Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - TheWaterbug

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 15
1
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Wrong Way to Support Banana Bunch :-(
« on: August 10, 2022, 08:15:33 PM »
Hi Waterbug,

Jon from Encanto Farms Nursery has a great post for banana growing.  He says "even if the plant is 'folded' by wind damage, as long as there is some connection remaining in the flower stem, the fruit will ripen normally.  It is better to leave the damaged stalk 'as is' rather than damaging it further by trying to straighten or move it."

He also shows how to build a support for the fruiting bunch using 2 inch PVC and a 45 degree elbow and proper placement of the support.

Link to the article:
http://webebananas.com/culture.html

Hope that bunch ripens properly for you.

Janet


Janet, the link and the quote are perfect. Exactly what I needed to hear. Thanks!


I will suppress my urge to "do something" and let the bananas be bananas.

2
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pinkglow pinapple
« on: August 10, 2022, 11:58:17 AM »
In related news, here's the text on the label:









There is no mention of any patent, nor of any prohibition against propagation, and I certainly didn't sign a contract.

3
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pinkglow pinapple
« on: August 10, 2022, 11:49:46 AM »
A few months ago I was in San Diego on other matters and attempted to buy a PinkGlow Pineapple from Specialty Produce, but they were sold out.  :'(


Then this last weekend I was driving from SF back to LA, and I stopped by a random fruit stand on Hwy 152 near Gilroy, and found these for $20/each, including tax:





They actually have a fair amount of crown material on them:









I'm going to eat the fruit and attempt the sphagnum moss technique with the crowns. Wish me luck!


4
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Wrong Way to Support Banana Bunch :-(
« on: August 10, 2022, 11:44:14 AM »
I was worried about this eye and string not being strong enough to support my banana plant and its bunch. I was wrong, about many things:









I suppose the good news is that the bananas were almost mature, or at least the top-most ones were. They were starting to turn yellow:





So, given what's happened, what's the best thing to do? Will the collapsed plant still do anything for the bunch? Or should I cut it off now?


5
That is a great video. 7.5 years is a long time to wait for bananas. They normally grow much faster than that.


Yeah, it's not the banana's fault. For its first ~3 years I had it in a pot, so it just didn't get big enough. Then I put it in the ground, and it tripled in height in a year. And then some goats ate it down to the ground. I had to wait until the goats moved out, and then it started putting on size again.


I have a new roof going onto my house in about 2 months. I hope the roofers don't damage it  :o


Once everything is stable, it's in the ground, there are no goats or roofers, and the plant is mature, I'd think I'd get fruit more regularly.

6
I had the angle all wrong, and I had to adjust the camera about a month into the time lapse. But with some editing it looks ok:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJS5JHqGMM8

7
I'm going to try and set up a time-lapse camera for this. Any guesses on how long it'll take from here to fruit in Los Angeles?


I have the camera mounted (sorta visible in my photo above), and this is the angle. Am I guessing correctly about where the flower stalk will grow? Or should I adjust the angle a bit?



8
Here's the full view of the plant:





and it's got a pup ready to go for the next season:



9
I put a Dwarf Cavendish in a pot 5 years ago, and for the first 4 years it didn't do much. It grew from a 1' tall to about 5' tall, but it never flowered. Then I put it in the ground, and it took off. Well, sort of. The 1' pup that was next to the main plant starting growing like crazy, and quickly outgrew the main stem. Then the main stem got eaten by goats.  ::) .

That pup is now the main stem, and the plant is about 6' tall, where the newest leaves separate, and the top leaf is going straight upwards, to about 9'. I'm hoping it flowers this year.


7.5 years after buying this plant, it's finally flowering!!!!





I forgot to take a photo from further away, and now it's dark. I'll take one tomorrow morning.


I'm going to try and set up a time-lapse camera for this. Any guesses on how long it'll take from here to fruit in Los Angeles?

10
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Pinkglow pinapple
« on: November 08, 2021, 01:44:01 PM »
Are the crowns cut off or twisted off?

If they’ve been twisted off there might be no primordial root tissue left.

But if they’ve just been sliced off, this video shows propagation from just a thin disc of crown material:

https://youtu.be/T9Qwbw7r8GY

11
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Gopher Gold
« on: May 24, 2021, 01:40:38 AM »
Another problem with most reusable traps is that you have to check them pretty much every day, or else your "prizes" will start to rot or get eaten in the traps.

What's grosser than removing a gopher from a trap? Removing half a gopher from a trap.  :o


Last season I had a weird problem with disappearing traps! At least two of my Victor Black Box traps were gone the next day. I suspected that they had caught gophers, and then a coyote had come by during the night to get a free meal, and just walked off with the gopher in the trap.


6 months after this happened, I was walking behind my shed, and I found 2 of my traps. They'd been tripped, and they were empty of any remains. I can't say for sure that my theory was correct, but I regularly catch coyotes on my trail camera, walking up from my garden towards my shed area.

12
I wouldn't recommend a flimsy cage like that, I make my own out of 1/2" hardware cloth, which holds up for about three years, which is 2.5 years longer than anything made out of chicken wire has lasted.

This thread
has some experiences I've had.




LOL! You and I talked about traps on that thread 2.5 years ago!


The Diggers gopher baskets are allegedly good for a few years, and then they're supposed to break down so that the don't inhibit root development. They're a lot cheaper if you buy directly from their site, vs. amazon, which is one of the very few times that has happened.

13
The gopher has filled the tunnel and pushed dirt into the trap twice now, without getting caught.  >:( >:( >:(

At least I know he's there. I just reset it for the 3rd time.

Use at least two traps. Use something pointy and small like a plant take around the hole and find where the tunnel goes, then dig about a foot between the fresh hole and the tunnel - put a trap on either side of the hole facing out and really get it in there, I try to get it at least 6" into the holes, then stuff the hole with fresh grass or foliage of whatever is around.

You'll get more that way.

I did get one this year with a gopher hawk trap but I think it wast just chance it walked down the tunnel the hawk was set in. I have more luck with the regular traps by far.
Yeah, I bought a Gopher Hawk, and I've caught just one with it. I use the 0625 Victor Black Box trap (not the newfangled 0626 contraption) with good success. I've probably caught a dozen so far this season. But some of them are wiley, and just refuse to get caught. I have to be patient and reset the trap every chance I get. I'll get him!!!!

14


I'm remembering back to when I first got this plant, from the CFRG Spring Sale last year, that it did not enjoy the drive home, laying down on its side in my minivan, as nearly all the soil got shaken off the root ball in transit.



I repotted it as soon as I got home, and all the leaves fell off. I thought it was dead, and then 2-3 months later it started growing again.



So this plant has been a survivor. We'll see if it's got another life (or several) in it!

15

I also took all the accumulated advice and tried the following:
  • Cut off the top of the main stem, cut off most of the leaves, dusted the bottom with rooting powder, and put it in a jar of water.
  • Cut off one of the side branches, did the same, and put it in a mix of potting soil and vermiculite.
  • Cut off the top of the main stem, cut off most of the leaves, dusted the bottom with rooting powder, and put it in a jar of water.
  • Cut 4 additional sections from the main branch, with no leaves.
  • Wounded one of them, dusted with rooting powder, and put it in the potting mix
  • Left another one intact, and did the same
  • Left the other 2 out to dry for a couple of days
  • Put the remaining portion of the main stem, containing the little bit that was left of the root system and one side shoot, into some potting mix with some rooting powder on it.
So in a couple of days I'll have 7 different sections attempted, and in a couple of weeks I'll know if any of them worked. If any of them survive, I'll put the strongest back in the ground in a gopher-resistant wire cage. If more than one works, I'll have a few plants to give away in a few months.

16
The gopher has filled the tunnel and pushed dirt into the trap twice now, without getting caught.  >:( >:( >:(


At least I know he's there. I just reset it for the 3rd time.

17
Looks like it might root again, but I'd make a nice basket for it. It also has what appears to be rabbit damage to the bark a little higher.
Thanks for the encouragement. I feeling a little bit better about the situation after reading that all babacos are propagated from cuttings.


I just went to Lowe's to get some rooting hormone, potting soil, peat moss, and vermiculite. I also have some perlite here. I'm going to wait for additional responses tonight and then attempt something tomorrow.


The tree currently has the main trunk which is about 4.5' tall, with plenty of leaves and 2 small fruit, plus two smaller trunks that are each about 1.5" tall with some leaves and no fruit.


I'm thinking of cutting off both side shoots and attempting to root those separately, to give me two more chances at saving something, and then attempting to get the main trunk rooted again.


Or should I cut the top off the main trunk and root that, and leave ones of the side shoots with the main trunk?


Should I be rooting mature wood or green wood on a babaco?


Should I cut off all the leaves?

18


The roots have been chewed completely off. Can it be saved? I have it in a bucket of water right now.


 



19
I'm still waiting for my gardener to prep my banana patch so I can put one of these (and the mystery banana to the left, to the left of the terra cotta pot) in the ground.


Here we go! The Mystery Banana has 2 large pups, and was completely root-bound in its pot:






The 3 remaining Namwas are also of good size, and root-bound:




The Namwa at the far right I will donate to my Mom; the other two I'll plant here.


So I extracted them all from their pots, frayed their roots a bit, and put them in:



If last year was any indication, these guys should explode in April/May when it starts to get warm around here.

20
And here they are, about 3 weeks after purchase and potting:

Each of them has one new leaf!


Nearly a year after purchase, they're doing well, despite the goats eating nearly all of the growth that you see above. 2 of them died, but 3 of them are still alive and thriving now that the goats are properly fenced in. They're the 3 to the right, in the black plastic pots:






The tallest is 32" at the pseudostem:






How big is this pot? 3 gal? 5 gal?





I'm still waiting for my gardener to prep my banana patch so I can put one of these (and the mystery banana to the left, to the left of the terra cotta pot) in the ground.


The other two I can trade, if anyone is local to me in Palos Verdes.

21
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: Gopher Gold
« on: August 25, 2020, 06:40:50 PM »
I got 72 last year though, and have put serious consideration into the use of oxy-acetylene to explode the runs, as it seems most runs contain several gophers.


Be sure to get the explosion on video.

22
Tropical Fruit Discussion / Re: space for Passiflora roots
« on: June 02, 2020, 05:10:36 PM »
My P. Edulis is in the ground and it produces more than we can eat.  I give away boat-loads every year.

In how many years did it reach the size to produce so much?
Sorry for the delay... It took about a year for it to begin to produce in moderate amounts. I bought it from home depot and it was already a good size, about 4' tall.  My local pollinators tend to ignore the flowers the first part of the year, I guess there are plenty of other flowers that they like better.  So if I want fruit, I have to hand pollinate.  Yesterday I did almost 30!


My P. Edulis also started fruiting after about a year. The first year I got a handful of fruit, and every year thereafter it's been dozens.


No hand-pollination required for mine; I don't see any bees on it, ever, but something must be doing the job.

23
I've tried them in-ground here in Los Angeles, and they just don't grow very well. At least not in my soil. The ones I've put in pots just do so much better. I also like the look of a well-tended, potted pineapple plant.

24
I also have an . . . Un-known variety that was given to me as a 3’ cutting, that just unfurled its first new leaf since I potted it.


Here it is, 6 weeks after potting. It did absolutely nothing for the first month, and then quickly sent out 3-4 new leaves:





and some pups!



25
Yeah, I don’t need 4, but that product from
Amazon comes in a 4-pack. And then of the 4 had two plants in it, so I split that, and both survived.


So now I have 5. I’ll probably plant no more than 2 of them, so I’ll have 3 to give away or trade.


So I should put these in the ground when they’ve filled a 5 gal pot?


It’s good to hear that I got a good variety. I’ll try to get a true Blue Java as well, so I can compare. I also have a Dwarf Cavendish that’s about 6’ tall at the crown, and a Un-known variety that was given to me as a 3’ cutting, that just unfurled its first new leaf since I potted it.


So sometime in the future I should have plenty of bananas!

Pages: [1] 2 3 ... 15