Banana Montbeliardii

Seen a special offer for a red banana Montebeliardii , does anyone got one?
It look like a super grower and easy to overwinter .

 

Never tried it Sal, Kristen appears to have at least one of them.

Both, that and E. "marellii" would need similar winter treatment,I would guess.

 

Thank you Pete , just seen the post on the other thread , really nice plant but look too much like the e.maurelii .
The Maurelii is maybe a common banana plant at the moment but I reckon the 90% of all the maurelli will die this year , unless we will have the mildest winter ever.
I bought my 3 in a market stall and I was telling the guy what a great deal he gave me and he actually told me that many other people where asking for more maurelli as they all lost them last winter .

 

I see lots being "sold" but I have my doubts that they look like what I think a Maurelii should do, and that they may well just be bog-standard E. ventricosum ?

Either that or Jungle Plants have selected a particularly fine mother-plant - but they must, surely, be coming from Tissue Culture, as they would take too long to bulk up stock by propagating conventionally I reckon? so seems improbably that Jungle Plants are having their own "line" propagated rather than just buying the same stock as everyone else? Either way, I reckon their plants are ace, great quality, but sadly a bit expensive (but on 25% - 50% off Sale at the moment )

I reckon 100% of them will die even in a mild winter! (Well, not ones on the South West tip of Cornwall maybe ...)

I think they all need to come in for the Winter, but you can just dig them up, chop ALL the roots off, and the leaves (i.e. leave the pseudo-stem), hang them upside-down to drain the water out for a few days, then store them vertically (NOT horizontally) somewhere frost free. Dark is OK, so loft [beware if above roof insulation such that temperature might fall below 0C] or frost-free garage would be fine.

Then in the Spring pot-up dry (smallest amount of water and smallest pot that the stump will fit into) until roots grow, and put in greenhouse / conservatory.

Only really a problem after, say, year-3 when they get big to lug in-and-out, and having somewhere tall enough to start them off in the Spring.

 

I bought a maurelii a few months ago at a local nursery, obviously bought in and probably Dutch.

I then saw them available in Morrisons for a fiver, about the same size.
Morrisons still have some but they have been around for a while, and in the poor light, lost the red colouring.
But if I wanted another ones I'd not hesitate as I believe they are exactly the same plant.
Mine has really coloured up now that the weather has improved.

I'm thinking there is a point at which the dry overwintering method works, but have a feeling if the pseudo-stem is not large enough the whole thing will just dry out and die.
I had some seed grown Ensete plants die on me last winter for that very reason.

 

talking about bananas I just bought few true banana from my local asian , includind seeds inside.
they are the size of a finger , it`s a true species from India and they have really small seeds inside.
sorry for the picture but my camera is not the best with close shoot.

 

Kristen , I got 3 maurellii and i suspect they where grown by seeds as the differents size of the plants , while my musas I`ve got are from tissue cultivation as they are freackly all the same size , I was reading somewhere that cloned plants are more delicate that the one from seeds and also read that it really hard to overwinter a cloned red banana , that why the price is so cheap , so that they can use them as annual.
I did my experiment and I`ve overwintered 2 in the greenhouse and 1 indoor , strangly the one overwintered indoor , almost died and it actually the smallest of 3 , while last year was the bigger of all ....the other 2 left in the greenhouse went trough a bit of cold i would say -3/4 but completely frost free and they are superb.

 

Surely, unless I have it wrong, "montbeliardi" and "maurelii" are both varieties of Ensete ventricosum.
If that is so, all available plants of both are likely to be clones, and growing from seed is unlikely.

 

Pete I think you are right , they all coming from the ethiopian mountains and I really doubt that with Tissue Culture anyone would ever waist anytime to grow them from seeds , I`ve seen the tissue culture in Thailand as they produce quick orchid for tourist , but it`s largely used with rare plants .
Like Kristen I`ve suspected that the 2012 red banana is just a E. ventricosum , the maurelii was really dark in the early stage .
I`m just expecting that the next cheap red banana will be Montebeliardii , but overall the challenge will be to get them to reach full size .........I`ve notice that they don`t really like the sunshine as the leaves get burned really easy , so far this year have been planted in the shade and I didn`t even see a single sunburned leave .

 

Yes, good point. They would need to be bought early in the season to have grown on enough in the first year. Small(er) plants are going to need to be over wintered in pots, and with a frost-free greenhouse, or conservatory.

Mine are in pots, plunged in the border (for this season). In fact I have 16 such plunged-pots, they are about 3' diameter, and I hope I'll be able to get them back out of the ground!

 

Ensete ventricosum is totally green, at least all the ones I have ever grown from seed have been, so cant think anyone would stand a chance of passing them off as "maurelii" or "montbeliardii".
A red mid rib is about the most you get.

 

Rebus solved , today I went down the local garden center again , (it called addiction I know) , and they had an entire selection of banana called Ethipion red banana , some slender (montebeliardii) some really dark and short (maurelii) some more green with red and the one complete green sold has red banana .
I was completely wrong when I said that next year the montebeliardii will be sold as cheap red banana , because it`s happen already , got 2 montebeliardi at £3 each .

 

Great thread guys - having recently bought a maurelli from Morrisons I am really keen to keep it overwinter.

Sal I can't believe your prices.

 

Trust me I try to stay away from that place , expecially after realising that the green banana I`ve seen it could be a superbum ......should I invest 3 pounds ?