Mystery Musa Update

The Mystery Musa is probably a Musa 'Dwarf Orinoco' (ABB). I had originally thought this bunch looked like that of a DO, but I had thought DO fruit had to be triangular in cross section, whereas these fruit had 4 or 5 sides. Turns out DO fruit just needs to be angular, not necessarily triangular.

The recent cloudy cold spell (temps down to about -8F) has kept growth to a minimum.  The main change has been the appearance of brown spots on the tops of the fruits, presumably an indication of cold damage.  Here are some pics:

And here are a couple of pics from a neighboring mat.  This was sold to me as Raja Puri, but it lacks the requisite red edging on the petioles, so I fear that it, too, is a Dwarf Orinoco. 

 

Unknown Musa

This banana was sold to me as a Musa 'Double' (AAA), which is a type of Cavendish banana, the yellow bananas so commonly seen in American grocery stores.

Cavendish bananas typically have wine marks on juvenile leaves and wide-open petioles (the part of the leaf between the blade and the trunk-like pseudostem), but my plant has never had any wine marks (I got it as a 4" tall baby) and has petioles that range from 2/3 to fully closed, which is a trait associated with ABB and AAB varieties rather than AAA varieties.  Furthermore, whereas Cavendish bananas are extremely susceptible to cold (like my 'Dwarf Cavendish' and 'Williams Hybrid' planted nearby that went dormant early on and started dying back), this plant has kept pace with my hardiest varieties.

My best guess heading into the inflorescence was that it was either a 'Dwarf Namwah' (ABB) or 'Raja Puri' (AAB).  Now that it has started flowering (p-stem 5'6") and the first hand is exposed, DN appears unlikely, since Namwahs have purple pedicels (the connectors between the individual fruits and the base of the hand), but this plant produces green pedicels.  [see http://www.bananas.org/f2/ice-cream-blue-java-flag-leaf-16568.html for pics of purple pedicels on a Namwah]

Pics of the fruit and the petioles:

Some additional pics (I used a water heater to help keep the flower going):

Winter 2014 Aquaponics Update

High tunnel aquaponics system (no need for this nonstop lettuce rotation to be pretty, most of the heads just get tossed into the water as fish food):

Semi-pit tunnel greenhouse:

Rooting some fig cuttings:

Fig pics

Here are some pics from early October of the 2nd-year figs I'm growing. They didn't start going dormant until the outside temps dropped to near-zero recently.

LSU Purple

Green Ischia

Black Mission

Another Dwarf Cavendish Inflorescence

Here's a DC blooming at just 3.5' of pstem. It doesn't have many leaves because they kept getting fried from too much light/heat and not enough water.

Here's an updated pic of the Williams Hybrid bunch:

Bananas in the Mist

Freezing rain has been pelting down outside all day. In the greenhouse, where the air is about 20F warmer, a misty haze hangs in the air.

Fruiting Progress in the Semi-Pit Tunnel Greenhouse

The Williams Hybrid is fruiting:

The Dwarf Cavendish just sent up a flag leaf (this DC is a pup of the DC that fruited earlier):

The Double is loaded with 16 leaves and should be sending up a flag leaf at any time:

The Fake Ice Cream (actually a Namwah) also looks like it's about to burst:

The Dwarf Namwah, Raja Puri, and Dwarf Orinoco all seem like they could throw up a flag at any time, too.