dkian

Apologies for the less than specific message subject, but I've included a few questions in this post, so couldn't quite decide on a better subject to use...
We recently moved to a new home in South East Florida, and at last have a yard as well as fruit trees and plants that are already established. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we have a some banana plants growing. I asked the previous owner about the plants and he said they had delicious bananas from last year's harvest. Coming from the hills of Upstate New York, I had no prior experience with bananas, so have been studying and soaking up what I can here as the greater web.

What we've currently got are two rather large banana plants (appx 6.5 ft - 7 ft) growing side by side. Assuming that these were two pups of last year's momma, and both were allowed to grow. One of the bananas is slightly taller as well as wider around and has a flag leaf and developing fruit (I have attached the photo).

Around the base of the large plant (7ft with about 20 small bananas so far, flag leaf just started opening) there are two appx 1 ft tall sword suckers. Around the base of the slightly smaller plant (6.5ft) ft tall there are a few 2 - 3" long sword suckers coming up.

Starting at approximately 2 ft from these two tall plants are what appears to be a trail of water suckers (5 or so) that extend as far away as 6 - 7ft from the two large plants I've been describing. Not sure if they're all water suckers or if someone transplanted some of the swords from last year, but they range in height from 1 - 4ft.

My first question is, do I remove the 6.5ft banana plant that stands directly beside the larger 7ft with flag leaf, so that the large banana produces better, or would it be better to at this point, leave the two largest bananas alone and let things just happen. My first thought is to simply leave these two large ones alone, so that I don't to do any damage to the banana that's beginning to develop fruit.

As the pups surrounding the base of these two large bananas grow, should I only allow one to stay in this area and transplant the other pups further way, leaving 6 ft or so between each transplanted banana plant?

How should I handle this trail of water pups that are extending away from the two primary bananas? Should I transplant all of them or transplant just some of them and allow a few of the tallest to grow?

Thanks in advance for any and all comments/advice you're able to provide. I'll post most recent photos tomorrow morning.

Funkthulhu

I say leave 'em be. I would just wait until your fruit is done before doing too much hacking and slashing.

But that's just my $0.02

Welcome to Bananas!

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"Ph'nglui musaglw'nanna Funkthulhu R'Omahaea wgah'basjoo fhtagn"
"In his house at Omaha, dread Funkthulhu plants bananas."

dkian

Works for me.. just let nature take it's course... What do you think about the trail of water pups extending away from these two primaries/large ones?

Btw - here's the latest one as of this morning:

dkian

Btw, any idea what type of bananas these are based on the current photo?

dkian

Also, this is the base of my two plants as of this morning. You can also see a trail of some water pups.. The sword suckers at the base of the plant... If I want to save these and transplant, best to transplant all of them or just some and leave a sword sucker or two to grow large here?

trebor

My .02
Leave the large plants alone don’t disconnect anything that is blooming!
Water pups? Or perhaps a new shoot from corms left in the ground after someone has cut down a stand of banana plants? TAKE A PICTURE and post it
My thought on water pups is cut them away! Or at least that’s what I do. They have no corm and will take sometimes a complete season longer to produce fruit. Swords are real plants!
just this morning saw a guy selling water pups on the side of the road here. People were walking away with them like they had gold in their hands!
REMEMBER A PHOTO HELPS TO SEE whats what :-)

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If ya can't eat it, it ain't growing in my back yard !

trebor

That looks like they are different plants and someone cut them back to the ground!
Take you hand and flip dirt away at the base of the small plants in question see if they have a corm! You could very well have 3 more bananas growing there..

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If ya can't eat it, it ain't growing in my back yard !

Funkthulhu

Agreed! I think those are not coming off your two main pstems, but are separate plants that were planted previous, or growing off of old corms.

Keep an eye on them, you may end up with more than one variety depending on what the previous owner had growing. And if they are all the same species, you look to be on your way to having a good mat to grow from!

Good Luck!

__________________
"Ph'nglui musaglw'nanna Funkthulhu R'Omahaea wgah'basjoo fhtagn"
"In his house at Omaha, dread Funkthulhu plants bananas."

dkian

I'll inspect them. How about the small water suckers surrounding these two big plants and their sword suckers... pull 'em now or leave them be?

dkian

Thanks for the feedback Funk. Will do. Any idea from the photos of the one with fruit what species it is?

Funkthulhu

Well, as a guy who has never had a bloom I think I'm the wrong guy to ask.

As for suckers, I'm in the camp of any pup is a good pup, so I keep all of mine. However, this is an opinion open to much debate.

__________________
"Ph'nglui musaglw'nanna Funkthulhu R'Omahaea wgah'basjoo fhtagn"
"In his house at Omaha, dread Funkthulhu plants bananas."

trebor

If you get time take another picture of the two large plants from far enough away to show all the plant top to bottom like 20 feet away . That way someone can tell if its a Plantain or a desert banana. But any one who can ID that will know from the flower.. I just grow them and eat them ha ha ha .. But all in all I think you in great shape.. gonna have lots of something there this summer. Id be looking into fertilizer :-) of some compost . Or some cow poopie..

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If ya can't eat it, it ain't growing in my back yard !

Bradford

Likes others have said I wouldn't cut any of them. The two 1-2 footers to the left of the flower pot are definatly not water suckers off the two large plants. I'd let the two large plants fruit and then cut them down after you harvest. Some good compost lightly mixed in to the soil and some mulch on top will help them along. Have fun!

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God grows bananas.