Quote:
Originally Posted by harveyc
Does this plant have some strong suckers? It looks like there is one in the second picture. While this plant at least has some nice leaves (unlike my supposed Raja Puri on which I over-wintered a bunch), but I've been wondering if suckers can help feed the bunch on the mother plant. I think maybe so, and other people have responded they think probably so. Maybe you can cut all your leaves off to help test it out. Just joking!  |
This particular plant has one sword sucker with only very thin long leaves. We did have one bunch (pictures earlier within the thread), a Hua Moa that was able to take a raceme to maturity. Our experience with bananas with few or no leaves is that the fruit will never develop (stays very small and starchy)...we probably have 8 or 9 bunches this year (and a dozen or so last year) that the fruit never developed on (they stayed very small..even though the quantity of hands/fruit was normal).
The pseudostem may look thick....but it is relatively thin (for a 20 plus foot saba) and will have to be propped with bamboo to support the raceme. We rarely if ever prop saba racemes with bamboo...only when they are thin due to frost damage (hindering development).
These will come in handy:
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