JoeReal

Hello Folks,

I am encouraged by the picture shown below. This is a quote from Eggo over at the old banana forum of garden web:

* Posted by: Eggo z10soCal LBC (My Page) on Sat, Aug 6, 05 at 14:42

"Namwah left, AeAe right. Notice the streaky smaller stripes on the Namwah, if you were to draw it you would use a pencil. This kind of variegation seems to be more common. AeAe, notice how big and blotchy the stripes are, if you were to draw that a large magic marker would probably do best. This variegation doesn't seem to be too common. I think the famous variegated Musa Basjoo had something similar?!?"

Attached Images

NamwahvsAeAeb.jpg (24.6 KB, 81 views)

JoeReal

Wow, thanks to Eggo for displaying a variegated namwah. I hope namwah pearls are like that in the picture above. For me, it is as good as Ae-ae. I always wanted to have a variegated fruiting banana that I can plant in our yard.

The major advantages of Dwarf Namwah Pearl over Ae-ae:

It bears fruit at a lot lower height than ae-ae, thus it is easy to place inside a greenhouse if you needed to. Also more stable with respect to wind.

It is as cold hardy as the regular dwarf namwah, a variety that is in the top 10 in terms of cold hardiness and is proven to fruit reliably in our zone.

It can be Tissue cultured mass produced, thus keeping these beautiful bananas cheaper for a lot of people to enjoy.

Cold hardiness, shorter pseudostem, fruit bearing are my major criteria for selecting a banana in our zone.

I don't care much about ae-ae anymore. My friend is getting one soon, we will be able to compare side by side. I don't know how he is going to fruit it with the height requirement. In our zone, ae-ae have the same cold sensitivity as kru, a variety which when it dies outside in the yard seldom ever come back to life.

Not to confuse the group, the picture is that of a variegated namwah which I was hoping a dwarf namwah pearl would mutate into someday.

bananalover

I don't believe they will be anywhere near the same. The namwah pearl will be like the picture on ebay more like white streeks than the patches on the variegated namwah. I suggest you hold until you see how one of these really turns out.
I myself expect it to be quite pretty but not as nice as Ae Ae,the variegated namwahor the variegate basjoo. Wishful thinking but I doubt it. I am sure I will love mine but still wish I had an Ae Ae!

MediaHound

I just got back from Terry's place (tlturbo).
Here is a photo I took of one of his Ae-Ae:


Check out his gallery for some more eye candy!

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bananalover

Is this an advertisement? Yes these are nice but a bit burnt on the leaves and look like they are in mud. Wasn't this post about dwarf namwah?

MediaHound

Advertisement
no
You said you wish you had an Ae-Ae, so I posted that for you of all people.
About the burned leaves, yes, the plant was moved from shade to sun and that happened. Not a perfect specimen, but a beautiful photo nevertheless. The ground was damp, but there's absolutely no standing water.

Besides, the title of the thread is about Namwah pearl vs Ae-Ae!

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MediaHound

What may seem to be a water reflection is white sand, look closely.

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bananalover

Nope looking closely and it still looks like mud. Um, lived in FLa. for many year, white sand sure doesn't look like that. Needless to say I still love Ae Ae better just think this may not be the best example of them but perhaps they were just planted and watered that is why they look muddy, still water drains a lot faster on my bananas. Hope they grow well and they do look prettier than the pearl to me but the pearl is cheaper and still pretty!

MediaHound

Terry said he planted it about three weeks ago.
btw, if you look real close, directly below the stem in the photo (about 6:05 if it were on a clock ) you can see the pup starting to emerge. Just pointing it out, because it's there This is one happy Ae-Ae.

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bananalover

I'm sorry but only planted three weeks ago, doesn't look like it is growing too much seem to me the pup was growing before it was severed and replanted.
Don't think that means a happy Ae Ae. Especially as small as it is. Show me new leaves that aren't burnt and I will be impressed.

bananalover

I understand that you have been there and seen some nice plants but if I am going to pay for $125 for an Ae Ae it better be rooted more then 3 weeks and not have any burnt leaves and be growing in some good medium that doesn't look like mud.

MediaHound

That pic is one of his personal plants (not for sale). The ones for sale (if any even are at the present moment) would be from the corm in the big white pot


I'm not trying to convince you anything. I was just posting a picture to enjoy!

btw, I took the large pup (seen to the right in this photo) along with the one that was already seperated and potted up (can be seen in another photo). The few remaining variegated pups are virtually immaculate.

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Tropicallvr

Eggos namwah isn't the Dwarf Namwah pearl. He displayed it about 8 months ago when he got it from a friend's regular sized Namwah plant.

tlturbo

I sure hope Bananalover didn't pay much for that Pearl in his photo gallery, it has a burnt spot on the leaf. And one leaf is totally a different color than the rest. Makes it look like a Canna to me.

Let me see, if I remember correctly, water and soil make ummmm, MUD, yep, he was right. NOT good for banana growing. I guess that is why I have ONLY gotten 15 pups in 5 months from ONE corm. Obviously it isn't a happy banana.

To get serious here, most people know that some plants put out pups or flower as a reaction to stress. I am assuming that I am getting all of these pups because the corm is trying to perpetuate itself. I would bet that IF I let several pups alone on the corm to start growing, it would stop pupping. But I'm finding that as long as I keep taking them off, it keeps putting out new ones.

Whatever - Terry
PS - got my bambusa Lako today - over 12 feet tall. :-)

Casa Del Gatos

WOW
Lighten up folks, this is starting to feel like the citrus forum on GardenWeb!
Arguments and sniping don't benefit anyone. Let's keep it friendly since we all share something in common - Bananas!

Bananalover - I am interested in what medium you put your Pearls in when you got them (if you've up-potted yet). Also, where will you be keeping them (sun-wise)? Read below for my experience with my Pearls.

Terry's soil looks like most of what I had when I lived in 5 different parts of Florida growing up (born in Palm Beach). It's nice, fast-draining sandy soil with plenty of organics and bananas LOVE it. It will mud up with repeated heavy rains, but my bananas have always loved that too! I have yet to see a drowned banana that wasn't potted with some heavy store-bought medium. I now live in South Alabama, west of Pensacola, FL and wish I had more soil like that.

Now, regarding the sunburning. This is definitely on-topic since I bought two of the Dwarf Namwah Pearls off eBay also. I came home the other day to find my well-meaning wife had moved the pearls from their place in the carport to a place that got at least 4 hours of direct morning sun!

The poor things were just starting to burn. One has a burnt leaf edge and the other had some small brown spots appear on one leaf. I hope they won't be too traumatized. I think I will winter them in the little 8X8 greenhouse I use for rooting and germinating, while I am building my new big greenhouse.

Eventually, though, I would hope to be able to put them in the ground so I am expecting to acclimatize them slowly. I guess they can go in the mat among the big plants and get filtered sun and not burn.

JoeReal

Getting burnt leaf should not be a big deal for bananas. It should never be an issue for us (unless you are only after the foliage). And here's why.

Bananas quickly recover and during the very active growth in the warm season, those leaves with burnt areas will soon be history, replaced by the much better acclimatized leaves. Even if all banana leaves get burnt, you should not worry as the newer leaves emerge, they get acclimatized to the new area you moved them. You can also simply chop off the top part of the trunk, and this way all your new leaves will be acclimatized. The surface area of the pseudostem of most bananas is adequate to photosynthesize food for maintenance and helping in the growing of new leaves. The pseudostems and the corm have also a lot of stored food and nutrients to easily replace damaged leaves or tops that were broken off. Remember that most of banana's native habitat in the tropics are prone to typhoons, hurricanes, and they have evolved to quickly recover from these very frequent natural disasters.

bananalover

Well, I am pretty sure I don't have a canna, unless everyone who had bought the namwah pearl from this person has a canna as well. By the way, I do have a lot of cannas, they don't have light leaves on top. My point was that the Ae Ae's looked like they had been fairly newly planted and you can't tell how they are going to do until they are growing well in these spots-- they may do just fine but I think they have to grow some to know(um, by the way the PERSONAL plants looked great). Also I think if you are going to sell Ae Ae's at such a price they have to look pretty good and not have burnt spots on the. My namwah pearl may have burnt spots but I only paid $19.25 shipping and all, big difference. I did not mean to cause a problem, I did not post the pictures just an opinion, thought those were allowed here where they were not on the garden web?

MediaHound

It's all good, bananalover.
We'll just chalk it all up as a bad day.
Keep on rockin in the free world.

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