Propogating Banana Plants??

[Erk]

I have had a banana plant for some time now. The bananas are big and fat, and the leaves that grow out of the top of it are huge! Seems almost like new ones sprout one day, and are full size the next day! Its wonderful! My question is how can I reproduce more banana plants? Im trying to add a picture so we all know what kind of plant it is. My LFS doesnt know how to reproduce them??? hahaha :shock:

[fish_r]

just cut a leaf of, leaving a bit of stem and in no time it will reach the substrate and start growing :)

[Erk]

Thanks a lot! I will give that a shot. Just got one of the big leaves off, and let it float around? Until it gets to look like something I can plant? How does nobody at the LFS know this? haha

[pritch33]

hi Erk the newbie just wondering what you call large leaves my banana lillie i had in my last tank had leaves the size of dinner plates floating on the surface
as for there reproduction i had fairly high lighting and the new plants would sprout from the top of the stem on the floating leaves on a runner just from under the lillie pad where the stem joins the lillie pad and would mutiply very quick i was for ever cutting of baby plants and lillie leaves to allow light to the rest of the tank
banana lillie flower
http://thumb16.webshots.net/t/34/35/3/27/19/277732719FLjokf_th.jpg

Ray

[bushie]

isn`t that a snowflake lilly?
I thought these were entirely different plants!

[Erk]

Im not sure what kind of plants you guys are talking about, but I like this one, and I dont wanna mess it up! lol! I have attached some pics of the tank and the plants. I had to take the pics with the camera on my phone, so they kinda suck, but you should get the idea of kinda plant it is. The above pic with the white flower on, I think are different then what I have, I have never seen the white flower on my plant. The banana plant Im talking about is on the left side of the driftwood, with a few big leaves growing out of the top? Sorry if they are very bad quality pics....the next time I get a real digital in my hand I will upload better ones!

Take a look and let me know how I can propogate these things!

Thanks a lot

[Erk]

hmmm...guess I didnt post them like I thought? Oh well, its definetly not the plant in pritch33's post?

Thanks for everyones help!

[ikavia]

What an amazing plant - I have never seen anything like it, but living in Newcastle we aren't exactly spoilt for choice of plants!

What happens with the "bananas"? Do the fish try and eat them or do you just remove after a couple of weeks so they don't rot. Also wondering if the fruit has seeds in it that you could grow?

[ikavia]

Banana lily gets its name from its cluster of thick banana-shaped roots, located close to the leaves near the surface of the water. Banana lily has rounded leaves that have a notch at the base: they resemble small water lily leaves. Banana lily leaves are green above and dull purple below. It has small white five-petalled flowers that arise from below the leaf.

The Banana Lily is an unusual plant to add to your aquarium. You can just drop this in your tank or bury the "bananas" up to 1/4 of their length. This plant will thrive in moderate to strong, bright light. Beginners to experts can grow this plant.

This is a particularly easy plant to grow. It looks great and grows fast. The plants in the picture below are only 10 days from planting in the aquarium. When you purchase the plant it will have little or no foliage. Once the plant has been placed in the aquarium sand it will begin to produce beautiful lily pads in a cluster, as seen in these pictures.

Note in the pictures how to correctly plant banana lilies. The so called "bunch of bananas" should be only partially buried in the sand leaving most of the "bunch" exposed.

Eventually the plant will begin to send long stems to the surface where new surface leaves will form. Removing these stems will extend the life of the foliage at the base of the plant.

The parent plant produces the root formation under the mature lily pads which float at the surface. The stems of the mature pad rot away then the pad with the new plant attached drifts off to find a new home.

[scott bowler]

ikavia you can buy plants on ASA and they will send them to you . if you have a look at the list on that site it will suprise you just what you can get , almost any thing . and if there is some thing that isnt on the list ring bec at xtreme she will try to get it for you , it doesnt cost much to post plants

[ikavia]

I ordered a plant from ASA a few months ago and they didn't include it in my order. I didn't receive any notification they were out of stock so I had just assumed that they didn't post them.

[scott bowler]

let them know they will help you

[fish_r]

Im not sure what kind of plants you guys are talking about, but I like this one, and I dont wanna mess it up! lol! I have attached some pics of the tank and the plants. I had to take the pics with the camera on my phone, so they kinda suck, but you should get the idea of kinda plant it is. The above pic with the white flower on, I think are different then what I have,

same plant m8, just the one in pritches photo is flowering, like ur's would do also with the correct care :)
bannana plant needs med lighting to thrive.
here's a cpl of pics of one i had a while ago

[scott bowler]

far out fish_r is that one of your tanks (is that a salamanda in there sorry spelling is crap) love the bannana plant awesome you alway suprise mate haha

[fish_r]

that was when i first got into planted tanks Scott.
had a few Axolotls, but they were living better than i was, so gave em away. was having to handfeed live crickets etc and was hard work...
i loved the bananna plant but it blocks off too much light,
and the root system was huge :shock:

[Erk]

Great pictures fish_r! I guess I will just let it alone then, I didnt realize they grew like that....I will just continue to wait and see what happens!

Thanks a lot everyone!!

[pritch33]

hi bushie as for what a snowflake lilly is im not sure the plant in my pic was purchased as a banana lilly from an aquarium and is the same as the one in fish_r pics i had it in an 8ft tank and the lilly pads blocked out the light
tank was running around 480watts of lighting and managed to flower quite frequent and produce heaps of baby plants as i desribed earlier

Ray