My bananas weathered the unprecedented 11 days of freeze/frost sufficiently well to have bounced back rather nicely by now. There are many pups, and on some plants, there is still a lot of dead material. I have several questions.

How do I know what material needs to be cut and how do I cut it?

Should I move pups (and 3 foot tall sub-plants) away from the originals, and how is this best done?

Given 7 gallon and 15 gallon pots available, how does one transition a banana plant into one of these pots, and would a 50/50 manure-compost:dirt ratio be suitable?

With the above pot sizes, what are my banana plant size limitations, and what problems should I expect? It will be temporary, until I move, but could be up to 6 months.

Thanks folks. If you would like pictures to see exactly what I'm talking about, I will try to get some good photos now if it's not too dark.

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

I'm just gonna tackle the trimming aspect of this and let the more experienced soil/transplant people answer the other questions. As far as trimming, you can remove anything dry and brown. I would suggest starting at the bottom and working your way upward (and inward). It works easy enough to just use a nice set of scissors or garden shears. Peel back anything on the outside that is brown/dry and cut it off. Once you start to get far enough in, you will see green pseudostem. Peel the dead leaves away from the plant to expose the green (as it will provide the plant with more area for photosynthesis...actually if it's been covered all this time it will likely be pale green or whitish). Once the piece you're gently peeling turns into firm tissue, cut at that point (you can leave a centimeter of brown/dry material).

If you find anything brown and squishy along the way, remove it as well. This is rot and will likely spread if not removed. You can usually peel back layers on the outside to remove it, or if it is all the way through, cut the pseudostem down till you are seeing firm healthy tissue again.

Hope that helps! Best of luck and great pictures!

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

Well I'd do it just like Bryan describes. Bottom to the top, outside in. :^) Nice Pic's

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

There are no materials that ''need'' to be cut and they actually look very beautyfull and natural that way. But if you *want* to remove the brown and dried leafs,you certainly can the way LilRaverBoi describes.

Do you want to transplant in pots the whole banana mats to take them with you at your new house or do you just want to pot pups of these plants?

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

Ivanof, I don't know what conditions might be local to where you are, but for my plants, I need to keep them trimmed free of the dead leaves right down to the pseudostem; LilRaverBoi has described this quite well. If not kept clean like this, we get a lot more infestations of fungal growth as well as stem borers. Also, for our field plants, we use nothing but very sharp knives or a machete type tool.

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

I'm sure it's just preference, but to me, leaving all that dead material just looks unkempt, disheveled and generally uncared for, IMO. Then again, I'm a major perfectionist, so I trim my naners up all the time LOL. :ha:

And consequently, it kinda looks like a fire-hazard as well. But again, preference.

Re: Need Guidance for Pruning/Thinning and Container Transplants
 

I personally like the rainforest,jungly look where man hasnt touched anything so i generally like to leave the dead leafs hang as they would do in nature and also to leave all fallen leafs and branches on the ground,where they fall unless there is a plant below...I do however have to trim the dead leafs sometimes on my most visible plants to keep them attractive looking to my mother's eyes...She's a Perfectionist too,you see! :^)

In my area,surrounded by crispy native plants during the summer season,some dead banana and palm leafs arent a considerable fire hazard! The rest of the year we get good rain and with lots of humidity!:woohoonaner:

But,exactly as you say,that is just a matter of personal preference and each of us should make its own decission on that based on his view unless of course he lives in banana weevil infested countries where he pest management criteria come into play.