When is it not safe to prune

[Benji]

I'm doing some volunteer gardening work in Goa, South India and have recently learnt it may be bad to prune Banana leaves unless they are really drooping? In some cases I've cut back on really over grown clusters of trees and I'm just checking to make sure that wont have too much impact on the life span and growth of the trees....?

Many thanks

Ben

[harveyc]

Welcome to the forum, Benji!

The more leaves you have the more photosynthesis the plant will have so the plant will be stronger, probably producing larger bunches which mature sooner. Ideally, you should wait until a leaf turns yellow before trimming it off. If it is drooping but still green, it is still providing food to the plant but it is not a big loss to trim it off at this point since it is near the end of its service anyways.

[lorax]

Studies on this very question found that 10 leaves is the minimum for healthy bunch production. However, unless the plants are spaced very close together, I'd leave on everything that's still green and only detrash the dead stuff (yellow and brown leaves, and leaves that are dangling and shredded.)