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View Full Version : How big does a banana plant need to be to make pups?


stevelau1911
07-19-2010, 06:39 PM
After getting a few starter basjoo plugs from ebay this spring, my bananas are now getting up to 2-3ft tall with stems easily over 2 inches in diameter. How much bigger do they need to get to start giving me their first litter?

Here's the current size. I'm hopping to get my first litter in another month so that I can separate them from the mother and nurture them indoors.
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=34489&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=34489&ppuser=6098)

kaczercat
07-19-2010, 06:44 PM
basjoo hmmm , you should get a pup or 2 next month, only time will tell.

sunfish
07-19-2010, 06:50 PM
I don't know about Basjoo but here's a tc Misi Luki
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=34170&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=34170&ppuser=2868)

Abnshrek
07-19-2010, 06:57 PM
It shouldn't be long.. that's for sure :^)

stevelau1911
07-19-2010, 08:28 PM
That sounds good. I'm hoping to get more pups because that will increase the survival rate of the plants since I'll have more to work with. I expect these basjoos to be enormous by the end of the year and hopefully I'll be able to over-winter the psuedo-stem. It's really hard to tell how high the psuedo-stem is so I'll probably keep cutting it until it reaches a solid point when I plan to over-winter it in about 4 months.

palmtree
07-19-2010, 10:46 PM
Mine are a little bigger than yours (and newly planted), but it has no pups yet. I do think they are coming soon on mine and I think you will be seeing some pups on yours this season also.
Good luck!

Dean W.
07-19-2010, 11:07 PM
It just depends on the plant. I have a Hua Moa that produced a pup and it was only about 6" tall at the time. Others wont do it tell later.

exovetek
07-19-2010, 11:44 PM
My Siam ruby is multiplying like rabits at only 2-3 ft high. I don't think that these things ever needed TC to get them off the "rare" list. They would've done it on their own.

mbfirey
07-20-2010, 06:25 AM
Got a bordelon in a 4" pot about a month ago, and within a week or so it had 4 pups.

cherokee_greg
07-20-2010, 02:37 PM
Got a bordelon in a 4" pot about a month ago, and within a week or so it had 4 pups.

I have three and they all have a bunch of pups coming up.

stevelau1911
08-01-2010, 03:04 PM
It really didn't take long because I finally see my first pup on my musa basjoo which has a corm pushing past 3 inches in diameter and leaves up to 3ft tall. I expect several more pups to be on their way and this banana plant to double in height by the end of the growing season.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=35129&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=35129&ppuser=6098)

Richard
08-02-2010, 12:14 AM
How big does a banana plant need to be to make pups?
It depends on the cultivar and the growing conditions. But since the Musa species and hybrids all send out rhizomes, if you grow the main corm in a confined space such as a minimal size pot, it will produce pups in a short period of time.

Gabe15
08-02-2010, 02:52 AM
It depends on the cultivar and the growing conditions. But since the Musa species and hybrids all send out rhizomes, if you grow the main corm in a confined space such as a minimal size pot, it will produce pups in a short period of time.

Almost every variety I have ever grown produces less suckers (or no suckers) in a container, in fact, it will even start to create them, but they remain under the soil until they are planted or put in a larger container. Is this a technique that works for you?

As others mentioned, there is no size rule and it varies tremendously by the planting material being used, how it was treated, the conditions and the variety.

LilRaverBoi
08-02-2010, 11:18 AM
Yeah, it really varies widely with the variety and the conditions the plant receives. I've seen plants pup when they were merely pups themselves (parent plant only ~6 inches tall). I've also seen plants (like my Ice Cream) get 6-7 feet of pstem and be larger around than I can stick both hands around and not have a pup. So there really is no 'official' answer.

Oh, just be sure you wait till the pups are large enough before separating them. I'd hate for you to lose them because you got anxious.

stevelau1911
08-02-2010, 11:53 AM
This tiny pup looks like it at tripled in size today and put out a true leaf already so I'm expecting it to grow at a faster rate than the original plant grew since it is attached to the mother plant. I will however remove it when it gets up over 1ft tall because I want the mother p-stem to keep getting bigger without competition.

LilRaverBoi
08-02-2010, 12:02 PM
Pups don't significantly affect the growth of the main plant. They do, however, affect bunch size/development, but with a Basjoo, who cares? I'd leave it on there until you have to remove it. The larger it is, the better chance of survival it has when separated.

stevelau1911
08-03-2010, 04:12 PM
Today I noticed another pup on the same basjoo on the opposite side so I think I won't have to worry too much about pup production.

They are growing exponentially which is good.

Richard
08-03-2010, 10:58 PM
It depends on the cultivar and the growing conditions. But since the Musa species and hybrids all send out rhizomes, if you grow the main corm in a confined space such as a minimal size pot, it will produce pups in a short period of time.

Almost every variety I have ever grown produces less suckers (or no suckers) in a container, in fact, it will even start to create them, but they remain under the soil until they are planted or put in a larger container. Is this a technique that works for you?

Yes. They are also on a steady diet of 20-5-30.