Paulwatson

I've got a super Dwarf Cavendish in a reasonably large pot indoors at the moment. It's got 2 pups one very small and the other about 2ft tall. The mother is about 3.5 ft tall. The large pup is growing a new leaf every ten days, but the mother and the small pup aren't growing at all. Do you think I need to separate the pups? Or just repot the whole plant? I've had the mother for a very long time and would hate to think it's dying.

Just to let you know I'm in the UK and the temp outside is still averaging about 11 degrees, Spring is coming but not quite there yet!!!

mrbungalow

I am probably stepping on a few feet here, but in my opinion this plant is genetic waste. All it seems to do is grow a little, pup like crazy, and die down. Sorry for beeing a little harsh here, but this cultivar has really let me down several times. To avoid trouble in the future I'd urge you to get rid of it. :2190:

It seems the best dwarf species for producing fruit in a pot is dwarf brazilian... Can anyone verify?

Erlend

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Paulwatson

What I've heard is that it needs to be in a huge pot to do really well. Last summer it romped away. I think I'll try repotting it as a whole and see what happens.

mrbungalow

If you have had it for that long time and it suddenly stops growing, maybe it's getting ready to produce a flag-leaf? If you do get bananas on a super-dwarf, you are one of the lucky few, and probably great with plants.

Erlend

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momoese

I wouldn't mess with it. It may be ready to flower. Mine is about the same height as your's and I'm expecting a flower anytime now. The frost we had killed all but two leaves so I took the opportunity to remove as much material as possible from the pseudo stem so it won't choke when the flower comes up.

Gabe15

As some have mentioned, Super Dwarf can be a rather stubborn plant and often grows as it pleases even when other bananas may thrive. Indoors it often has a cycle of getting large, then dieing back and pupping like mad before fruiting. The only place I have seen this plant being grown successfully was in the ground in South Florida during the summer, I believe it is because this plant is really intolerable of drastically altering its growing conditions (from my own experience with it.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Paulwatson

Thats true about dyeing back, Mine has only got 2 leaves on it and 1 thats been growing for about 6 weeks. I have repotted it. When I took it out of the pot it was so pot bound poor thing. It's now in a 35 litre pot and it's looking better already this morning.