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I think it was the cool & damp weather disfiguring my basjoos leaves. Normal leaves now that the weather has been nicer.


Mekong giant has another pup, it's loving the hot weather.

JWH wrote:Something not good is happening with both of my basjoos, the last couple leaves have come up with large dead patches, one is coming out now thats really deformed and has lots of dead spots. The weird thing is all the pups look absolutely perfect.

Strangely, My basjoo also has the same problem. Ever since I planted it in deep clay soil, it started producing leaves that are not so green and increasing deformed. The latest one even has part of the leaf missing.

It is too much water, too dry, bad soil, some kind of infection, or something's eating at the roots?

If it continues like this, I will have to dig it back up...

Sounds like tissue culture melt-down. Last year tc Musas wouldn't unfurl their leaves, yet another tc problem.

Mekong giant rhizome? Thought it was a pup....not so sure now.

JHW, I think you may be limiting your mekong giant by keeping it in that pot because their root system can grow well beyond what you may expect.

I had a couple of ensete maurelii, and that maxed out at 8 inch diameter leaves, but after being in the ground for a bit over a week, the newest leaves, not completely grown yet appear to be over 10 inches in diameter so there is clearly some progress.

It may not be that easy to tell from these pictures, but the new leaves are clearly much bigger than the prior ones, and I was able to get a measurement by taking a string, putting it around the partially unfolded leaf, then measuring that section of string.




My other musa basjoo aborted its bananas because it never produced any leaves at the start, but this one is starting to look promising so I may get some bananas.

I hit a mekong rhizome with the string trimmer yesterday, it had grown in the mulch and then was diving back down into the soil when I smacked it, probably 1.25" diameter out about 15 inches or so where I hit it.

Are you guys talking about TC problems with basjoo or mekong, or both?

Just an update.

My Potted Mekong giant is still doing good. It's starting to fill out nicely and l really like how it looks up on my deck. I've dug out all but the 2 largest pups in the last couple months. I Have quite a few rooted pups to experiment with.

canadianplant wrote:Are you guys talking about TC problems with basjoo or mekong, or both?

Last year here the tc ensetes would not unfurl their leaves, you manually had to unfurl them & they were very brittle so many cracked. The basjoos with rotten spots sounds like tc meltdown as in tc hosta..

It looks like that mekong giant may get right back up to its original diameter before last winter eh. I think getting them in the ground can do the trick, but I've found that this species just doesn't have nearly as much hardiness as basjoo. I've gotten it to neighbors who have heated greenhouses, but I don't think I want to try it again as I would only see a benefit from it if I could get a sprawling grove or screen of running mekong giant bananas, getting up to 40ft, or however tall they say it can get.

Here's my larger ensete, and they are both clearly heavier than what I had at the end of the season on the first time I tried ensete. Now it will be more difficult to over-winter these as they will be too big for the window sills. I might have to add a handful of calcium chloride to it as I see the new unfolding leaf tearing which I see as a potential deficiency somewhere since we didn't have super strong winds in the past few days. Maybe I'll just use some scotch tape on the underside once it fully unfolds.

Mekong Giant here is around 7' of trunk then the leaves start go up another 5-6 feet thus far, at the base the thing is at least 10" across. I've had M basjoo get as tall but maybe only half the diameter. My plan is to dig it out in about a month and winter indoors again and see how big it will get next summer.

My mekong giant is currently as big as it was at the end of last year, except it has 3 trunks now instead of just one. We probably have another 4-6 weeks of growing season left for it to get even bigger! It probably needs bigger pot, but I have no idea how to accomplish that one handed!

JHW, I think they would have gotten much bigger than that if they were in the ground all summer simply because they can't get enough water and nutrients inside of a pot to be optimized. For example, my neighbor started out with a plant barely surviving around 1ft tall with Mekong giant, and now it's more like 10ft with a couple of pups with still time left in the season to get even bigger.

The only problem is that you will inevitably end up with a running rhizome system that may need digging up.

Not a Mekong giant, but one would expect a Musa Basjoo to grow fast and furious as well, but this guy here has not grown an inch since planted in the Spring. Leaves are mostly deformed. This part of the garden is super dry and despite watering almost everyday, this banana plant still wouldn't grow any taller. One good thing about the dryness is that it will help in the Winter because these plants rot easily in cold wet soils.

Has anyone been able to get bananas to set fruit in temperate conditions?