I acquired this Ensete 'Maurelii' late last summer for the purpose of propagation. It came in with bugs on it, as so many things I get from unknown sources do, and by the time I was sure that it was free of them and safe to put in my organic greenhouse, the plant was too small and I had missed my window for getting it done during the winter.
After a sufficient soak in the aquaponic bed it became the predictably fast growing monster this plant has a reputation for being. I have large hands, and you can see how fat the base had become:
The downside of these plants is that, unlike Musa bananas, they produce no pups, or offsets to take their place once they bloom and die. The purpose of the gruesome pictures to follow was to force it to produce these offsets by taking away the central growth point. To this end, and after allowing the plant to get well established in its new pot, I chopped it off at 12" above the soil line. I then cut straight down through the center in two perpendicular cuts so that the stump was divided in four parts. There are no pictures of this stump–it was a hard thing to do to such a magnificent plant.
Now, a month after the surgery, I noticed that one of the four sections had reestablished a central plant, so I removed it and potted it up separately. You can see the portions of the original stalk on the left, the new plant growing out of the callous on the right, and the wedge of basal corm that feeds the whole thing below it.
The remaining three pieces were forming what looks to me like an undifferentiated callous in the center. It is from this tissue that I hope to harvest multiple baby plants.
I'm curious as to how these will develop if left on their own, so I left two in the pot. The third I pulled out to plant on its own.
This one I laid back on its side in a pot so that the new growth was on top. I added good nursery potting mix up to the tops of the roots. Then I added high grade propagation mix of the type I use for cuttings and seedlings up to where it just covered this growth. The old leaf stalks still stick out the side, and the propagation mix breathes well and doesn't contain any pathogens. We'll see what pops up.
