How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

As I mention in another post, I have moved permanently into my once holiday home, which up to now I only visited once a year. This means that I have Banana trees of all sizes and I do not know which trees have made bananas bunches and so should be removed. The area is very over crowded so more than half have to be removed.

Is there a way to tell if the tree has fruited in the past?

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

the ones that fruited have died, its the pups your looking at.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

Really, mom dies after fruiting?

So everything still growing has never fruited?

How long after fruiting does mom die?

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

usually everybody cuts mom down. cleans up the mat.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

Is this true?
"Shoots growing from the stool produce pseudostems that yield bananas for about five to six years, after which growers dig up up the rhizome."

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

not sure what your saying here. might be something commercial growers do. but I can not see any use in it you would be replacing it with another pup.

shoots grow off the side of the corm/rhizome to produce new plants. while they can come back from the center its just another pup making its way thru.

I bought a place here in the early 80s that had a couple hundred banana plants that were never tended. I just cut them down when they fruited. the mats still there but not many plants left. I believe drought and not being taken care of eventually took its toll.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

the plant will die after fruting but it takes a while if it has fruited there will be a hard stem were the bunch was removed much harder and tougher than the sudo stem

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

We move them due to bug infestations and disease. I typically leave mine in the ground for at least 3 fruiting sessions.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

Momma stalk will stay alive long enough to support the fruit until they ripen but will not produce any additional leaves once it has fruited. It will eventually die back and rot if it isn't cut back. The mat will send up a pup to replace.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

How long would it take to die back on it's own? How would the OP know if the plants still alive haven't already produced fruit and need to be cut down? I could see this being a problem if there are a bunch of trees that havent been tended to and you'd have no idea if they were last years trees or just older pups and not wanting to cut down pups by mistakenly thinking they have already fruited.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

If the plant is not alive - it will be brown. If it is not brown and someone has harvested the bunch, there should be evidence that it was cut off - if it wasn't harvested there will be a rotten bunch hanging.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

Exactly like TJ said. They make no more leaves after they produce fruit. So you would see the bunch or evidence of it.

I would recommend just clearing out all the smaller pups, leaving 2-3 of the larger pstems. This will reset you! Then you can just manage the pups however you like. Most people leave no more than 1 mom, 1 daughter, then 1 small granddaughter.

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

Thanks for the useful advice!

Very useful to know they make no more leaves after fruiting. I have a few that are growing nice big new leaves which means they have not fruited.

The garden service that use to look after the garden would have taken bananas for themselves and possibly also removed evidence of bunch.

As Ty suggests, I am going to going to choose 2 or 3 Sword Suckers appropriately spaced from each other (6 feet) and remove the rest.

I have about 6 medium sized (under 5 feet tall) pstems that don't seem to do any thing which I will remove. There are more Sword Suckers coming up than I want in the area so I will move the extras to a different part of the garden, maybe a different location will be the charm that finally produces a decent bunch of bananas.

Can you move sword suckers or only water suckers?

How big should I let the sword sucker get before transplanting it?

Re: How to tell if tree has fruited in the past?
 

It is difficult to 'remove the evidence' - look for a big, curved, very hard stem protruding from the final (top) leaf joint - they would have probably cut off that stem to harvest the bunch but would have left some stem on the plant.

Nanas need to be fertilized in order to produce good fruit - thinning your mats won't hurt either. I doubt the yard service provided that care. Are they all the same variety?

Suggest you do some reading and watching u-tubes before you dig up the swords. At your current level of knowledge you would surely kill most of them. There's lots of info re: feeding nanas and 'nana fuel' on this site.
Good Luck :waving: