laterita

I have a Musa Basjoo "Shakhalin" in my garden. It's about 4 1/2 years old now.
In the winter I had it in a glasshous, just above 5C to stop it from growing. When I gave water a few weeks before re-planting outside, the trunk became thicker.
But nothing else happened. I expected it to create some leaves, but instead of that, the trunk split open. It was starting flowering, just after winter, so no leaves, just a flower.
A small pup emerged from the side and started to shoot leaves.
The flower came out of the side of the trunk, but:
Instead of one flower, there were at least 9 (!) extra flowers!
So one large flower in the middle, and others at the places where you expect a hand of bananas!
Two of the flowers broke when the racime emerged, but the rest came out, although they were very small. In every flower you could see the bananas. It has a full bunch of bananas in every flower.
Has anyone seen such a thing with a basjoo?
Has anyone an explanation why this happened?
Greetings from Holland,
Simon

saltydad

Simon, wow. What an event. Do you have pics to show. I can't wait to see this!

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laterita

Picture:

sunfish

Blake09

wow!?!?!

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Jack Daw

OMG, that's what I call a mutant!!!
Nice, may it bare some fruit for you.

I'm looking forward to more pics soon.

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laterita

Its a nice picture, although, I won't get any banana from this plant.
The question was: is this a mutant, or is this feeding?
If it's a mutant, will the pups have the same problem, or is this "local" to the main plant?
I like to have some flowers/bananas, but not in this way.
Simon.

Some more pictures: emerging from the pseudostem (simply too large), breaking through the side, and one of the small flowers:

Gabe15

It is likely a mutant. These M. basjoo have been tissue cultured a lot, and the labs producing ornamentals and non-commercial fruit plants are not so good about restarting their lines, so mutations can happen rather easily. I have seen photos of some similar M. basjoo flower deformation.

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ron_mcb

reminds me of that banana from india, that novi was showing.

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Raules

Never such saw. Thanks for a photo.

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Blake09

I second that question.

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A banana plant in the autumn gale -
I listen to the dripping of rain
Into a basin at night.
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laterita

Anyone any idea of this "incident" is only the main plant (genetic fault in growing point) or genetic, so all pups will have the same problem?
In the latter case I will destroy all pups. (And clear some room in my overwintering glasshouse) I fed the plant a lot with potassium and cow-menure.
Simon

Gabe15

You'll have to do some experiments to find out. This is not a common occurrence so there is no good way to predict how it will act.

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laterita

Ok, I'll save a few pups and wait for another 4 years to find out ...
We will see.
Simon
Thanks for all contributions to this thread.

Capitum

I think it is fascinating- and I'm normally only interested in edibles. If you want to split out any of the pups so you don't have to use as much of your own yard to see if it will happen with the pups, please keep me in mind- I'd give up a corner just to see.



Keith

laterita

I am building a glasshouse for my other bananas now.
I 'll put a few pups of this basjoo inside to get them earlier to bloom.

I won't be able to send a pup over to the us because of customs-regulations.
Greetings,
Simon

Capitum

Simon, any updates on your mutant basjoo?

Anyone else on the group (in the US) have similar mutations growing?

GreenFin

That's a pretty gnarly Basjoo. Reminds me of Musa Roi Hua Pli (Musa 'Fractal' would be a good name)

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Basjoofriend

Very OMG! Very wow! Never seen before!!! It is very amazing! I also want pups from these two mutants, but the Brazilian customs regulations are too strict and do not permit importing from the U.S.A., Germany and Europe! If from Israel, Costa Rica, Paraguay and Argentina, then permited!

Best wishes
Joachim

LilRaverBoi

Wow....that's awesome! I'd love to see whether this is a stable mutation or just a fluke occurrence.

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