Musa "Mekong Giant"

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Dave Brown
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Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Dave Brown »

Mr List wrote:well i was thinking it would be nice for random pstems to grow each year and get frosted down , makes the garden a bit different each year,
but the idea of beer can sized rhizomes smashing their way around underground sounds harmful to my other plants.

how will my expensive scheffleras and polycarpa take to having these runners nearby?
I think you are becoming paranoid :lol: Trees from 20ft away could be doing the same, but unless you constantly dig to check, you wouldn't know.
Mr List wrote: ps

so you have no bamboo at all dave?
but fargesia can't run, at all,ever,impossible.
clumping types can't run.
icon_scratch
I'm trying to have no bamboo, but it keeps coming back from amongst other shrubs. The number of times I have been told certain bamboo "doesn't run".... even P. niger, which has the world domination gene twice over. :ahhh!:
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Dave
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Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

i don't think i could live without bamboo
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Mr List wrote:i don't think i could live without bamboo

It tastes very nice in a stir-fry but too much can lead to arsnic build up.

Better stick to bananas. :D
GREVILLE

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by GREVILLE »

All this paranoia over Giant Mekongs, I've been wandering why mine has mutated to Mekong Dwarf. Having left it outside in a semi-shaded spot for close on a second week, I spotted a roller icon_cheers I feel inclined to introduce unbounded ecstasy to the thread.
Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

here is my little mutant, you can tell they shouldn't grow as a clump normally because this is really slow atm.


each has started to grow it's own roots so will hopefully speed up icon_thumleft


Image
GREVILLE

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by GREVILLE »

It looks like the Leeds Mekong Giant Nursery will soon be a 'listed' business and West Yorkshires' rival to Brian's Botanicals :D After two more inches on the new roller in two days, I should be able to join in the competition soon icon_thumright
Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

watering with hot water seems to be the best thing for mine to keep them moving :wink:
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Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Dave Brown »

That 'experiment' by sending via a courier to propagate them, seems to work quite well, and you will end up with quite an unusual appearance with multi trunks from a single point. icon_thumright

If we were to try to recreate it, we may need to remove any pup rhizomes, or it may just switch growth to those rather than multi trunking.
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Dave
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Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

looking at them i think they will just become independant and will grow as single plants next to each other and each produce their own rhizomes.

i don't know how it would work on a mature plant, might have only worked because it was a small TC plug
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Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Dave Brown »

Basically the rot killed the meristem and most Musa will then send up several shoots from the rhizome / corm. They will all be the same plant unless you cut the rhizome, much the same as a Canna. :wink: If it was already pupping the chances are that it would have just put it's energy into the pups, but as was too small it has re sprouted with several shoots.
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Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

well i guess it depends on how it can pup from the rhizome to whether you could just chop them off a mature plant to try and damage the meristem.

if it can pup anywhere along a rhizome then it most likely wouldn't be enough to just cut them off.

i think you would need to take a new pup from a runner as soon as possible and damage the meristem before it had a big corm if it were to produce multiple stems like mine.
miketropic

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by miketropic »

thought you might want to see this Mr. List.. I was at Brians and we were hunting for a veluntina banana that was supposed to be flowering but was lost in the jungle. I literally tripped over this..rhizome off a mekong. so this is what your in for :lol:

Image

it really is a giant icon_thumleft
Last edited by miketropic on Sat Sep 22, 2012 9:40 pm, edited 3 times in total.
GREVILLE

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by GREVILLE »

miketropic wrote:though you might want to see this Mr. List.. I was at Brians and we were hunting for a banana that was supposed to be flowering but was lost in the jungle. I literally tripped over this..rhizome off a mekong. so this is what your in for :lol:

Image

it really is a giant icon_thumleft
I told you! We're doomed! we'll all be murdered in our beds - strangled while we sleep by a Mekong rhizome :ahhh!:
Mr List

Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Mr List »

thanks bud, any extra info on these are much appreciated. icon_thumleft
(couldn't you just spend all day at brians doing a documentry on one :lol: )

it's weird, never seen anything like it.

surface rhizomes are good though, not damaging and easy to get at for propagation.

do the shoots just come off the rhizomes or do corms form at ends of rhizomes?

looks kind of like my pseudosasa japaonica running bamboo in that picture.
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Yorkshire Kris
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Re: Musa "Mekong Giant"

Post by Yorkshire Kris »

Well that is a surprise! Not seen a banana do that before.
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