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funsocaltiger
08-18-2008, 12:56 PM
Hi All,

I am moving to a new house this weekend and want your advice/opinions on how best to move my bananas. First of all the plants I am concerned about are Ice Creams. The main two plants have p-stems of about 6' and 10' and both have suckers which are all at least a few feet tall.

1) Should I attempt to move the mother plants (6' and 10')? Or just the suckers (maybe 2-3' pstem). At the new house I will NOT be able to plant in the ground. These will have to be potted. FYI this is a (hopefully) temporary housing situation for about 6 months so I will be able to plant in the ground in the future.

2) If I attempt to move the mother plants, should I cut these down and just move the corm? If so, how low down on the pstem would you cut? These are definitely too tall to easily move with the leaves and all but I could definitely move the entire corm/pstem if necessary.

FWIW I'll be putting these in pots and try to preserve as much of the rooting/tubers as possible to minimize shock.

Laurence

capthof
08-18-2008, 02:17 PM
funsocaltiger;
Ice cream plants can get pretty tall, potting a large one could be difficult. My experience with moving large plants has not been very successful; Especially above 4 feet it is tough. Some times the mother plant dies but it can still produce pups. You might do better to just take the pups with you. Let them root in a pot and transfer them later.

funsocaltiger
08-18-2008, 02:28 PM
funsocaltiger;
Ice cream plants can get pretty tall, potting a large one could be difficult. My experience with moving large plants has not been very successful; Especially above 4 feet it is tough. Some times the mother plant dies but it can still produce pups. You might do better to just take the pups with you. Let them root in a pot and transfer them later.

Thanks for this input. I was considering this too. Keeping the mother plant 100% intact isn't really an option of me (way too big) and I don't think I have a pot big enough to sustain it anyway. The pups are just about the right size that in 6 months when I move again they would do great in the ground.

microfarmer
08-18-2008, 10:49 PM
Well there you have it, then...:ha:

Chironex
08-18-2008, 11:00 PM
I would cut the pstem down to about 18-24" above the ground and excavate the whole corm. They will be fine. Wait until a day or two before you have to leave, then dig them out whole.

microfarmer
08-18-2008, 11:17 PM
I would cut the pstem down to about 18-24" above the ground and excavate the whole corm. They will be fine. Wait until a day or two before you have to leave, then dig them out whole.

And don't forget to buy a huge container :ha:

Dean W.
08-19-2008, 09:58 AM
Laurence,

I've bought some bananas off Craig's List before and they were very big. All I did was dig them up and planted them in 10-gallon containers with good potting soil. They must have been 5-6' tall. When I went to plant them in the ground the roots had completly filled the containers.

pitangadiego
08-19-2008, 01:18 PM
The 10 footer is probably close to flowering, and the move will stress it severely, and fruiting will be adversely affected. I would leave it. I have moved bigger, but only to in-ground situations. The 6' in a large container, as a temp home is doable. I would pot up the pups seperately, and plan on re-establishing you patch using them. As always, take all the roots you can.