I have grown Ae Ae in my atrium in Sacramento, California. It is also called Royal Hawaiian Banana because up until a 100 or so years ago...Read More only the royal family of hawaii was allowed to own it (so I have been told). Now, I don't know where it is native to but obviously it is just a plant there and available to whoever. They are rare, I have looked all over Hawaii for them, I only found one in a yard on Maui and one in a yard on Oahu. In California a small little pup in a 1 to 5 gallon container will cost you about 125 to 175 dollars if you can find one. Mine flowered and produced 140 bananas. They started out green with white stripes and then turned yellow with white stripes. The small ones were 4" long and the large ones were 8 inches long, we ate them all and they were fantastic, much better than store bought bananas. The banana meat had a slight orange-ish tint along the center of the banana. The trunk was about 15 feet tall where the flower stem came out, with leaves the plant hit the 21 foot tall ceiling. That plant produced pups and the leaves of the next plant hit the 21 foot ceiling then proceded to grow and hang down another 7 feet so, the plant with the leaves streached out would be over 28 feet long. It grew this tall one in one to one and a half year. I have 4 of these now in big pots and as soon as they start producing pups I will sell the pups. If you want one and can come to Sacramento, let me know and i will put you on my waiting list. I will give you an email address, I don't check it very often, so don't expect a reply for a while. I won't have any for sale until late 2010 or 2011 anyway. Email........ purepowerandair@comcast.net
I have some of these I got from my cousin. When I first got them I thought they needed special care. I have read elsewhere they need soil...Read More on the acidic side. My cousin told me they can take acidic soil but they will grow very slow. He told me to use 50% regular miracle grow potting soil and 50% manure and leave the soil PH at regular levels. I did what he said and now I am getting a new leaf every week or 2.
I Bought this plant from a source in Florida 4 years ago and almost lost it to Hurricane Rita. I year after it is thriving in my back gar...Read Moreden. It is my favorite plant ever and I have a long established plant collecting background that extends from all parts of Texas all the way to Venezuela and various parts of Europe. Personaly I find this Musa variety to be somewhat promlematic. It prefers an acidic soil of very, very high quality. I have growen it in full sun with alot of sucess ( it thrived and produced fruit) not to mentioned many 'pups' which I glagly gave to my Horticulture freinds. Before the temperture drops below 50 degrees F I will be sure to seperate and pot all pups into pots with a super high quality mix of spaghnam peat moss and perlite and maintain at temps above 50 degrees F. I will also make sure to wrap the remaining plants with what ever type of insulating material I can come up with. I really don't want to loose this plant!! Please remember the best and most likly way to change or maintain an acidic soil is with spagnum peat moss , not wiith Miracid. I do fertilize with Miracid and the Ae Ae's do respond very well, however you must begin with an acidic soil.
I acquired my Ae-Ae just over one year ago from Natural Selections. The day it arrived I planted it in a large tree pot in a mix of pott...Read Moreing soil and compost, to which I added coffee beans and ground coffee in order to make the soil more acid. Then I watched as my beautiful and expensive new plant went into shock, and over a two month period dwindled down to a single leaf before it got over itself and decided a life outside in Southern California is worth living. Today it is tall and beautiful and growing at a slow but steady rate when compared to other types of banana plants. I have added more soil and coffee beans to the pot several times and have recently started using Miracid fertilizer instead of Osmocote supplemented with Miracle Grow. I switched to Miracid because several leaves had less variegation than the ones that preceded them. After using this fertilizer several times to acidify the soil, the recent leaves have better variegation. Is this a coincidence? The plant has a small pup that has never gotten beyond the button stage. It stopped growing once the parent plant increased its variegation. The parent plant has sped up its own growth and looks better than ever. Needless to say, I would like Junior to grow up so I can separate it from its mother. Any suggestions on how I can encourage Junior to grow?
I also grow Rojo bananas, and when I lived in Florida during my childhood we grew Lady Finger and Orinoco bananas. This variety isn’t as easy to care for as the others. It is a not a plant for a novice grower but well worth it for a serious lover of tropical plants.
Jacksonville, FL (Zone 9b) | September 2004 | positive
Two of my neighbors have had banana trees for many years. Enjoyed their lucious fruit.
Got about a 3' one for myself 3...Read More yrs ago, kept it in a planter just until this year. Made a special garden with the banana tree gracing the center. The beauty of it's new growth seems to be telling me how happy it is now. I look forward to harvesting my own bananas.
I have seen some of the actual bananas from this plant at a local health food store and they are very unusual in their varigated green an...Read Mored white stripes, I have tried to locate a grower to get a small "keiki" (baby) plant, but no one seems to know who grows it here....!!!!! (in the East side of the Big Island of Hawaii)
The produce department manager said that the person who had sold them to her (that one time) has dropped of her radar screen and she can't locate him....
This plant is said to have been consumed by Hawaiian royalty. It is so beautiful, everyone that walks by comments on it gorgeous foliage...Read More. I received it as a gift from a friend, I had never hear of it before, the vendor called it a AE AE Banana or Variegated Hawaiian Banana. Whatever it is I haven't seen them anywhere else except Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. I highly recommend it. Grows very fast.
Ae Ae is a different hybrid from Florida variegated. Just saying...
I have 4 of these plants if any1 would like 1 I prefer local pick up only I live in Lakeland, FL and I am ask 90 dollars for a 3-4 foot plant kub
I have grown Ae Ae in my atrium in Sacramento, California. It is also called Royal Hawaiian Banana because up until a 100 or so years ago...Read More
I have some of these I got from my cousin. When I first got them I thought they needed special care. I have read elsewhere they need soil...Read More
I Bought this plant from a source in Florida 4 years ago and almost lost it to Hurricane Rita. I year after it is thriving in my back gar...Read More
I acquired my Ae-Ae just over one year ago from Natural Selections. The day it arrived I planted it in a large tree pot in a mix of pott...Read More
Two of my neighbors have had banana trees for many years. Enjoyed their lucious fruit.
Got about a 3' one for myself 3...Read More
I have seen some of the actual bananas from this plant at a local health food store and they are very unusual in their varigated green an...Read More
This plant is said to have been consumed by Hawaiian royalty. It is so beautiful, everyone that walks by comments on it gorgeous foliage...Read More