How close to a Gros Michel dare I plant another nana?
 

Thanks to the kindness of Venturabanana (and the midwifery of Alan C whose forum name I don't know) I will be acquiring a long-wanted Dwarf Nam Wah pup on Saturday. The dilemma of course is where to put it. I planned way back when (and I'm talking years) to finally pull out my Gros Michel which has really gotten too tall for me and use that spot. The Gros Michel, however, had other ideas and kept shooting out bananas which made it very hard to sacrifice the beast. Now I am down to only two plants and will probably remove one of those tomorrow (yes, the other one is pregnant) but though I am being pretty thorough about hacking out the stumps and roots, I know my GM (thank you sdarkman) is a very determined creature and I worry the DNM won't be able to compete. There is already a fairly new (6'tall Goldfinger) about 6'away from my chosen spot and then a mat of Becky's Mystery and another of Dwarf Brazilian (and yes, I know these are probably the same banana but they were both gifts) in the other direction with a lovely little coffee plant enjoying their shade and company. So I am sort of short on options. Am I just asking for trouble putting the Dwarf Nam Wah in my old Gros Michel mat? The only alternative is taking out my figs.

Re: How close to a Gros Michel dare I plant another nana?
 

I think the real problem here is that you are too good at taking care of your plants!

Haha, I have a Namwah and its also a beast.

Put out a sucker on my daughters birthday, and then later in the month, but out another on mothers day!

As long as it's warm enough, the Namwah should take off pretty well. But if you leave a tiny small chunk of the Rhizome of the GM, you might just think that its a Namwah pup lol.

Very cool to see success stories though.

Good luck, bumping the post!

Re: How close to a Gros Michel dare I plant another nana?
 

Thank you! I now have three separate bunches o' nanas ripening (all either Dwarf Brazilian or Becky's Mystery.) And the little Dwarf Nam Wah seems to be holding it own. Given all the rain we had (and are having this morning!) I seem to spend my life weeding or battling the bees who really do not want me to clean out the greywater line in front of their hive. But I think my last Gros Michel will be coming down soon, sniff. Age has its benefits (senior discounts!) but being unable to handle the supports required by enormous banana plants is not one of them.