Magilla Gorilla

We had two days of sustained 40 mile an hour winds with 60 mile gusts last week. Then we had four days of 93 degrees. My three AeAe survived! The two of them are around six plus feet tall and the other is around five. The weather may not seem extreme for many of you but we are about a mile from the ocean and it is 65 to 74 all year round. Very temperate!

The new leaf looks like a swirled ice cream cone.


My addiction. Plants!


A few more plants.


Organic eggs and fertilizer.

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Andrew

conejov

Congratulations for surviving the winds.

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Patty in Wisc

The weather may not seem extreme w/ 60mph gusts?!!! Isn't that considered almost hurricane?!!!
That new leaf is just too cool! The other leaves are not that battered considering the gusts. I hope my yard looks almost that nice & tropical this summer.
Thanks for the pics.
Love the chicken - I always wanted chickens.

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Patty




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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

harveyc

Looks great, Andrew.

My large in-ground Ae Ae just opened up it's newest leaf yesterday but it has a big white area. Most of the other leaves got pretty beat up moving it out of the greenhouse (and many were sunburnt from being up against the poly film of the greenhouse). I have a shorter one in the greenhouse that just opened up a new leaf a few days ago which is mostly green. I wish the two of them would work together!

Are your chickens "under-cover"? Most cities in California prohibit residents from having farm animals, including chickens. I know of someone who had to get rid of his rooster for fear of getting turned in, even though most neighbors seemed to like them.

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Magilla Gorilla

Thanks for all the kind comments. I live outside of Santa Barbara city limits. We are in the county. We can have the chickens. My girls (daughters) love the chickens. We feed them organic food and like clock work get eggs every day. I usually wind up bringing them to my office for my staff and clients (eggs and financial planning). We do have to keep them in a coop as we have coyotes, racoons, skunks and hawks. The hawks have tried to swoop down and take them away. My to young girls would be devistated. As you know our plan is to move to Hawaii, the chickens have Hawaiian names: Lilo, Nani, Haleakala, Momi. Yes named. They are part of our family. As for roosters. We do not have any.

My AeAe are in the ground and have two sides of shelter from the house. One is from Hawaii and the other two are California grown.

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Andrew

Magilla Gorilla

My wife is a vegetarian (going on 17 years). The chickens are very sweet. We have an organic garden and my wife has part of her lettuce bed grown for our chickens. They lived in the house until they were three months old. My girls could not wait to wake up to play with the chickens. They are very tame. Oh, the eggs taste very fresh. No chemicals.

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Andrew

Patty in Wisc

Most wanted things for me: AeAe & chickens!!
Can't have chickens here in city ... some outer areas can have them but no rooster.

...rmplmnz, Andrew said (60 mile wind gusts) "weather may not seem extreme to some". That kind of wind here would do a lot of damage LOL.

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Patty




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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

1aday

Beautiful AeAe and yard!
Good thing you do have your chickens cooped, last year we got chickens and let them free range, their favorite place to bed down during the hot summer was in my banana pots! And they ate everything- from Callas, to EE, Clivia, everything! If they weren't so darned cute...

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Susan

LilRaverBoi

Great pics! You definitely get points in my book for raising poultry! I'm a big fan of chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigeons and guineas! I used to raise a lot of poultry when I was a bit younger (and I really miss them!). I actually won my county fair's poultry show 'Best of Show' two years in a row with my chickens! I'm a big fan. My favorite breeds and expertise were the polish breeds....the ones with the feathered heads!

Like this:

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BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Patty in Wisc

O m'gosh Bryan, that is sooo cool! Never saw that before. Makes me want chickens even MORE!!
I WANT CHICKENS!!!
And, of course a AeAe or 2

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Patty




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Patty in Wisc has sadly passed away 9/05/11. We will miss you Patty.

1aday

What a beautiful bird! I love the pattern on the feathers.

(do all photos have to have a URL?) or can I just upload a photo with my message? DOH

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Susan

LilRaverBoi

LOL...anyone without an AEAE wants one...myself included! As for the chickens...there are quite a few great breeds with the 'crest' of feathers on their heads. It occludes their distance vision (wow, this sentence makes me sound like an optometry nerd, huh? Well, I am what I am LOL), so they don't see you coming up to them. They're very docile. I used to put mine on my shoulder when I was a kid! That pic is of a 'silver polish.' There is a gold version like that with the lacing, a white crested black polish (yeah, that's the technical name too!), a buff laced polish (like the pic but tan), and sultan (white with the crest AND feathered feet!). I could go on for days, cause I'm a nerdy farm kid, but I'll stop.

Nope...you can also upload from your computer. When you start your post, click on 'go advanced' then on that page, scroll down and click on 'manage attachments' and find the file/upload from there. Hope that helps! I'm a moderator on another website with the same web layout program (v-bulletin) so I'm pretty familiar with the bells and whistles.

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Magilla Gorilla

Isn't this the chicken forum??? . Many posts go in all sorts of diections. I started a post with AeAe pictures and the weather we had in Santa Barbara recently. I also shared a picture of my chickens. Bananas or chickens it is fun to share! I also had a post regarding my daughter being featured in a Corvette magazine but that got sent to the basement (other topics).

It's yellow but not a Banana

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Andrew

LilRaverBoi

Yeah, sorry....I'm a volatile concoction: one part farm kid, one part science super nerd, and one part botany nerd. It's best not to get me started on side topics cause I can go on and on and on (as you no doubt have seen the tip of that iceberg...LOL).

Anyway...I'll try to get it back on topic: Have you ever experimented with changing the soil pH to alter the variegation? I've heard soil pH affects how much white the leaves have. Your other plants are beautiful too....you have so many! I'm jealous!

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Magilla Gorilla

I grew up on a farm as well. Having to take care of animals as a young kid was a wonderful experience. I am now teaching my young girls the same. We had polish hens, Guinea hens, Banties, Pea Cocks, African Geese, many types of ducks, pigeons, chickens, rabibits, sheep, goats and 200 horses! We owned a 65 acre horse farm 30 minutes from New York City.

I have wondered why some of the AeAe leaves are mostly green and other like a swirled ice cream. I was going to go to Starbucks and get a bag of used coffee grinds (the bags are free). I just don't want to kill the plants. I have read many posts on acidity. I just have not done it.

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Andrew

Tog Tan

Hey Andrew, here's my 2 bit on Variegation in plants;

Variegated plants are basically the weaker version of the original having less functional (green) surface area for photosynthesis. Some come as Hi-White while others comes Hi-Green. The Hi-white plts are the sensitive ones as they can't make enough food. Of course pure white albinos don't stand a chance. Now the Hi-Green type being on the fence, can revert to full green if given the chance to gobble up fert and become strong.

In order for them to stay pristine (ie., weak), let them be weak and go slow on the feeding of fert. That's why many Variegated 'naners are such a b#@*h to look after. I had variegated plants other than 'naners turning green cos of fert feeding thru the roots. If you have to feed, use a mild foliar feed. It's safer. I know there are lots of experts who will shoot me down for what I have just said. So, here's a little proof - my Hi-Green Kluay Tanee aka Variegated Musa balbisiana is going green after being planted into the ground at my nursery and fed! Looks like it's just going to be water and only water for its diet until it get whitish again.
If you look closely, you can see the remaining thin white streaks on the leaves.

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

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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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

Tog Tan

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.

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

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Tog Tan has sadly suddenly passed away 6/16/09. We will miss you Tog Tan.

harveyc

Hey, Chog, thanks for the professorship. Do I have tenure yet???

But don't credit me with conferring your doctorate. You may have thought we didn't notice, but Michael Andrew took care of that a while back at Ensete perriei up in just 12 days!!!!!

Cheers,

Harvey

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