RandyGHO

FHIA has the following information in their writeup on their GoldFinger under "Crop Management."

Questions
1. How can I tell which leafs to remove?
2. What does an infected tip look like?
3. Are shoots the same thing as "swords" and "Suckers"?
4. What is a "Sister Shoot?

Thanks

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Kostas

1 & 2: The guidelines about deleafing are to increase air circulation and make it more difficult for leaf fungi to establish on the plant's leafs. The banana leaf specific leaf fungi should not be present in your area and thus you dont have to worry about deleafing. As long as you dont import from tropical countries or from FL without phytosanitary certificate or without following the ''Musa germplasm safe moving protocol'',you should never have to worry about deleafing as the offending fungus wont be present. A few other local leaf spot fungi may rarely attack random leafs with a few spots in warm and very rainy weather but its seldom anything noteworthy. In your zone,your biggest enemy is your winter which anyway causes total leaf loss.

3: Yes

4: I am not sure but i think it means bigger pups.

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Nicolas Naranja

You may want t0 cut off the dead leaves anyways for purely aesthetic purposes. Also I have noticed that wasps like living in the dead leaves.

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caliboy1994

A general rule of thumb is to keep anything that's green and cut off anything that's yellow or brown. Anything that's green is still contributing to the energy of the plant.

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RandyGHO

Kostas, that makes a lot of sense. I open my apple and fruit trees up so they dry better to reduce the fungal pressure. Thanks for taking the time to explain the "Why" on the deleafing.

Nicolas, and caliboy, thanks for the tip on the dead leaves. Wasp I can live without.

Do the commercial growers then only allow one plant per mat instead of the three we most often here recommended?

I really appreciate the replies.

Randy

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venturabananas

If you haven't already, watch this series of videos by Scot Nelson. Very informative and will give you a much better sense of how bananas are grown commercially. They definitely limit the number of suckers.



I took "sister shoot" to mean a pup that forms when the main stem is very small and is about the same size as the main stem. I don't think they are a real problem, just inconvenient for commercial production. What you would do for commercial production isn't necessarily the same thing you would need or want to do in your own yard. For example, Gabe has suggested for home growing to let more pups grow, which spreads out fruit production over more of the year. Though good for home production (it's hard to eat 100+ bananas on a bunch in a short period of time), having more but smaller bunches is inefficient for commercial production.

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bananafarmer

Yes you are right separating pups mostly its a matter for professianal farmers, mostly they left two in order to control growth, later when conditions are good one pup stays.

This one will grow and create the bunch,

but there is one important matter with too many pups, the less pups you have the better the quality of the fruits will be,

in my opinion the taste is also much better when you leave less pups.

Kostas

You are welcome Randy! I am glad i was of assistance!

Even yellow leafs are still contributing to the plant as its relocating nutrients and everything useful and mobile,to living tissues and thus taking back the most it can. So cutting leafs that are yellowing naturally and not from disease,is not the best thing to do in any plant. Brown and dry leafs can be cut without affecting most plants at all except for certain plants which have them persistent for a certain reason which favors their growth. Such an example are Dicksonia antarctica tree ferns which keep a skirt of dead leafs for the purpose of maintaining a humid microclimate around their trunk which favors root growth around it and keeps the plants much happier. Other plants appreciate keeping their dead leafs as well or not messing around with them as they dehisce better on their own when the right time comes. Bananas do not seem to need their dead leafs and at least while younger,dead leafs dehisce perfectly well on their own once ready.

I agree with what Mark says,what commercial producers chose in not necessarily the best for all applications,its just what is easier for commercial purposes. Bear in mind though,that most commercial practices are not taking sustainability and the environment into consideration. So what you will chose to do depends on what you want to achieve and how you want to handle your garden.

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Nicolas Naranja

A lot of that depends on how many mats per acre you have. The higher number of mats per acre the fewer suckers you leave. The optimum number of mats per acre is somewhat dependent on how upright the leaves are. The Nam Wahs need some space, while the Gran Nains and Plantains need less space.

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RandyGHO

That is a lot of interesting information Kostas and Nicolas.

The video was well worth watching. I will google out other videos like that one. I was taken with the minimum size recommended for pup removal.

All this too helps my plans on inground protection come fall.

This is so much like fruit trees in that there is so much to learn.

Thanks again for the informative replies.

Randy

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Nicolas Naranja

You can certainly propagate bananas with smaller suckers, but I have found that I get much better results with large suckers. They seem to handle the move better because they have built up their own reserves.

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RandyGHO

I noticed in one of the videos they planted very large pups but they were cut off about 3 feet tall. I assume that is give the pup a chance to root.

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venturabananas

Yes, I think it is to avoid water loss (and thus, additional stress for the plant) via transpiration through the leaves. And also it just makes the pups easier to transport and plant if they don't have a lot of leaves on them. Nick can probably give you a more definitive answer.

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RandyGHO

That makes sense. It still amazes me what you can do to a banana plant and it still survive and thrive.

I think I will in general, not have a permanent mat. I will pull a large pup and replant in a new location then rejuvenate the old planting mat after fruiting.

I keep thinking too that I want to go all dwarfs for ease of freeze protection.

Thanks everyone. I learned a lot from the replies.

Randy

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venturabananas

There is one advantage to having a permanent mat, and that is that pups attached to a mother plant produce fruit a bit faster than pups that have been separated. In "banana speak" the "ratoon crops" are normally faster and somewhat more productive than the "plant crop", which makes sense because the attached pups can use energy from the mother corm to grow faster.

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Nicolas Naranja

It is to avoid water loss, I will generally either leave a 4" long piece of a newly emerged leaf or leave the cigar leaf intact when planting. I haven't had success when doing anything else.

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RandyGHO

If i get a chance to try it both ways it would be interesting.

Here in zone 8b, bloom timing will be everything I would think. I need to bloom as early as practical so I need to keep good records to try to get a handle on timing or least have educated guesses.

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