LilRaverBoi

Just FYI, when it does bloom, you won't see a petal come out. You'll see the entire big ol' bud (well, technically inflorescence) come out, then it will unfold in time and petals (again, technically bracts) will expose bananas/flowers. If you search around the site, you'll find plenty of pics of it in various stages. Best of luck....glad things are recovering well for ya.

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Figaro

Thanks everyone. I'm fairly new to bananas, but not new to growing fruits & vegetables. Generally speaking, I can notice the changes in plants (usually!) when they are going into bloom.

I had heard about the flag leafs, but until this thread, hadn't heard about half leafs.

That being said, before she was even ripped from her roots, I had mentioned (possibly incorrectly!) that I believed she was close to flower because of the way she was throwing off pups and other changes I noticed in the growth.

I'm not expecting to see a petal come out before the flower, but whatever unrolled with that last leaf was definitely "petal-like" in terms of look and texture, etc. and I have never seen anything like that unroll with any previous leafs, or in any posts here in these forums.

That is just another signal to me that something is changing within this plant and I am guessing it's because she's about to flower.

I could be wrong and do appreciate all of the input here!

As I mentioned in my previous post, the new cigar leaf is significantly smaller than any previous, so it MAY be a half-leaf, but won't know for sure until it fully unrolls.

Here's today's pics:



You can see how much smaller the new leaf appears. All previous have basically sat "taller" on the plant, but this one may grow taller before it fully unrolls. Here's a closer look:



Thanks for all the help!

Figaro

I really thought that last cigar leaf was going to turn out to be a half leaf and now that it's unrolled completely, I can't tell if it's a half leaf or just a deformed leaf.

Here's the pic with the deformed/half leaf on the right inside:



Here's a closer pic:



I'd be convinced it was a half leaf if the current cigar leaf didn't look so normal!

alemily

Funny-sized leaves doesn't always mean a flag is next...especially when a regular-sized cigar is coming up.

Examples of strange-sized leaves my nanners throw out once in a blue moon.


Until you see a fat bud like this emerge out of the center...your plant is not blooming.

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banana13

All these pictures of flag leaves are making me so jealous...

Figaro

OK...it's been another couple of months and if I'm not mistaken, she now has a half-leaf with a flag leaf coming right out behind it!

Here she is from "behind":



Here she is from the "front" where you can see the half & flag leafs:



A little closer look at the flag leaf:



Thanks again to everyone that convinced me to try to save this plant! I'm amazed how well she was able to recover!

GreenFin

Congrats!

Way to stick with it

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Figaro

And, here comes the bud!

Figaro

The DC seems to be doing great! The first few bracts have opened and there's approximately 40 baby bananas currently visible.

The thing that appears odd to me is that the flower hasn't really fully emerged, yet and is still pointing straight up, instead of overgrowing the canopy and hanging down, so it seems like everything is upside down right now.

Is this normal? Do I just need to give it some more time to fully emerge?

Here's the pics from this morning:

venturabananas

That's called "choking" or "choke throat" in banana lingo. It happens when the plant is not completely happy, e.g., experiences stress at some point. There's nothing you can do about it at this point, and it probably won't affect the bananas it produces much.

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Figaro

Thank you!

I do imagine that getting ripped from her roots the way she did would have caused quite a bit of stress, although, she does seem happy (albeit, the choking), lately.

Should I expect that the flower is not going to emerge any more than it already has, or will it continue to grow out with some time, even if not fully?

EDIT: I've been doing some research based on your diagnosis, which does sound accurate, and came across this PDF: http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/ass...e-response.pdf

It says:

It is a DC and, being summer in South Florida, we have been experiencing some high temps, also, pretty steadily above 86°F, which is 30°C if the converter I used was correct!

Figaro

I haven't been able to get an exact count, but so far, something like 60 baby bananas and more bracts to open!