the flying dutchman

It was allways my believe that TC-plants grow very slow the first
months but now I have 5 of them and I have to disagree with this.
They grow at least as fast as seedlings I have from other bananas from about the same height.
I gave them as lot as water as I would do with any other banana and they
started growing immediately.
I have read not to water them too much in the beginning but I did and they
are doing just fine.
They are on a South Window in the house and I think they love it, I just
protected them against the full sun in the afternoon.

Ron

MediaHound

I agree. Tissue cultured bananas grow pretty fast, considering.
They won't produce keiki as fast as a natural pup will, but they're fast growers, nevertheless.

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the flying dutchman

Hey jarred, great those links to WIKI-infopages in a thread.

ron

bigdog

Tc plants will grow as fast as a seedling, but nowhere near as fast as a pup with a piece of corm attached. The thing about a tc plant also, is that if you have to cut it back close to the base, it may not recover, since there is no corm (or almost none). That all being said, it is a great way to get a lot of plants really fast!

mrbungalow

How long before a TC-plant starts to behave like a regular plant then? Will the first pup it sends out be considered "normal"? Afterall, most cultivars on the market today has a "sister" or "mother" that started its life as a TC.

Erlend

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MediaHound

The first pups are still quite some bit less vigorous compared with the pups of pups that were cut from corms.
The way it seems to me, is that everything happens on a smaller scale. It takes several years for a mat started by TC to get enough kinetic energy going for things to happen as fast as if you started with a keiki that was cut and dug up.
I have had TC bananas put up pups rather quickly (weeks/months), and I have had others that push up very few, if any, even after years have passed. But these f1 and f2 (per sé) pups from TC are much smaller than they would have been if they were from many generations of mothers passing pups.
If you have the choice, go with cut corms! If you have no alternative, and your after a certain kind that you can only locate in TC, get it anyway, but still be on the lookout to grab a cut pup whenever you can, it will save you YEARS of waiting.

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