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View Full Version : to cut or not?


aleons00
06-07-2007, 09:28 PM
i swear i have seen a post on this subject before but cant find it again...
My banana is doing very well now but it is doing so well i have about 6 leaves on it. when i got it it was just a stem with 2 leaves... the others must have been cut off... DO i need to cut off a few leaves or should i leave them on? is there any advantage to cutting them off?

pitangadiego
06-07-2007, 11:24 PM
ANYTHING green stays. Anything yellow or brown can go.

Steve in France
06-08-2007, 06:45 AM
What I normally do with old leaves is , if it's a very small plant I let the leaves get really old and drained of all the good stuff the plant can suck back from the leaf, I figure until a plant has a lot of leaf surface then it needs to recover any reserve it can from a spent leaf. On big plants that are growing well and the look of the plant is more important than it's need to use ever bit of stored energy I cut the old stuff off when it looks messy even if that means there is still some green in the old leaf.On large ornamentals like Ensete I often cut leaves if they are wind damaged or small and spoiling the look of the plant.
On small plants I figure the amount of leaf surface you lose when cutting off old growth is a higher percentage of the overall productive leaf surface than on an older plant with leaf surface to spare. Not sure this is true but it makes sense to me :rolleyes:
Later
Steve