Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

I have a Brazilian that almost fruited before winter. When winter started I wrapped the p-stem with insulation and plastic after removing most of the leaves. (I figured they would freeze anyway without a heat source and made it easier to wrap.) This spring it started growing again, but only made 3 leaves before making a flag leaf. Question: Is it going to be able to make a normal bunch with only 3 leaves? Also, the daughter pup is growing rapidly. Since it is still attached to the mother, will it be able to contribute nutrients to the mother and allow at least a semi-normal bunch of bananas?

Re: Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

I wouldn't worry. 3 leaves is enough. Some succeded with only 1 leaf.
Let the pup be. If you seperate it, you will probably stress the plant and that wouldn't be good. It's going to replace the mother after it's done fruiting.
Let nature do it's thing...

Re: Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

I know a guy growing bananas and after winter and they have no leaves at all. If not for the sucker bananas there would be nothing feeding the fruits. Also when he removes pups they stop producing fruit right in the middle.

Re: Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

Pups do nothing for the mother; once they have they have their own roots the mother does nothing for the pups. However, disturbing any plant's roots (as you do when you remove a pup from alongside the mama) will have repercussions. Unless absolutely necessary you should allow the older plant to finish bearing then cut off the spent p-stem, dig up the entire clump and redistribute the plants/corms.

Re: Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

So where does the energy come from for 5 months with a plant that has no leaves. Until removed the plant is feeding the main corm since in a sense is a siamese twin.

Re: Does daughter pup contribute to mother?
 

The mother plant feeds itselfs through it's own roots. The pseudostem has the same ability than the leaves to take what it needs from the sun.