Originally Posted by Johngoldcoast

If you plant a water sucker and it grows will it produce its own sword suckers as it gets bigger? I think I may have been given water suckers and have planted those.

Originally Posted by frog7994

What variety is that? Is it anew one that grows beer pups? I would like to buy one from ya. Name your price.

Originally Posted by Gabe15

Roots never form suckers, they only come from the corm.

As Tog pointed out, water suckers form from bits of corm and from chopped down plants because the shoots need to immediately start photosynthesizing themselves instead of acquiring photosynthate from the rest of the plant which has leaves. Water suckers can also form from old established mats, I suppose they occur from a complex coincidence of certain anatomical and environmental circumstances (such as how old the corm section its coming off of is, or how exposed to the sun it is etc..)

Keep in mind that whether or not a sucker is sword or water, they are genetically identical and one is not going to be overall better than another, there just may be some growth differences initially when young. Some studies have found differences in the first fruit bunch, and some have found none, I think it really depends on cultivar and environment, as do most results of this sort. TC plants are the ultimate water suckers, and they grow up just fine, in some cases outgrowing field separated suckers initially, but again, after the first generation is doesn't matter how they plant was propagated.

Originally Posted by Richard

Water suckers and sword suckers: after transplanting into a 5+ gallon pots and feeding them through irrigation for 3 months ... mine are indistiguishable. I am using 100ppm nitrogen, 25ppm phosphate, and 150ppm potash.

Originally Posted by sunfish

I like this one more.

What variety is that? Is it anew one that grows beer pups?

Originally Posted by heynow

Praying Hands sword suckers

Originally Posted by KYpalmer

If I guess properly would I be right if I said the two on the namwah are water suckers and the one on the Caligold is a Sword?

These are the pups that's on my dwarf namwah




This is the one on the Caligold:

Originally Posted by wolfyhound

Since my main p-stems died off due a freeze last winter and most/all of what came up in the spring were water instead of swords, would it be better to separate them and plant separately, leave them as is or cut all but the largest water down on each?

Love the pictures that make the difference so clear between the two, thank you to all!

Originally Posted by pitangadiego

They tend to grow well and look nice as small plants because they get true leaves earlier than the sword suckers, but have less well developed root systems and seem to lack vigor throughout their life cycle, in my experience. Remove them and use as ornamentals, but not for fruit production. These are both about 6-8" tall - one obviously looks like a little banana plant (water sucker), and the other will be much taller before it has any true leaves (sword).

Originally Posted by eddiemunozep

Do all varieties have the same looking water suckers and sword suckers?

Originally Posted by eddiemunozep

Just Just wondering since my orinoco, Rajapuri, gran nain, and dwarf red are putting out pups. If they are water suckers then I plan to remove. Do water suckers after removal and transplanting produce sword suckers?

Originally Posted by sunfish

Yes