Hi Terry, Hoping you can help me save my Ae Ae (if it's not too late)I have or had an Ae Ae that was 3.5 tall. I kept in same container it came in for a 1 1/2. I had the "bright' idea of transplanting it to a bigger pot since the roots were coming out from the bottom. It never even grow pups! I placed it in a bigger pot, added miracle grow potting soil (not sure if it was proper or not) fertilized it with Miracle grow and watered it alot. Leaves started to die and I cut them off. Stalk started to be soft and soggy. Kept it dry but it still deteriated. I finally dug it out and cut most of roots and rotten parts out. The area where the stalk came from now has a hole in it. It's sitting atop some soil inside a small pot. It's inside the house with the sunlight from the skylight directly above. What are my chances of this plant coming back to life? My other banana plants do so well in both potted and in-ground. I know I shocked the heck out of it with the transplanting, fertilizing, watering and new location( moved from one side of the yard to the other, but still in the same direction to the sun) I just hope I can have a sencond chance.Thanks for any additionanl help you can give me. katheryne

Hi Helen, I had one for a couple of years, got pups and all but never any fruit. It got hurt one winter and never was the same. It was not as easy to grow as most bananas and I doubt I will ever fork over the money for another one. While they are beautiful, I wouldn't recommend it. Keiki aka Lady

I also have California Gold from Jeff, and have done extensive research on it. It *MAY* have some Philippine origin to it, based on story of Jeff on where he first got it. I have given away for free or for exchange, two of my California Gold pups. I can surely trade it with Ae-ae, or perhaps do it the hard way, like auctioning the California Gold pups on eBay and then buying the Ae-ae for only $99 from an online source. I was just wondering why pay more than $100, when there is an online source that sells them for only $99 without the hassle of a bidding war? As far as I know, there is no online source for California Gold, only occassionally from Jeff Earl when he auctions the pups at eBay. I have two California Gold pups at the moment, but they are 4 ft tall pups, would be willing to trade with whatever sized Ae-ae. Ae-ae and Kru have the same cold sensitivity in our area. One of my potted Krus have died out on me completely when left outside for the winter, it hasn't resprouted. Ae-ae would have the same cold sensitivity, unless it is planted in the ground, it will not survive if left out during the winter. The kru that was planted to the ground, it dies back to the ground level during winter, unlike the other cold hardy ones such as California Gold, Dwarf Brazilian, Gold finger, Misi Luki, Dwarf Namwah, etc, only the leaves die out during the winter, their trunks remain solid and green and resprout at the trunk come spring time, enabling them to fruit in our zone. It will be more work in our zone to take care of Ae-ae if I want it to produce fruits, but would like to have it as novelty plant. California Gold are among the last of the bananas to have their leaves damaged during the winter, of course, nothing beats my Sikkimensis which did not suffer frost bite on the leaves last winter (which was milder than average in zone 9).

I agree with the SLOW growth. I'm in S FL and bought one about 3 feet tall (total). I would say it took about 2 years to bloom. BUT mine did produce pups farily well during this time. By the time it set fruit, it had about 8 pups. Again, a little different as the pups never got very big. Tallest was about 8 inches and looked like a little ice cream cone. I had to move (see earlier post) and had to cut the mother plant off before fruit ripened. I dug up the corm and took it and after planting it, the pups all took off. 2 grew very rapidly and the rest slowly. After I cut these two off, the next 2 took off and 2 new pups appeared. I don't know the technical term but I feel the AE-AE doesn't have the growth energy of other bananas. It can only support the main plant and start pups but doesn't have the energy(?) to get the pups growing also. Maybe in a mature clump, this would be different with several plants growing. Good luck - Terry