| "It was my understanding that the lack of vigor lasts a long time, if not forever." Water suckers may take a year or more (depending on factors such as climate, soil, the way they were formed on the original root system, etc) to become established, but, once established, should become a normal plant with the same qualities as plants originating from sword leaf suckers. Again, the genetics are the same; it's just that the sword leaf suckers get a large head start in life. I just googled 'water suckers banana' and this link from discussions at bananas.org popped up as the first result. The quote from an ag professor in the first post seems to agree with what I described. Once the plant becomes established and starts producing offsets (no longer considered first generation), it becomes equivalent to a plant originating from a sword leaf sucker. |
Here is a link that might be useful: See Professor's Quote