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Old 04-15-2021, 10:05 PM   #6 (permalink)
edwmax
 
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Default Re: New Gros Michel Pups Dying?

First Off .... Those are Tissue culture (TC) plantlets, not true banana pups. TCs are lab grown from green plant material. .... Pups are sprouts from a mature banana plant and usually 2ft or 3 ft tall when separated from the mother corm.



Now from your photo above the TCs have not even grown their true leaves yet and only have 2 pre-leaves. ( I forget what they are called). It obvious lab specimen hasn't been in plug trays every long, At this stage of growth the plantlets should still be in a shade-house (80%) or greenhouse under strict controlled growing conditions ( high humidity, heat, misting, grow lights, ect) for 2 or 3 months. Then moved to 50% shade-house for harding off to full sunlight. From TC to field ready, in ground planting would take about 6 to 8 months.



These plantlets are too young to have the reserve store of energy needed to recover from stress as you show in the photos.



I did a quick search for a TC growing description. This one and there are others you can google. Also, note there is a difference between TC plantlets and micro-propagated plantlets, but growing & handling is about the same after the plantlets get to the 50% shade-house stage.


https://www.agric.wa.gov.au/bananas/propagation-bananas

Read the 'Tissue Culture plant handling' section.
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Last edited by edwmax : 04-15-2021 at 10:11 PM.
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