Transplant tips?

[jf1963]

I am getting ready to transplant my cavendishes into their final pots, any tips? Should I seperate the pups? Ive seen some potted trees where a single pup was left attached. Thank you!!

[Sarah Brubacker]

I grow Cavendish in pots, my final size pot is around 20 gallons, personally I would take off the pups, they catch up with the mom and then there are two big plants in a pot, thats just what I experienced, normally i wait till they are about 3/4 grown and then I let one go. This is what i say, some people might say to let them on?

[jf1963]

About how tall would 3/4 be for a Cavendish? you don't transplant the pups? I was thinking of separating the pup and transplanting but i'm really afraid of damaging both plants by doing something wrong but if they need separated, id rather do it while im transplanting to bigger pot. Thanks!!

[Sarah Brubacker]

If you have a dwarf Cavendish like mine, I would say 3/4 is around 5 feet, for me the last part grows a lot faster then the first part, I'll put some pictures in my gallery, the first picture is of the mom plant in December the small one on the picture is the big one with friut on the next in picture this August, you can see the small one on the last picture will be my next plant, does that make sense?
Yes I transplant mine all the time.
When taking off the pup its very easy out of the pot, just grab ahold of the pup and pull away and kinda down from the plant, it works good if the plant isn't to root bound, I cut if they are too root bound. I would not really be worried about damaging, if you brake off the pup it will make more, mine are getting a pain to me because they make so many pups.
I would not worry about hurting the mom, I never had anything happen to the mom but have broken off the pup, when cutting I would often cut them off, not that size tho. But if you have cut before do it that way, I do both and both work, you just have to know were the corm is so you don't cut it off to high, I have already cut them off to high and got them to grow, i put a grocery bag over top and it keeps the leaves nice till roots grow, i do that with some of the others and i like the results.

[jf1963]

Still learning, so what is the corm?

[jf1963]

Love your plants and i can only hope mine do that good! Being in Missouri, what are your winters like? Looks like you made a greenhouse for your plants?I'm in Ohio so all my plants come in for the winter but my cavendish havent seen any outdoors at all so im trying to determine the best way to overwinter.

[Sarah Brubacker]

The corm is the part were the roots grow. Or thats how I dicribe it.
We can get down to single digits and even below 0, I think last winter we had 0 for the low. Yes fortunately I've got a greenhouse, i have 6 varieties and have around 10 plants I am keeping, the rest I have I need to get sold. Or given away. I am trying some out door ones and see if I can get fruit, I wont cry if they freeze banana plants are very hardy in my opinion.

[kaczercat]

Hi, I have had 50/50 with separating in winter. Some take right away and others take weeks or months to root.
Sarah, glad I ran into you. So you grow them in pots in the GH that seems to work well? Any in ground? Also what's your growing cycle like ( how many months from a small pup to flower)

[Sarah Brubacker]

Yes I already got 4 bunches sizes 98, 50 170 and a super dwarf Cavendish around 30, I also have two plants in the ground, the one made a bunch of 160, the other is 4 feet?
The first two took about a year and a half, they were the ones I bought, the next pups took about 1 year.
Did you get bananas yet? I cant wait till my other varieties produce to taste the difference

[kaczercat]

That's very cool.What is the size of your GH? If you do a search type in greenhouse you will see mine, feel free to post any pics there, I would love to see more of what your set up is like & what you have growing.

I haven't had any bananas yet There is a d.cavendish that is about 5-51/2 feet of stem and I noticed the leaves are starting to stack.The manzano I don't know what's going on with it 7+feet tall. Well at least you can say you've grown them.

[jf1963]

im curious about your greenhouse also. I had one i used and even in winter got to 100 degrees on a sunny day but at night, got down to ambient sub-freezing temps (i was growing ghost peppers at the time, not bananas). which trees are in the ground and how do you get them through a sub 32 degrees winter? i thought about putting a couple in the ground but i was sure a northeast ohio winter would kill them. Thanks!

[Sarah Brubacker]

The greenhouse is 40 by 50, the one end of the greenhouse is around 7 and the other end is 9 feet tall, its a square greenhouse, the north wall is two stone walls, they are about a foot and a half each and about a foot apart (don't know if that makes sence) we made holes in the wall and have a big fan in there that we can turn on when its hot and when its cold the wall is supposed to hold heat as well, then we got 100 50 gallon barrows in there for heat, in the one corner there is a wood stove and we use it alot if its real cold, we need it every evening to keep it around 60º when its real cold,
Unfortunately I still have not figured out how to post on here, everytime i try it does not work.
I have two DC in the ground right now, i might plant some more later but for now thats all i got in there.
Hopefully you get some bananas soon, I have a DC that the leaves just keep getting smaller and I am always sure there will be the flag but it still hasn't? Not sure whats up with it.

[Tytaylor77]

Sarah is an amazing person and grower! I can vouch for her fruiting bananas! I was very suprized by the size of her cavendish bunches! She has major success with that greenhouse!!

Plants you sent are doing great by the way!
Thanks again!

[duaneh]

hi jf where in n e ohio are you I'm in lorain county very close to medina county line maybe we can help each other if your interested like trade pups learn from each others successes and mistakes if reasonably close and interested message me