Ensete 'maurelii'

Are they all Basjoo, or have you also got some M. sikkimensis?

My M. sikkimensis, grown from seed sown Spring 2011, have had their last Winter indoors, so will stay out next winter, so interested to know if you keep any of those going with no protection. I am anticipating need to wrap them up as best as I can ...

 

Kristen, I wrapped Sikki, even during the mild winters, when you could get away without wrapping basjoo.
I dont care what they say, it was never as hardy stem wise with me, as basjoo.
If John has lost his stems on his basjoos you can bet Sikki would be dead also.

The root hardy "thing", does nothing for me, if the stems die you are back to square one.

 

My two remaining Ensete 'Maurelii' are growing new leaves and look reasonably healthy on top. But underneath there is not a sign of any roots. They have bottom heat and plenty of light. I can't understand what is happening. They are currently in polybags to retain moisture, but they can't spend the rest of their lives in a bag.

 

If they are growing leaves Peter they are not dead.
How you get them to grow roots is anybodies guess.
But you seem to be doing the right things.

My one which I have kept in a pot, with root system, is growing leaves but I'm wondering if it has yet formed any new roots.

 

Hi I lost a maurelli and a musa in March. The temperature in the conservatory was quite warm and they had started into growth so I started to water them. They then went on a downward spiral. Went all mushy abviously rotting due to them having no roots yet. The rest I left alone for another few weeks even though they were growing and then very slowly, only a couple of times a week, gave them a handful of water from the bottom. This carried on for about a month even though the temps in the conservatory got really high. It has only been the last few weeks that they have been watered more frequently. Doing this regime, I did not lose any more and in fact they have all gone outside now.Having said all this, I have one musa from last year which has refused to move! I have put it outside now in a pot and will see what happens. Not too bothered if I lose it though because I had plenty of pups from last year which are doing fine. Just a shame to lose it because of the height.

 

Thanks for that. It was my plan anyway, but based on your experience I won't be tempted to "skimp" on that

 

Pete - If you keep an Ensete over the winter in the green, does it continue with the old roots or does it have to grow a new set of roots. Ie does an Ensete have to grow new roots every year and consequently go through this process of - which comes first leaves or roots?

 

I do agree with the fact that water have may done a big part , but if you see the picture my ensete where already on the move , moved even inside to give a bit of worm , but nothing .

as I sliced the plant to see if there was any life left , they where completely full with water , I think that last year heavy rain have done a big part in all of it .....
strangly the ensete I`ve got left are the small plants , water may did manage to get deep inside .......

I will take all as a big lesson , bananas are not hardy plants and they all should be treat as tender and protect , even the basjoo , a plant that die down and come back from roots , is not really an hardy plant.....

 

Very good question Peter, I'm not sure.

Just thinking aloud here so it might be rubbish.
They are Monocots, bearing in mind how a lot of other monocots grow, they tend to regrow new roots from the main plant each year, but they mostly also keep the old roots, but how active the old roots are is questionable, are they only used for stability? and the plant starts to feed from the new fresh root system maybe.

I'm just thinking along the lines of palms and gingers and even cannas, they seem to survive with most, if not all of their root system stripped away, the plant living on stored food until the new root system gets established.

Not sure the Musas would be able to do this, must try drying off a basjoo without roots one year to see if it will come back.

 

Pete - that's a good point about monocots. I can understand monocots growing for a while from a bulb/rhizome - where it can store a lot of energy. But I always assume that they starts to grow roots at the same time as top growth as they can't store a lot of water - or can they?

Bulbs are funny things. The foliage on my Urginea maritima bulbs is just starting to die down, having been growing all winter. But the bulbs won't flower for another 4 months or so - when they will have no leaves.

 

I'm assuming that, Ensete in the wild, has to overcome drought, so I presume its able to shut down and store some water, in the psuedostem.
As you say in that case it probably starts root growth very shortly after rain, but for us replicating those conditions is not easy in a dull cold spring, plus a plant with no roots at all is at a disadvantage from the start.

 

I think some bottom-heat would help ... but that's not easy for a large plant.

Dave Brown (HTUK) waters a lot of his tropical plants with hot water and reckons that he can lift the temperature in their root zone by quite a bit (doing this every day over a period of time). Obviously for things in pots the heat would escape all too easily

 

I`ve picked this trick from you and i usually do it with my plant to wake them up
I remember one of you old thread about the cycad and actually work really well ......
but trust me this year something went wrong , to rotting plants didn`t affect just the maurelii , but it uppen the same with other plants as well , lost many cannas as well along with many alocasia ......

 

Yeah, but bearing in mind they rot of you provide too much water, how do you manage to put enough on in order to raise the soil temperature but at the same time keep things on the dry side until new roots show.
I can only think the heat from the water would quickly be dispersed within an hour or two.
I think regarding cycads its a different proposition, that already has roots and needs a stimulus to get it moving, its usually during the warmer parts of the year also.