit next summer.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Mother Plant: I'm hoping for a flower

Mother Plant is growing still. I hope that she will flower and produce bananas soon. I am relatively new to the banana world, so I have been watching videos on YouTube to help me gauge my banana's progress. Mother Plant is in the red pot. The Dwarf Cavendish in the barrel is just starting to flower. The barrel-banana is just a cropped photo from YouTube. I was thinking my Mother Plant is not far behind Barrel-Banana, but Barrel-Banana definitely looks more robust. However, Barrel-Banana has had the advantage of spring and summer sun. Mother Plant is just not venturing outside since temperatures are warming up. The sun will help her to fill out some.