Quote:
Originally Posted by PR-Giants
Can a banana plant actively grow forever without ever flowering?
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If anyone has difficulty understanding how a banana plant can live forever it comes down to understanding the differences between the vegetative phase and the fruiting phase.
The fruiting phase is one directional, meaning once the plant begins the fruiting phase it is continuously moving closer to the end of it.
The vegetative phase is two directional, meaning it can move closer to the start of the fruiting phase and also move further away. This allows a grower to manipulate the plant to stay in the vegetative phase for perpetuity, which is useful for macropropagation purposes.
Based upon my research I believe the transition from the vegetative phase to the fruiting phase is triggered by the proper combination of the volume of the central cylinder and the size of it's connection to the growing point. The transition from leaf production to the beginning of floral tissue forming starts when the size of both the central cylinder and the connection are adequate.
There are many examples on this forum of a large central cylinder that has a small connection to the growing point or a small central cylinder that has a large connection to the growing point not being near flowering and obviously a small central cylinder that has a small connection to the growing point isn't near flowering either.