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asacomm
08-13-2013, 06:34 PM
Hello Friends,

It is always a big trouble to handle long height bananas grwoing in a pot.
So I wonder if there are some effective methods to lower the height of
these big bananas to ease the handling troubles.

There would be various methods to perform this job including "roots restriction"
and "cutting back pseudostem" etc.

Is there anyone who ever tried and succeeded this job?

Illia
08-13-2013, 06:45 PM
There is someone on here who's growing a Dwarf Cavendish indoors and successfully cut back theirs and still got it to flower and fruit, yes. The key is to not cut too late and too low or you'll lose the flower. I don't think root trimming will work but have never tried it.

Personally, I think if you have height concerns, the best solution is to eye shorter cultivars in the future. :) Think about dwarf vartieties, and look for ones that don't often go above the height you can deal with. Some out there rarely ever go beyond 7 feet.

PR-Giants
08-13-2013, 07:00 PM
http://www.bananas.org/f2/paclobutrazol-growth-regulator-pseudostem-16606.html

General Hydroponics Bush Load 8oz Plant Growth Regulator Gravity Bush Master | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/General-Hydroponics-Bush-Load-8oz-Plant-Growth-Regulator-Gravity-Bush-Master-/290827303002?pt=Fertilizer_Soil_Amendments&hash=item43b6a8785a)

Dr Node's Plant Height Regulator 16oz | eBay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/DR-NODES-plant-height-regulator-16Oz-/290874374927?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item43b976bb0f)

asacomm
08-13-2013, 08:03 PM
Thanks friends for your advices.
These regulators seem to be good, but unfortunately
they may not ship to Japan and our country does't sell
this kind of regulators.

PR-Giants
08-13-2013, 08:23 PM
Do you need the phone # ?

ICI Japan Agrochemicals Division, PO Box 411, Tokyo 100, Japan

hanabananaman
08-13-2013, 08:50 PM
Hello Asacomm, I have a banana flowering right now that was cut from 7ft to 4ft last winter. I made a beginner mistake and allowed my Christmas lights to touch the pstem and there was serious damage to the stem in a few places. Most of the spots were small enough to gouge out the damage and leave alone. This plant was too far gone and I had to behead it. It was supposed to be a Blue Java but think its a Namwah. As someone mentioned already I think the only way you can succeed is the plant must not have started to send the flower up yet or you could end up with 1 leaf and then a flower when it grows back. A question for experienced growers I have is if the flower has not started up will the plant hold off on sending it if it can sense that there are no (or very few) leaves. My plant grew back 3ft and flowered at 7ft+. And I am thinking about the timing of when to allow pups to develop so I can manage them in the cold weather but still get fruit the next year. Someday I will learn to post photos, I am currently just trying to stay alive until doctors can figure out why I have lost 1/3 of my weight in
3+ years with no explanation.
Good luck
Larry

LilRaverBoi
08-14-2013, 01:27 PM
Grow Super Dwarf Cavendish.

/thread

PR-Giants
08-14-2013, 08:22 PM
There would be various methods to perform this job including "roots restriction"
and "cutting back pseudostem" etc.



"roots restriction"

Will work very well, but will also restrict flowering.




"cutting back pseudostem"

Will have little or no effect on the final fruiting height.

After about 2 leaves the plant is putting the leaves back to where they would have been.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=54210 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=54210)

sunfish
08-14-2013, 09:12 PM
Grow them at a 45

PR-Giants
08-14-2013, 09:26 PM
Grow them at a 45

Not possible,:08::woohoonaner::08: Japan does't sell angle gauges.

sunfish
08-14-2013, 09:42 PM
Not possible,:08::woohoonaner::08: Japan does't sell angle gauges.

Just eyeball it :woohoonaner:

sunfish
08-14-2013, 09:43 PM
Palm trees growing at a 45 degree angle. | Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/randhowell/51391628/)

asacomm
08-15-2013, 02:34 AM
Grow them at a 45

I don't think it easy to do, because a pot with plant will not stay stable at that angle.
Or do you mean it easy if we use angle guages?
And how do you apply this guage to banana plants?

LilRaverBoi
08-15-2013, 01:53 PM
LOL, Tony is being a smart ass. Don't take his previous comments with any seriousness.

sunfish
08-15-2013, 04:03 PM
LOL, Tony is being a smart ass. Don't take his previous comments with any seriousness.

Actually no. Wasn't Greenfin trying this ?

Abnshrek
08-15-2013, 05:16 PM
Actually no. Wasn't Greenfin trying this ?

He was trying that pointing the top of the banana towards the sun during winter. :^)

GreenFin
08-15-2013, 09:27 PM
I've experimented with both chopping and leaning.

Chopping helped some, but as PR-Giants mentioned, the ensuing leaves will still grow almost as high as they otherwise would have. It seemed like the leaves were a bit bigger at each given height, though (e.g. the leaves that came out 3' off the ground after chopping were bigger/wider than the original leaves that came out at the 3' mark). My plant happened to flower relatively soon after I chopped it back, so the good news is that I've got a DC fruiting at 3' of pstem, but the bad news is that it only has 4 leaves. The biggest positive of the chopping method for me is that it allows me to grow big corms under a short roof, which doesn't immediately do me a lot of good, but which will pay off when I can move them into a new, bigger greenhouse. When the taller greenhouse is ready, it'll be nice to start with huge corms instead of starting from scratch with tiny new plants.

I also tried leaning at a 45 degree angle, but since there was plenty of overhead light (being in a greenhouse), the plants would just bend upward toward it within 2 or 3 days. Since plants grow toward light, the leaning method isn't feasible unless you're controlling the light such that it predominantly hits the plant along the path you want the plant to grow. For example, if you set up a black room with no lights or windows, then aimed a column of appropriate light down on a plant from a 45 degree angle (say, from a spotlight-type growlight), the plant would grow upward at a 45 degree angle. A dark room with one well-lit window near the ceiling might yield a similar result and allow a tilted potted banana to grow 'straight' in that angled direction, but that's an untested idea.