Quote:
Originally Posted by Magilla Gorilla
Thanks so much! The white went away or has decreased dramatically after I fed the plants. Have you had any luck with acidifying the soil? I read lots of stuff about acidity.
Off subject, do you have any experience with Glui Kai or Nang Phaya. I purchased these two bananas last year from Exotica. This is a nursery in southern California. Do they fruit? How big to they get? The owner said he picked them up in Thialand.
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Andrew, sad to say, you are taking to a lazy, technically ignorant eye-ball turdy grower!
I have never bothered about soil ph from day one in my growing. See below for this...
About your Thai cultivars;
Kluay Kai - Egg 'Naner, is an AAB (I think, Gabe can kick me on this) and is a dessert 'naner. If you have a sweet tooth, this is up your street. Considered by many as the best tasting sweet 'naner. The reason, it's not for the export market is its short shelf life and when it ripens, the skin get thin and clings to the pulp. This happens here as it is hot, over your place, it shouldn't be a problem. The p-stem height is approx 8ft. I love the leaf of this plant as it is a clean semi-gloss on both the upper and lower surface which gives it a clean look. It grows better in a slightly shady environment.
Kluay Nang Phaya - an ABB ciltivar which grows to approx 9ft in p-stem height. You can eat it as a dessert and also cook it. This cultivar is not common.
Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyc
Doctor Tog,
Head's up, here's a bullet headed your way! LOL Just joking, okay?
Many of these variegates are not stable and I think they can revert whether fertilized or not. I believe my tall Ae Ae is of a more stable line. When I bought it and another pup that later died, I had asked about what percentage of pups were all green, etc. The nursery owner said they had never seen a pup that wasn't variegated. I've continued to feed mine with a moderate amount of fertilizer and never seen a loss in variegation. Jordon Steele has been growing Ae Ae for over 40 years and claims that fertilizing with potassium nitrate will increase the percentage of green so he uses this practice when he starts seeing leaves with too much white. Still, there are those that doubt that fertilization can have any affect on the level of variegation. I'm not sure about it, but I think it's worth considering simply because Jordon has so much experience with them. Also, it is generally said that Ae Ae require an acidic soil. Jordon grows them in his native alkaline soil conditions and thinks they prefer alkaline soils. Maybe they just aren't really fussy about it and do well in both. Much testing needs to be done to establish a true cause and effect relationship. Or we can just worry about it and do what we think is best and enjoy our plants the most we can.
Cheers,
Harvey
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Prof Harv! Thanks for the conferment of my
doctorate from your World Famous Uni of/for Nuts!
I totally agree that the AeAe is from a very stable line of variegation as it has been around and available for ages. To me, less the technicality, it is a very
stable weak plant. It is so weak that if a clump gets big, you will have pure white albinos. It looks like to me there isn't enough food to go around for the meals of the gang! Another thing I have noticed that is if a new acquired pup rots all the way to the corm, the new pup which emerges is very hi-white.
Ok, any another
1 bit on plants which are variegated;
My attitude is that there is always an on going mutation in plants as in animals which produces the odd ball every now and then. I will scourge
any group of
any plants for this. It's like a plant which has been over propagated and the weak genes start to show. In animals, a cause is inbreeding or overbreeding. Humans do not make 100 children out of the same mate. If that does happen it's like hanging out all your laundry at a go. You will be able to see that the guy actually likes red lacy panties.
Ok, nuff of my silly jokes on the illustration. It's like expanded use of the genes in overbreeding.
Only last month, I came across 2
new strains of variegated Canna, 1 variegated new form of alocasia and 2 strains of variegated heliconia.
These are very common plants here and they are sold in huge lots. They weren't really apparent, but they look different to me so I bought them.
The next step is I will grow them with good watering and let it get back into shape. After that I will give them
some fert to see if the variegation stays. If it doesn't, I just just put it as a landscaping plant at my nursery. On the other hand, if it is stable, I
will not feed it anymore and let it be.
This is the Variegated Dwarf Canna I was talking about. It was pale and in bad shape when I found it.
Some 12yrs ago, there was a big hoo-ha about a new fantastic form of the Variegated
Dracaena surculosa known as the
Thailand Beauty. It was really white like snow falling down. I bought a couple of 5 inch rooted cuttings at quite a price. After a while they started to produce green leaves. When fed, it became worse. So what I did was to take 1 plant and I kept removing the green leaves and stopped the feeding. 10+yrs on, the plant is now a beautiful 7ft clump. It has practically disappeared from the commercial market due to the variegation instability.
End note; Thank you for your patience in taking the time to read my ranting and I will/still practice what I have been doing. Currently I have quite a collection of variegated plants of all sorts. One of these days, I will post a thread on them.
Cheers