Musa "Mekong Giant"

[brendan]

Heres my two that have been potted in the garden for weeks and starting to grow well now.Sorry about the poor pictures took on my phone.

[Mr List]

seems a good idea to keep them potted until they are producing pups imho.
gives you a night clump effect

glad some people are having some luck with this nana

[Dave Brown]

The pot is extremely heavy on mine, so I think the compost is too moisture retentive. Think I'm going to check out what going on under the surface

[Alexander]

Maybe you need to bake it on a sunny wall! The hottest spot in the garden. Well withy the current extreme hot weather it should be in its comfortzone anyway.

Alexander

[Dave Brown]

Maybe you need to bake it on a sunny wall! The hottest spot in the garden. Well withy the current extreme hot weather it should be in its comfortzone anyway.

Alexander

It's in the open fronted Tropical Island/Lunar Module. Temps to 38C by day, 19 to 23C by night. Full sun from 3pm to 6pm.

It is picking up slowly and first leaf with red splashes on it opened over the last few days, but certainly the slowest banana I have.

[brendan]

The pot is extremely heavy on mine, so I think the compost is too moisture retentive. Think I'm going to check out what going on under the surface

Did you have a look what was going on down below Dave ? My two are potted in mp compost and manure and during the hot spells have sat in a tray of water all day and they have kept growing.Potted up twice this year already and they need potting again so for me they get lots and lots of water.They get sun up until about 2pm

[Alexander]

Maybe you need to bake it on a sunny wall! The hottest spot in the garden. Well withy the current extreme hot weather it should be in its comfortzone anyway.

Alexander

It's in the open fronted Tropical Island/Lunar Module. Temps to 38C by day, 19 to 23C by night. Full sun from 3pm to 6pm.

It is picking up slowly and first leaf with red splashes on it opened over the last few days, but certainly the slowest banana I have.

So you could say that Musa Mekong Giant is not really an option as a gardenplant? If its not growing well under our usseal moderate summer condition then its not really a plant to bodder with. But if it has the same coldhardiness and growing vigor as a Musa basjoo then its worth getting one. And when it gets much bigger then certainly it would be nice to try it here.

Alexander

[pdid]

Mekong forest

I may have a few spare if it carries on!

[GREVILLE]

As it's coming to the end of the growing season I wonder how everyone's MG nanas have been doing.

After one year's almost zero growth and the awful Spring I was seriously worried for mine

The Mekong midget at the bottom left hand corner was still in the greenhouse early on in the summer along with other suffering nanas trying to recover. However, by the end of the hot July it had started to motor, so it was potted on and now seems to have the intention of living up to its real name.

[fern Rob]

I would like grow this plant, it think I would keep it potted and move it in the winter.

[Mr List]

it definitely needs to be grown in a pot until it has many pups.

I had a double stemmer that was about 4-5 foot and I decided to dig one up as I am pretty sure it wont make it through winter.

they basically don't exist underground, there is no corm and hardly any roots. until the rhizome system is established it is basically a couple of leaves you are trying to make survive a winter.

I was digging in the area of the one I have left out in the garden and it has only just started to put out runners so I doubt that will make it through the winter but I will mulch and pray since I have two in back up.

so far not very impressed with the Mekong giant, a much taller/leggier and more slender banana than musa basjoo without any real stand out aesthetic differences

[Dave Brown]

Took a pic of mine yesterday as not at all impressed with it's growth. For a 2 year old Banana this is not good. Maybe it is like Sabal palms, hardy but need a sub-tropical summer to do well. All the lower leaves collapsed in the wind, where as other bananas were a bit shredded.

[Mr List]

mine doesn't seem to be too bad speed wise, not great but not totally useless.

[Alexander]

So the conclussion is that it would be nice under glass but outside its rubbish.

So bassically until now only Musa basjoo is really a good one for outside, and then M. sikkimensis at a very favorable warm spot.

To bad.

Alexander

[Yorkshire Kris]

So the conclussion is that it would be nice under glass but outside its rubbish.

So bassically until now only Musa basjoo is really a good one for outside, and then M. sikkimensis at a very favorable warm spot.

To bad.

Alexander

That assessment is a bit negative don't you think? M sikkimensis grows at least as fast, if not quicker than basjoo even up at my latitude. Also Thai Black grows well for me. I'm sure there are loads of others as I'm not a big banana grower? Saying that if you mean hardiness then agree basjoo seems like the only hardy one.