I need your help )=
 

hello guys just signed up to this wonderful forum. i purchased small william's dwarf banana plant (same as Del Monte bananas) from a local nursery last year around March. i have been spraying it with water and feeding it with a 4: 10 :8 type of feed for some time. the mother plant has not fruited yet, and is getting pretty big so im expecting it do so soon. i have attached some pictures because i am not sure what to do at this point. there is a total of 6 plants growing but i dont know which ones to remove. i know i am supposed to have at least 1 for the next plant to give off fruit. there is the main mother plant with the leaves being as tall as the house, then the next plant that is still around 5 to 6 feet tall, then a smaller plant that is about 4 feet and then some baby plants. can anybody point me in the right direction as to what to do next? which plants i need to pull out so the mother can have enough energy to fruit? im still a noob at this so any suggestions will be appreciated. :nanadrink: thanks everybody.

sorry i took pics today when i came home late. i will take some better ones tomorrow






would like to add that plants are in los angeles California warm weather.

Re: I need your help )=
 

I'm pretty sure that the mother plant will fruit just fine if you leave them all on. At this point, I'm not sure if removing any pups would affect the yield of the plant.

Re: I need your help )=
 

IF you want banana's in another space you can propogate the pups (dig them out), or if not you can cut the plants you don't want at the ground every two weeks or month. I've leave three myself. There's several video's on removing pups on u-tube, more than likely several threads you can search here. The Search Tab is your friend. :^)

Re: I need your help )=
 

thanks alot guys. i will be doing alot of reading on here. instead of just cutting up some of the plants i will give them to a few friends that have been wanting banana plants. i know the sword suckers are still little but would it be preferred to keep that over a a bigger water sucker plant? also is it true that i cant pull at any plants when the mother plant goes into fruiting?

Re: I need your help )=
 

Changing anything after the banana flowers is going to effect your fruit so if you get to many pups the best thing to do is just cut them off at the ground unless you need a follow on.. :^)

Re: I need your help )=
 

ok as suggested im going to keep about 3 of them and get rid of the rest. would it be ideal to keep the 3 largest plants?

Re: I need your help )=
 

Honestly, I say leave everything alone. Seems like you already have the right 'proportions' of the current pups. The little ones aren't hurting anything. I'd leave them on there to ensure you will get fruit regularly from your current mat.

IMO, people worry too much about removing pups and getting the most/biggest fruit. Maybe this is just my view on things, but I prefer a 'let things be' (within reason) attitude. Unless you're a banana plantation/farm that has to produce fruit that not only are of a particular size/quality but that are similar across the board, I say just let the plant do what it does naturally.

Re: I need your help )=
 

I would keep the 3 biggest plus that little sword that's hiding under those 2 water pups. Give those 2 water pups to your friends. Then cut all the pups that come up until u harvest fruit and chop the mother down, then allow one more and so on

Re: I need your help )=
 

thank you everybody!! im going to local nursery tomorrow to purchase some fertilizer for the plants.