Harvested Musa ingens suckers

[MichaelB]

 

Just wanted to share some pictures of Musa ingens suckers. Harvested 6 new suckers off a single bulb I planted last April. Leaving this last one in the ground. Amazing how quick and large this type gets. 

 

 

 

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

Very nicely grown and healthy suckers. Musa ingens has a reputation for being hard to grow, and harder to sprout seed and grow out the seedlings, especially in a hot climate like Georgia, USA. Do you know it is truly Musa ingens? I tried the real seeds, sent by one of the researchers that visited and published info and pictures of it online but had no luck. If it is the real M. ingens I would like to buy a rhizome to try here in coastal North Carolina. 

[dalmatiansoap]

Agree, it's almost like Holy Grail search. What's seed source

[lrnasd90]

I too have tried to grow the seeds with zero luck.  Do you have any picture of the main plant?  If you are selling I would certainly be interested as well.  I always thought it was too hot to grow them where I live, but GA is pretty warm.  

[MichaelB]

Well I am not certain. I purchased the bulb off eBay from Puerto Rico, and the seller hasn’t had any listings in a long time. While I can’t be certain of the type, what I can say is this thing grows with a beastliness I have never seen from any other banana. It may be hard to tell from the picture, but the longer sucker is almost 1.5 feet in length before the first true leaf emerged. Its base is also as big around as my wrist.

During the peak of last summer, at its fastest rate, it was putting out a full new 3 ft leaf every 3-4 days. I was also keeping it meticulously watered during last summers heat wave.

The tree did not get very tall at all, about 6 feet, but I assumed this was due to its first year status along with it being out of its tropical origin. I figured its second year would see taller growth.

If it’s not musa ingens, I would love to know what it is. Looking back, I don’t have any pictures older than two months after planting the leafless bulb. But this year I will definitely follow up on this topic with updates/pictures.

 

Lastly, I’ll have to think about the suckers. If not this year definitely next year. Half of the suckers were much smaller, some of which I discovered after rinsing the red clay from the larger ones I was targeting. So if the smaller ones survive, I may let them go.

[Jeff zone 8 N.C.]

You sure did do a good job of growing your banana. Keep up the good work. I am no expert and do not claim to be able to Identify bananas but am going to guess it is not Musa ingens. But I admit I could be wrong as there is not a ton of info on the internet that is not just a repeating of other peoples previously posted info and there could be different types of ingens or even hybrids (which would not be an ingens).  The give aways are, at least from pictures on the net, M. ingens does not have red blotches in the leaf. as your pic shows. Also the plant in your pic holds it's leaves horizontally and ingens holds them upright.  Probably some others on here can give you a better idea of what you have.  Don't feel bad about having the wrong I.D. as there are tons of misidentified bananas out there and has been for many decades at least. Even some very reputable growers can end up with the wrong ID.

[MichaelB]

Yeah after looking up more M. ingens pictures online, I think I agree with you. I will post more detailed pictures later this season and maybe someone will weigh in on what they think it is. 

[MichaelB]

I am leaning toward it being a type of Plantain.