George

Hi
I took three young bananas off last week and now there are five more growing, is ti OK to keep taking them off as shown on the forum as if I do there may be no roots for the main plants.
Any help?

paula

You may what to send some pics.

George

Hi
I have taken photos of the plants but dont know if you can see them as they are on my gallery (George)

Bananachris

Hi George,
don't worry, be happy. This is normal. A main plant normally produces up to 4 pubs and your main plaint is in the age to do this.

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George

Hi Palua
If I keep on removing the pups what about the root system on the mother plant?
Thanks

MediaHound

I once killed a Dwarf Red that was blooming size by taking off too many pups. I had waited three years for that plant to get to that point. sigh.. I know what you are describing. When you take the pups, you sever the roots of the mother plant.
Don't go totally around the base. Do a star pattern if possible and don't take more than half of them.
Wait for momma to bloom, then take the rest, perhaps leaving one or two.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

George

Hi MediaHound
Thanks for your help I will try and leave one or two as you say until mum has given fruit.

paula

I am kind of new at this. I don't
take my pups off till the fall
when I bring them in.
So maybe someone else
might help with that sorry I
am not much help.

George

No problem, Thanks

jpfloors

Definately follow mediahounds advice... he's probably one of the best experts on here! Afterall he did built this site I've yet to ever have an issue removing pups... but as mediahound said, it can happen but I'm sure you'd of had to have had a LOT of pups to remove for that to happen as well. How many do you think you had removed off of that dw. red Jarred?

I usually remove a few, wait a few months, then remove a few more so that way allow the mother enough time to recover from the last time.

As I'm only a year into musas myself, let me ask this of the more experienced ones, do new roots form over time and even possibly more pup(s) from the spot of severing a pup?

George

Hi MediaHound
I noticed on the site for removing pups use a spade and cut straight down, but what if I dug with a small hand trowel and break off the pups at the root source?
Thanks

jpfloors

Personally I wouldn't even attempt that George, even if you had the entire mother corm out of the soil. They are attached pretty well to mama. You might risk damaging or removing above the meristem, where all growth begins. Digging away and finding the exact spot of contact with the mother could be beneficial though so not to damage too many roots and you could probably take small hand shovel or a sharp knife and sever it that way. I sometimes will use a very large butcher knife if I know the baby isn't too far deep.

I have a baby, that has SIX babies that I'm going to have to remove some before planting (hopefully this week!). If I have time when I get to doing it, I'll take pictures of how I will be doing it and post here. Since the mother is so small, I'm going to remove all the soil and to it with a small pairing knife in an attempt not to damage ANY roots. But when I say a baby having babies, I'm talking a 14-16" mama with 6-12" babies (one just peeking it's head over the soil by a few mm). The mama is a bit younger than I'd like to imagine taking off pups, but she's become infested! That's a good thing!

George

Hi jpfloors
Thanks for the help, when you say 6"to 8" do you mean around or hight?

jpfloors

Those are all heights.