🍌 B a n a n a s 🍌 ba ba bananas

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

After seeing the Mekong Giant, I wanna give one a shot here. Just need to source some seed.

I've got one growing in a bucket. I bought a pup off of eBay. Man, honestly - banana seeds are so unreliable, the germination rates are garbage when they're fresh, you can't trust anybody. I had 2 sellers block me when I asked how old their seed was. 

Then you've got to get your prep on point. You've got to remember that these seeds are designed to be eaten by, and subsequently, come out of a gorilla's butt. It's hard to duplicate process of being pooped out by a gorilla. I've seen people do stuff like boiling water and then soak seeds in orange juice on top of a heater for a week and there just ain't no way I'm gonna make my whole house smell like prison toilet wine for, at best, 30% germination. Spend the 20 or 30 bucks and buy a pup. Most of these growers are doing tissue culture clones now anyway. 

 

I really want a Musa Nono but they're all created in a lab in Thailand and they're not cheap. 

[Las Palmas Norte]

45 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I've got one growing in a bucket. I bought a pup off of eBay. Man, honestly - banana seeds are so unreliable, the germination rates are garbage when they're fresh, you can't trust anybody. I had 2 sellers block me when I asked how old their seed was. 

Then you've got to get your prep on point. You've got to remember that these seeds are designed to be eaten by, and subsequently, come out of a gorilla's butt. It's hard to duplicate process of being pooped out by a gorilla. I've seen people do stuff like boiling water and then soak seeds in orange juice on top of a heater for a week and there just ain't no way I'm gonna make my whole house smell like prison toilet wine for, at best, 30% germination. Spend the 20 or 30 bucks and buy a pup. Most of these growers are doing tissue culture clones now anyway. 

 

I really want a Musa Nono but they're all created in a lab in Thailand and they're not cheap. 

I seem to recall issues with germination.  Like anything that captures my attention in recent years, I will bide my time. Supply may be scant at best up my way.

[JohnAndSancho]

46 minutes ago, Las Palmas Norte said:

I seem to recall issues with germination.  Like anything that captures my attention in recent years, I will bide my time. Supply may be scant at best up my way.

Yeah, I have no idea how the tarrifs and international crap are affecting y'all. Mine came from a dude on eBay called like sd darkman or something out of San Diego, but I've become a big fan of Wellspring Gardens. Again, you're facing issues I'm not though. But yeah, unless you can reproduce the process of something coming out of a gorilla's butt, pups are the way to go. 

[JLM]

Here's my giants. I assume they are namwahs based on the fruit itself. They seem to be slightly more cold tolerant than cavendish. 

I did some major protection last winter which is the only reason I got to enjoy fruit back in September. It was delicious, never tasted a banana that was so flavorful and sweet before. And they were slightly premature, as the trunk collapsed under the weight of the fruit and I didn't have a proper support in place at the time. 

First pic is from early November, second is from September. I recommend trying this one out, if not for attempting fruit then just for instant thick foliage during the summer.

[happypalms]

Here you John an ornamental banana for you. I wonder how these craftwork beads will travel to a tropical island near you. 

[JohnAndSancho]

1 hour ago, happypalms said:

Here you John an ornamental banana for you. I wonder how these craftwork beads will travel to a tropical island near you. 

Is that the Musa Velutina? I bought some seeds off of Etsy that are suspect at best 😂 

 

God only knows how long customs would hold them and what the tariffs would be at this point. I'm down to try but I really think pups are the way to go with bananas now. Watch me say that and leave him a bad review and then watch all of these sprout overnight 😂

[happypalms]

13 minutes ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Is that the Musa Velutina? I bought some seeds off of Etsy that are suspect at best 😂 

 

God only knows how long customs would hold them and what the tariffs would be at this point. I'm down to try but I really think pups are the way to go with bananas now. Watch me say that and leave him a bad review and then watch all of these sprout overnight 😂

Pretty sure it is, there easy to germinate but take a while!

[metalfan]

They sell bananas in every box store here. We also have a local banana collector who sells some (he does not ship). 

[JohnAndSancho]

3 hours ago, happypalms said:

Pretty sure it is, there easy to germinate but take a while!

The problem is the seeds are only viable for so long and if some big seed seller has had them sitting in a drawer for 2 or 3 years they're probably trash. Then there's the whole thing of breaking down the seed since by nature they're literally designed to be pooped out by a gorilla, and that's kind of hard to replicate. But I soaked them in hot water, I filed them down to soften them up, they're in sealed moist boxes and I'm cycling the heat mats on and off every day just like the whole Internet says to do. Still not going to put them in orange juice and let them soak in that on top of a heater for 3 days like this one YouTuber did. Whole house gonna smell like prison toilet wine and fungus everywhere. Barf. 

3 hours ago, metalfan said:

They sell bananas in every box store here. We also have a local banana collector who sells some (he does not ship). 

All I've seen here is some 1g dwarf Cavendish and it took a lot of willpower to NOT buy them since I've already got 4 or 5 of them. I want to get some more exotic varieties once it warms up, maybe even dabble into buying some tissue cultures and starting those off. I think it's the only way I'll be able to get my hands on the pink and white Musa Nono and Musa Florida variegated. 

[metalfan]

I have a small NONO. They are selling them in the box stores now...tissue culture specimens, largish, for $49. The should be making the box store rounds nationwide in the New Year

[JohnAndSancho]

28 minutes ago, metalfan said:

I have a small NONO. They are selling them in the box stores now...tissue culture specimens, largish, for $49. The should be making the box store rounds nationwide in the New Year

Kinda like how the variegated monstera were $1000 for a cutting 5 years ago and now they even have them at Walmart here in BFE Mississippi

[metalfan]

4 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

Kinda like how the variegated monstera were $1000 for a cutting 5 years ago and now they even have them at Walmart here in BFE Mississippi

If I remember correctly, the International Aroid Society used to give away a free Thai constellation to every new member who signed up LOL. I've been growing Thai COns and Albo's for over 20 years. I bought my first albo at a local plant festival c2003/4 in a 3 gallon container for $10

And I have a huge old Thai Con in the greenhouse from the same era

[JohnAndSancho]

46 minutes ago, metalfan said:

If I remember correctly, the International Aroid Society used to give away a free Thai constellation to every new member who signed up LOL. I've been growing Thai COns and Albo's for over 20 years. I bought my first albo at a local plant festival c2003/4 in a 3 gallon container for $10

And I have a huge old Thai Con in the greenhouse from the same era

I didn't dream this, did I? Maybe it was just because it was 2020 and people were getting crazy into houseplants (myself included) because nobody left the house? Prices were obscene for these. Or is the aroid community full of homey hookups like we have on here? 

[metalfan]

13 hours ago, JohnAndSancho said:

I didn't dream this, did I? Maybe it was just because it was 2020 and people were getting crazy into houseplants (myself included) because nobody left the house? Prices were obscene for these. Or is the aroid community full of homey hookups like we have on here? 

2020 wasn;t the first 'aroid craze'. Its like the 3rd LOL. The last one was immediately prior to about 2008. I remember that the 3 most popular anthuriums were Anthurium supurbum, willifordii and jenmanii. Jenmanii were selling for HUGE prices from the US to Asia (a switcheroo from how it usually works) because they were being used in extensive breeding programs over there and there was a shortage. WHich led to a shortage here.

But no, its true. When I bought my Albo at the local plant festival, which we have here every March, it was @10. And it was mislabeled. The girl said....this is a BRAND NEW PHILODENDRON on the market! She didn;t even know it was a Monstera deliciosa. 

The last aroid craze came to an abrupt halt in 2010/11, when the effects of the Bush Recession and financial collapse of 2008 really came into full impact. A lot of niche nurseries had to close, because no one had $$ to buy specialty plants, and because Agristarts stopped tissue culturing specialty ornametals. There was no demand. How do I know? I had a nursery for over 20 years. Small niche nursery.

but larger established places like Asiatica in MA closed, many others struggled... and you may not know this, but Asiatica was owned by Barry Yinger, who was responsible for introducing the Monstera Thai Constellation to the US plant trade. Thai Con was not 'made in a tissue culture lab in Thailand' as every AI Internet blurb will tell you. It was a natural sport mutation on a plain green Monstera that was found growing in a botanical garden in Thailand. Barry knew the curator, and was allowed to harvest some of the plant and bring it to the US. He grew it out and propagated it,  established that the variegation was stable, and at first sold it like cuttings of albo''s were sold recently...by the cutting. He was able to get the plant into tissue culture and mass produce it. Now anyone can get a small one for $19.99.

[JohnAndSancho]

@metalfan that's cool info. Before this, my knowledge of aroid supply chain crises was uhh... Literally nothing. I had no interest in plants at all until 2020 to be fair, and living where I do it's either big box or online shopping for the most part, and it was even more recently that I started paying attention to anything other than palms. Now that I'm trying to set up a nursery myself, I'm looking at what sells, how to propogate, etc