Greenie

......If you only had 1 chance to separate a vigorous sword pup thats really deep and attached the the mother corm,which shovel should I use?I have the sharp V shaped,and a Flat shovel also.
Thanks!

D'Andra

Before our first freeze, I used a v shaped shovel to get some pups. I turned it over so it'd dig into the mother plant. This worked fine, but I messed my back up really bad kicking the shovel. That was the begining of Dec. and my back still really hurts and my right leg is constantly numb. The pups are doing great though.

Point of my story is this. Next time I'm using a flat narrow shovel, and I'm not going to be doing acrobatics to collect pups.

I'm trying to get my roomate to make me a tool. Something like a giant screwdriver that I can put between the plants to harvest, and hit it with a hammer. Thereby cutting straight into the mother plant at about a 45 degree angle and popping the pups out.

I'm sure something better exists but I don't have one.
If I had only one chance to do it though...hmmm.
I'd get Gabe to do it!

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D'.

pitangadiego

I use an iron digging bar, with about a 1" dia handle, and the blade on the bottom is about 1-1/2 to 2" wide. It takes a very sturdy handle to allow yo to pry on the pup. The bigger (wider) the tool, the more you disturb the roots of the parent plant, which can adversely affect fruit size and quantity, esp if you are close to flowering.

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JoeS475

I've only ever used a really sharp (and evil looking) knife to separate pups. Great success rate so far. But none of my plants are huge, and all are in pots so a shovel or spade doesn't make sense for me.

~Joe

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AllenF

Pitangadiego;

How long is the digging bar? I am looking at building one for myself.

Thanks

Allen

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You don't have to be crazy to grow Bananas in Alberta, but it helps