How to start tiny pups?
 

I have a mama plant with a ton of pups, but all are tiny (all within an inch or so from the plant). There are too many for the plant to handle, and it is affecting her growth as well, so I want to remove the pups, but not kill them. They are too small to plant, so what do I do? I've heard about putting them in water to root but cannot find any info on this. Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks in advance. :08:

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

Well to start tiny pups, I would definitely:

1- Press the start button!!!
2- Wait for someone else to respond.

Hope this helps! Lol! Just kidding but I don't know either...

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

How many are there in tons? If they are that small I don't imagine they can cause too :03:big a problem. Others will know a definitive answer.

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

What type of banana is it?

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

LOL, I completely forgot to post that, didn't I?

Musa basjoo, sorry.

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

Still awaiting professional guidance on this, but in the meantime, as an experiment, I removed two of the nine with a trowel, rinsed them and put them in a small glass of tap water to see if they will root. :lurk:

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

:woohoonaner:

I see now, why the mama was languishing! When I dug out the first two, it felt funny, so I went back and really felt around. I had soaked these plants in rooting solution and planted deep. When I pushed the trowel down several inches, I felt the pop and carefully dug out.

These pups are only 3"-6" high, but have a root system the size of a small potato. Mama was putting all of her energy into the roots! This is why I have so many pups, they all have roots, and the main plant isn't growing as fast. Since I've removed most of the suckers, maybe she'll speed up now.

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

Wow!

I just dug out the second pup from "Big Mama," and I cannot believe what I saw. This pup was only 12" tall, but already had 5 WHITE roots the diameter of pencil leads, 6" long.

This HAS to do with soaking the roots in solution prior to planting. I'm getting results that I cannot find any doc on so far. Has anyone else gotten pups birthing pups in ten weeks, with PLANTABLE great-grandpups?

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

Some basjoo pup pretty quick, some dont. I have a new one right now that has about a foot and a half of pstem and has 3 pups coming up. And I have 2 others the same size with no pups. But when they get larger, basjoo pup like crazy constantly, and I am always giving some away around here. One thing I have noticed that makes them pup heavily is if the top of the corm is exposed to the air, but this also creates a problem when it gets cold, and the pups dont have their pstems in soil very well. If the tiny pups are rootless, and have a piece of corm attached (looks like a solid white mass with tiny speckles, maybe a ring or two)there is a good chance they will root in a glass of water (not fully submerged) and I have done this a few times with several types of banana (rooting hormone not necessary), but if the break or cut looks like a series of rings only then its most likely just pstem that is missing corm and will not root. The weirdest pupper I have had was a TC musa sikkimensis that was 8 inches tall and had 8 tiny pups with leaves, and was in the process of making lots more, but it go no special treatment, hormones, etc. from me, it appeared to actually pup itself to death. Tissue culture makes some weird stuff happen sometimes.

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

Thanks Siege. That's why I went ahead and removed most of the pups. I have 5 with roots and three without. Rooted went into pots, the others into water. Two pups were big enough to put directly into the ground. They're growing more slowly, but no leaf wilt at all.

Re: How to start tiny pups?
 

I had a similar experience/decision to make. No advice here just my experience so far I had 5 pups growing on one of my moma plants. They were pushing her sideways over towards my neighbors fence. I decided to remove 4 of the 5 pups to be able to erect her better. I planted the 4 pups in 3 gallon nursery pots, placed in filetered sun area in miracle grow moisture control potting soil. This was about 3 weeks ago. One week after removing pups, the mama plant caught me off guard and threw her flower bloom lol. While they were attached to the mother plant they were all about the same size and I saw very little growth, and no leaves had unrolled for a few weeks before I cut them apart. Now they are unrolling there second leaves since removal and one has not pushed a leaf, but has a pup growing. Pup was probably budding on corm before I removed I am guessing. MOther is doing good. FLower and nanners are doing good. Glad to see someone else is going through something similar.