Musa Basjoo lifespan

[climate change virginia]

Hi I was wondering what is the lifespan of a musa basjoo lifespan rhimozone(roots) not the plant. thanks 

Edited January 6, 2021 by climate change virginia

[ColdBonsai]

Basically immortal in a way since they're all clones of each other and can divide the rhizome into a new plant. Proper care and disease free they could continue into perpetuity. 

[climate change virginia]

13 hours ago, ColdBonsai said:

Basically immortal in a way since they're all clones of each other and can divide the rhizome into a new plant. Proper care and disease free they could continue into perpetuity. 

not trying to bug you or anything but I dont know anything about bananas but does the rhimozone get bigger and split eventually into other root balls

Edited January 6, 2021 by climate change virginia

[Funkthulhu]

Think of the first banana plant as the mother.  If you excavate the mother you will see a large round bulbish shape that the stem is growing out of, this is the "Corm" of the plant.  You'll also see a number of thick roots sticking out of the corm and penetrating deeper into the soil.  The corm is the base of the banana and it will occasionally sprout pups.  The pups start small and grow out horizontally from the mother corm for a bit until the turn up to burst from the soil surface.  Think of the shape of your finger when you make a "come here" wiggle.  The mother corm feeds the pups until they completely establish themselves as new banana pseudo-stems with their own leaves, roots, etc.  They are all interconnected and after a time those interconnected corms become a "mat".  The mother corm will eventually flower and die (they only flower once), at which point the mother corm gets absorbed into the other pups, which are likely now mature bananas themselves.  Once you have more than a few pups this process can continue forever.  

If you want to divide up pups it is pretty easy.  You'll want to dig up the mother corm, wash off the soil, and look for pups that are already starting to form a bulbous corm of their own.  In controlled environments you can also get away with cutting off the smaller pups that are still thin.  (and in a lab you can just make new bananas from cuttings, but let's not go there right now)  I had zero experience with Musa basjoo when I tried this.  Within a couple years I had many individual plants that I could replant in the spring from overwinter pots (I'm in zone 5b).  By fall they would fill the whole planting area with new pseudo-stems and leaves.  Obviously, if you have time and space, the best course is to let nature take its course!  But you can give things a nudge by separating the largest pups once a year or so to plant separately.

Hope this helps! 

[climate change virginia]

On 1/6/2021 at 12:49 PM, Funkthulhu said:

Think of the first banana plant as the mother.  If you excavate the mother you will see a large round bulbish shape that the stem is growing out of, this is the "Corm" of the plant.  You'll also see a number of thick roots sticking out of the corm and penetrating deeper into the soil.  The corm is the base of the banana and it will occasionally sprout pups.  The pups start small and grow out horizontally from the mother corm for a bit until the turn up to burst from the soil surface.  Think of the shape of your finger when you make a "come here" wiggle.  The mother corm feeds the pups until they completely establish themselves as new banana pseudo-stems with their own leaves, roots, etc.  They are all interconnected and after a time those interconnected corms become a "mat".  The mother corm will eventually flower and die (they only flower once), at which point the mother corm gets absorbed into the other pups, which are likely now mature bananas themselves.  Once you have more than a few pups this process can continue forever.  

If you want to divide up pups it is pretty easy.  You'll want to dig up the mother corm, wash off the soil, and look for pups that are already starting to form a bulbous corm of their own.  In controlled environments you can also get away with cutting off the smaller pups that are still thin.  (and in a lab you can just make new bananas from cuttings, but let's not go there right now)  I had zero experience with Musa basjoo when I tried this.  Within a couple years I had many individual plants that I could replant in the spring from overwinter pots (I'm in zone 5b).  By fall they would fill the whole planting area with new pseudo-stems and leaves.  Obviously, if you have time and space, the best course is to let nature take its course!  But you can give things a nudge by separating the largest pups once a year or so to plant separately.

Hope this helps! 

theoretically I could pass this plant down for generations nice. not trying to bug you or anything but could it survive unprotected as a dieback in a warm 7b?

[Funkthulhu]

2 hours ago, climate change virginia said:

theoretically I could pass this plant down for generations nice. not trying to bug you or anything but could it survive unprotected as a dieback in a warm 7b?

I actually had one survive my 5b winter once with a pile of leaves over the stump.  People in the 6-7 zone routinely have overwintering in ground with a bit of prep.