mari@adams.net

I have been removing pups (all 2+feet tall) from my mother banana plants in hoping it would free the mother plant to perhaps put it's strength into a bloom. Is my thinking wrong? Does the pups help the mother plant bear a banana bloom sooner? This is the 2nd year for the mother plants.

Starstryke

I do not think it is a good idea to remove all the pups. The corm makes pups because when a psuedostem fruits it dies and it needs a pup to make a new plant.

Richard

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edwmax

Those 1st year 2 ft tall pups were your 2nd or 3 year bloomers/fruit.

I disagree with most comments and directions by forum members about separation of pups from the mother corm. Leave them alone and remove those you need to expand your patch or garden and give away.

First you have to understand that the mother plant knows what it is doing and doing what it was breed to do for 1000ens of years. .... A young pup doesn't take that much nourishment from the mother corm. However, when it has grown it own roots the pup will contribute nourishment to the corm/mother and if directly attached to the mother corm will help increase it size. ... The mother corm can and will get very big if the pups are not cut from it. ... The extra pups may be needed if another hard winter comes again like last years'.

Just realize the pups are separate plants and add extra fertilizer & water according to it's size needs.


I don't think the pups has much bearing on when the mother plant will bloom. Each Banana variety has a certain number of 'growing days' required to bloom. Height & number of leaves has a some effect but variable. The stem will fruit at the required time and/or will die

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bananimal

Leave those puppies be. And use a high potassium fertilizer once a month!

cincinnana

Are the plants kept in the ground all year long or do you have them in pots?
Has your neighbors plant ever bloomed?

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mari@adams.net

Thanks for all your valuable information....none of my neighbors have banana plants, they are rare to this area. One lady did have a plant that did flower and fruit and that led me into banana plants, but that is the only one in my town. Mine were all in pots (bought last year), cut all but one leaf off them and kept them in my basement (heated)in their pots through the winter. Gets below *0 here winters. This year I put some of them in the ground and they grew much faster. I will have to pull them up (will leave some of the hardy Basjoos heavily mulched, in the ground to see how they do this winter outside. The D. Cavendish all have to be put in basement for the winter. Thought getting the pups off would make it easier to move for winter as they are getting big and will be heavy. Any advice on moving these in for winter would be appreciated. I am learning by my experience and what I read here and the internet. I had been watering with a miracle grow high nitrogen liquid fertilizer and have started using 10-10-10 granular. Put banana peels in when I repot. What is a good potassium fertilizer? Will crushing a potassium tablet work?

kaczercat

Grown them in pots and in the ground. As soon as there is two pups or more the growth is noticeably slower. Being in a low zone you want to grow the main corm as much as you can in the season..not worrying about pups. In an adequate climate all else said is very true.

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Matt