Anyone tried the snow banana -Ensete glaucum ?

[cordyman]

http://www.rarepalmseeds.com/pix/EnsGla.shtml

[eddie]

I've had seeds once, germinated quickly for a nana, nice plant by the end of summer and all died for some reason

[Dave Brown]

Snow Banana refers to the paeudostem blueish/white waxy covering, not as many believe, a reference to it's hardiness.
It is less cold tolerant than green ventricosum, and needs a min of 5C rising to 10C or is prone to rot even if dry.

[GREVILLE]

I try to keep mine green overwinter but I always seem to lose the top and it has to start from the corm after winter. On the plus side I've just this week spotted a freshly germinated seed from a batch of ten sown in early summer. The first time I've had any other 'nana' germinate other than ventricosum.

[Half Hardy]

I bought some seeds on ebay,from a seller in Thailand.No luck so far,I never have had much luck, with any musa or ensete seeds.I'm not sure if the seeds are not fresh or possibly my propagator is not getting warm enough.If anyone knows of a trustworthy seed seller,could you pm me please?

[Dave Brown]

I think erratic germination is a survival tactic, as many Ensete originate from a climate with a wet and dry season and the plants take several years to flower. If they all germinated in one go, the Ensete has put all it's eggs in one basket, and a prolonged dry season that year might see all it's offspring die. Having some germinate over 2 or more years would give it much more chance of having survivors even if the rains failed in one year.

Not sure specifically about glaucum, as they seem harder to to get going than ventricosum, or maybe need different conditions, but spring 2012 I bought 100 ventricosum and 100 glaucum seed. In the first season I had 11 ventricosum and 1 glaucum germinate. Then all those un-germinated seed were all left dry and cool in the conservatory over winter. They were then put in the prop for a second time this year, and had 35 ventricosum and 0 glaucum.

so, over 2 years I have 46% ventricosum and 1% glaucum.

[sanatic1234]

I am growing one now but not from seed brought from a nursery this year. It has dropped 5 leaves so far since being inside. though, Lack of light i think so now have it in my storage room where the grow lights are. Picture is from late summer.

[kata]

That looks nice San

[cordyman]

Thanks guys, good info

Think i'll try and get a Ventricosum instead.

Looks a cracking specimen that one though San

[GREVILLE]

Bad news - Snow a banana anymore! My seedling snuffed it in the greenhouse while I was away last week.

[Dave Brown]

Bad news - Snow a banana anymore! My seedling snuffed it in the greenhouse while I was away last week.

Mega high humidity and mega gloom

[sanatic1234]

I am really hoping it makes it through the winter cordy and kata. I have faith in her. She has been great since I have had her. Just the leave drop that was fairly quick, 5 leaves within 2 months but I strongly feel it was lack of light as it was in my living room due to higher temps than the storage room. But like mentioned it is now under the grow light and hopefully will keep the one leave it still has.

[Troppoz]

I got some seed of glaucum a few years back from Thailand and had excellent germination and strong early growth before all inexplicably died after a couple of months within days of each other.

Ive had this happen with every ensete Ive tried to grow, they just dont seem to like my climate. I think its the high night time minimums that finish them and explains why I have never seen a mature plant here or in tropical Queensland. Coming from higher altitudes along the African rift they would get a larger daily temperature fluctuations than I could ever offer here in the equatorial lowlands.

Sad though, they can make a majestic plant in a temperate climate like Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide, the Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens used to have a mass planting of huge ventricosum that would have to have been 8 metres tall with leaves about 5 metres long and had the presence of trees. The height of a 3 story building, they were awe inspiring! Ive tried to google a photo but this is the best I could find that represented their size: