Jamie0507

Hi Everyone,

Big time newbie here to growing banana plants.. I bought a dwarf Novak from Ed. Landscape a couple months back, but when I received it there were 3 trunks in one pot.. Is that normal? I immediately up-potted it because it was majorly rootbound in the 5gal pot they sent it in.. The new pot is way bigger, I'd guess 20-25 gallons.. However the roots are already growing out of the bottom of the pot in less than 2 months time.. Could it be that the "extra trunks" are actually these "pups" I see mentioned so often? If so are they water suckers (won't ever produce fruit) ? How do you tell the difference? Should I separate them?
I'm going to attach a few pics.. Hopefully you can help this clueless noob out lol! I really do love this plant.. I'm going to get a grow light soon when I bring it inside.. Starting to get chilly at night here in Northeastern PA! Is 50 degrees at night too cold for banana plants? It's still in the 70's-80's during the day but I was worried about night time temps that low.

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geissene

Hi Jamie

I think you got 3 plants for the price of one. I would chop away one or two of the pups at some point (unless you like how 3 plants look in the pot). I think either sword or water suckers will fruit its just a matter of how fast they grow. I'm not familiar with dwarf Novak so I'm not sure what kind of suckers they are.

My potted plants always seem to grow roots out the bottom of the pot. I think its because they follow the moisture into the saucer below my pot and not because they are pot bound. I think you have nothing to worry about if you are using a 20 gallon pot!

I live in SE PA and usually keep my super dwarf cavendish outside until the night time temperature is in the low 40s. At that point I take the plants in at night and may bring them back out on warm days.

Good luck

Erik G

Jamie0507

Thank you Erik for your speedy response! You answered A LOT of questions for me.. I know I have to do a good deal more research on my own as well, but I've found with banana plants that there is a lot of terminology that I'm just not exactly sure about. For instance.. Is the "corm" the cylinder looking thing in the middle of the three trunks? And are the trunks called something else? Like "Pstem" I think it was?

Anyway I really appreciate your advice.. All of it ! It helps to know when you bring your plants in since you are in SE PA.. We are practically neighbors! Lol! Also, I would definitely like to make at least 2 if not three plants out of them That's a pretty good deal that I got a 3 for 1 deal! Lol! Do you think I could do that now, or should I wait until spring? My thoughts are that since I won't let it go dormant, it may be ok to do now? Just wanted to check & see your thoughts on that?

geissene

Yea, the corm is the solid mass under the pstems (trunks). I just think of it as a big 'bulb'.

This is a good time to remove pups because they will take a few weeks to grow new roots and stabilize. So the plants will have time to recover in the semi-cool weather before going inside and 'slowing down' for winter. I just chopped a few pups from my plants last week to give to neighbors.

Enjoy


Erik
North Wales PA

a.hulva@coxinet.net

Looks like Moe, Larry, & Curly!
They look really good. I would separate and keep on doing what ever your doing!

Tytaylor77

It will be a great plant to learn to separate pups on. The 2 pups should have large corms and lots of roots by now so it would be very hard to mess anything up.

Jamie0507

Haha!!! Thanks Al! Yes I will definitely be breaking this happy trio up within the week.. Hopefully Larry,Moe, & Curley won't head downhill afterwards though!

Jamie0507

I agree tytaylor, this certainly will be a great learning experience for me.. About to get up close & personal with the anatomy of a banana plant by performing this surgery.. Lol! I will have to post pics after these triplets have been successfully separated.. Well I hope it will be successful anyway!

a.hulva@coxinet.net

I have been trying out the idea of cutting the pups loose from the mother but leaving it in place. The idea is to not disturb the roots of either the pup or the mother but leaving the pup to develope its own root system. I have done this to several plants with no problem. Neither plant showed any shock. If you give it a try let me know the results.

Jamie0507

I guess I'm really confused on banana anatomy! Lol how would you cut the pups loose but leave the roots in tact? I did do the surgery and separate Larry, Moe, & curley, but now all three of the trees look pretty sad ;( There was only one corm (I think) so two of the three banana plants only have roots now. Did I do something wrong? I actually did an entire soil change in order to see what I was doing also. Took a hose and washed all the soil away completely.. What a job! Was there an easier way?

geissene

Hi Jamie

I don't think you did anything wrong, just give it more time (maybe 2 weeks). Pup leaves will get droopy and yellow or wilt. That is only because the plant is focusing on growing more roots. Some people cut these leaves off but I just let the leaves dry up naturally.

The weather is still ok outside, so just keep them outside for now. Since it won't be too sunny for a few more days that will be ideal for letting their roots grow and not having the plants wilt from a scorching sun. Just watch out for any and all hurricanes .......

Erik

Jamie0507

[i]Thanks a bunch Erik, I will definitely be keeping an eye out for any & all hurricanes! It seems we are potentially in the path to be hit by joaquin, so I will have to batten down the hatches & be ready to pull in the banana plants and the fig trees for sure! It seems like fall has really set in this week, night time temps in the low 40's already.. Yuck..

Im glad to hear that it's normal for banana plants to look sad right after they are separated. I was really worried that they were about to die with the yellowing leaves & all. So I do have another quick question for you, hopefully you can clear this up for me.. Were the two pups suppose to have their own corm? At least the beginnings of one even? Because they did not have anything besides roots.. They both had quite a few of their own roots at that. Ohhh, almost forgot.. I also just found spotted snake milipedes in the brand new soil I just transferred them into! How the heck they got in there so fast I don't know.. Have you or anyone else delt with these suckers before? I hit them with some insecticidal soap & most of them kicked the bucket but some just curled up into a ball for a min & went about their business.. I may have to get one of my sons to smoosh them for me next lol, unless someone has a better idea?

geissene

They won't have their own corm, but as long as you have decent chunk of white mass on each pup it will probably be fine. I removed many pups from my plants and even the ones with little or no roots survived. I even had a small 2" piece of corm sprout a plant.... If the conditions are good, they can grow like weeds! haha

I have small bugs in my soil too. I do the soap spray and also use sticky bug traps. I lay them flat on top of the soil and that usually catches enough bugs to keep things under control until I can get the plants back outside.

a.hulva@coxinet.net

I didn't properly explain my procedure. I took a machete and plunged it down close to the corm of the mother plant, and sliced of the pup. I don't disturb either the mother or the pup. Did not disturb the soil. Did not separate for three weeks. The plan is to just sever the two so the pup has to stand alone to develope it's own root system. This takes around two or three weeks. I dug the pup up and out of a pot (which was a pain) and found the pup appears to have a much larger root system than I had seen before when just cutting the pup off and immediately digging it out. I will try and post some pics later.

Jamie0507

Ahhhh!! I see what your saying now.. Actually that sounds like a really smart way to do it, with probably a whole lot less risk.. I like it.. If my plants survive to have pups of their own I'm going to give it a go! I actually noticed what I believe to be another 3 future pups coming up attached/growing out of the plants I just detached from one another.. They looked kinda like "J hooks" growing up & out from the bottom of the white part at the bottom but did not break the surface yet.. They were white with a purplish tinge to them.. Hopefully I will get to try your method maybe next spring if I'm lucky! Thanks for sharing the details of your method Al!

Jamie0507

What a relief to hear about the "white mass" being sufficient! Lol! Now I get it! Hehe.. That word "corm" just completely throws me all off for some reason.. Your description set me at ease though so thanks a bunch!

Love the idea of using sticky paper to catch these little suckers too! I've got a bunch of that laying around my garage for sure

Thank you all so much for walking me through this "surgery" lol & reassuring me through the process. I've definitely learned a lot by doing this separation and best part is my one banana plant became 3!!! Sweet deal