Orinoco Corm

Product Details:

Corms: Corms look like bulbs on the outside and often have the same protective sort of covering. They also have a central growing point where the pseudostem and/or flower will emerge and a basal plate just like that of the bulb. Bananas, Crocus, gladiolus, and freesias all grow from corms. Corms will not show layers like a true bulb does if you cut them. The corm is actually a base for the pseudostem and/or flower stem packed with nutrients and quite solid in texture. As the pseudostem and/or flower starts to grow, the corm shrivels as its nutrients are used up. The corm creates new corms either on top of or next to the desiccated ones. The corms of bananas will die once the plant blooms and produces bananas and new corms will form attached to the old corm, these new corms produce new banana plants called suckers. Because it can take 9 to 15 months for some bananas to bloom and produce fruit it is possible for the original corm to live more than one year. This is not the case with corms that produce flowers every year; they will die once they have produced flowers. Most of your ornamental bananas will produce flowers every year. The bananas that generally bloom every year would be Musa ornata varieties. The Rojo banana is a variety that does not bloom or make bananas, and is generally used for its beautiful colors in the landscape as an ornamental banana.

Musa Orinoco Corm- A nearly ideal banana for many locations. This plant is vigorous and produces large clumps of wind-resistant foliage and gives a very tropical landscape effect. It is relatively cold hardy and easy to grow. Produces large racemes of angular fruit that can be eaten out-of-hand when ripe or cooked when green. Orinoco produced fruit nearly every year. Responds well to heavy fertilizer and lots of water. This is the common street and garden banana in New Orleans and is widely grown along the Gulf coast, south Florida, and Cuba.