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-   -   Woud you separate the pup? (http://www.bananas.org/f260/woud-you-separate-pup-22781.html)

Terri 10-24-2015 11:59 AM

Woud you separate the pup?
 
It is Fall here, and we will have a frost any week, now.

I was going to surround my Mekong Giant with a circle of woven wire and fill it with sawdust in a week or so to protect it for the winter, as the hardiness of the Mekong Giant is unknown in my area, but I see that there is a pup that is perhaps 18 inches tall on it.

Now, the adult Mekong Giant spent the last winter inside in a pot, and I planted it in the ground last spring. So it is still a young plant.

I could hedge my bets if I covered the adult plant with sawdust and left it outside, and brought the pup inside in a pot, but I do not know if it is too late in the season or not. We are getting lows in the 50's and highs in the 60's-70's. And, as I have said, we could have a frost any time, now. Storms come by about weekly, and any one of them might drop the temperature below 32 degrees.

With a hardy plant, now would be a great time to divide it, as it would be half dormant, but I am a little weak on tropical plants as I am in zone 5. So, the question remains: is it too late in the year to take that pup? Would the mother plant heal properly if the frost holds off for another 2-3 weeks as I believe it will? I put a slightly higher value on the mother plant than I do the pup.

Olafhenny 10-24-2015 10:13 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Sawdust clearly has some insulating properties, I just do not know how much. But to
fill it right against the p-stem would promote rot. If you want to use that method,
at least place a piece of pipe over the p-stem in order to create some clearance
for air around it and place the saw dust outside of that pipe. You will have do slice
off anything sticking out of your protective coat anyway.

Make sure, that you also provide frost protection from the top of it all and that it
has a cap sheltering it from rain. You can easily harvest and transplant the pup
with a piece of the corm and bring it inside. If you have a well lit place (by the
window) it will even grow some during the winter. There is a good chance though,
that you will get initially some yellow leaves from the transplanting shock. That will
be just a minor problem, since the plant is sure to recover.

Good luck,
Olaf




Olafhenny 10-24-2015 10:31 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Reading your post again, I wonder how you propose to contain the saw dust with
wire mesh? May I suggest, that you use leaves instead? there are plenty of those
lying around everywhere. In spring you can use them as mulch for weed control or
around your tomatoes and such to balance the moisture for blossom end rot
prevention, or simply compost them. You can use saw dust for all of those things
too, as long as you are aware that it uses a lot of nitrogen, when decomposing
potentially depriving your plants of it.








a.hulva@coxinet.net 10-25-2015 12:22 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Olaf, can you bare root a pup? If so any tricks?:2722:

Olafhenny 10-25-2015 01:09 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Hi Al,
I have not tried that yet. And I cannot think of a reason to. A small pup in a small
pot fits into just about any small apartment.

I usually leave the pups which are too small to separate in fall, to winter attached
to their mom.
In Terri's case s/he wanted to bring it in for insurance, in case its mom would not
survive the winter outside.








Terri 10-27-2015 11:30 AM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
All right, then!

I will pot up the pup later today. Mulching the mother plant can wait for a bit: I can watch the weather and apply the mulch at the last possible moment so that a late warm spell will not get it growing again.

Olafhenny 10-27-2015 02:49 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
I usually wait until the first frost has bitten into the leaves, which are to be cut off
anyway.

The PS is quite frost resistant, because of its greater mass and the short early
morning duration of early frosts leave it unscathed.









Terri 10-28-2015 05:57 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Well, it is separated and potted and watered.

The pup did not have very many roots but what was there were big roots. I will keep it outside for a few days to try and diminish the shock: I have moved the pot to the south side of the house where it will get bright, indirect light and where it will be protected from the wind.

The lower leaves of the Mother plant are all starting to turn yellow. We have had a couple of nights in the 30's, so I expect it is going dormant.

Olafhenny 10-28-2015 07:09 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Hi Terri,
the yellowing of the leaves is unusual, unless something in the environment
has changed, like transplanting or relocating the pot, the plant is in. Low
temperature should not cause this, unless it is particular to your variety. I am
not sure, if a large tree sheltering it on the south side is losing all the leaves
would cause that change of light conditions? Whatever the reason, it is no
cause for concern

Bananas, being a tropical herb are not naturally going dormant, but 'at home'
grow 12/12 months. Our wintering procedure is imposed on the bananas and
unnatural to them.





cincinnana 10-29-2015 09:07 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by Terri (Post 266056)
The lower leaves of the Mother plant are all starting to turn yellow. We have had a couple of nights in the 30's, so I expect it is going dormant.

I agree..........
However and very important; Olaf is correct with his post.

Here is an almost daily look with my plants.
This is the FALL colors of bananas.
.
.
Fall colors

by
Hostafarian
, on Flickr

Terri 10-30-2015 04:11 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Well, it *IS* Fall, and a tree that gave broken shade *HAS * lost its leaves.

The yellowing may be due to both, though my gut tells me it is because it is Fall. My plant is less yellow than the ones in "Fall colors", but the pattern of yellowing is the same.

siege2050 11-10-2015 01:23 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Some of my Nanners will turn yellow in fall before I dig them, not all, Basjoo, etc. stay green up until frost, but Orinoco, saba, a few others will begin to yellow. I suspect its why they overwinter bare root so well, they are truly going dormant.

siege2050 11-10-2015 01:39 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
Quote:

Originally Posted by a.hulva@coxinet.net (Post 265997)
Olaf, can you bare root a pup? If so any tricks?:2722:

Interesting question about the pups, it would be nice to be able to store unsprouted peepers, but I dont think you could have them exposed to the air unless they were really big, even my Canna rhizomes under the house will dessicate a lot if left out in the open, I usually store them in trash bags with a few holes punched in them. I am always looking for ways to overwinter things, I am overwintering Brugmansia cuttings in a box under the house with a bit of damp peat in there out of curiosity.

Terri 11-11-2015 07:33 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
:2738:Well, the pup was potted up a few days ago and it is doing well enough: I think it will be fine. Yesterday I moved it to the garage and put a light on it.

I suspect the plant has lost some moisture, but the soil is pleasantly damp and so I have not given it more water: I think the pup is reacting to being split off from the mother. The leaves are not really wilted, they are just not as stiff. I could wish it had more roots when I divided it.

After removing the leaves, the mother banana was wrapped several times in bird netting to keep the sawdust from packing too tightly around the trunk of the p-stem. Then I cut the bottom of a garbage bag open, put it over the p-stem, covered the grass around the p-stem with plastic to keep moisture from wicking up, and filled it with sawdust. I kept doing this until I had 4 sawdust filled trash bags that covered the p-stem all the way to the top, and then I covered the top with another garbage bag to shed the rain. I saw it on you-tube, and while I cannot find that particular you-tube again it looked like something that might work. The entire thing is about 5 feet tall.

I still want to put leaves around the base, to keep the soil around the corm a bit warmer. Today we had high winds that knocked the yellow leaves down, and so I should have the leaves I need very soon.

With luck and attention, I will have 2 living bananas come spring!

siege2050 11-11-2015 10:45 PM

Re: Woud you separate the pup?
 
It will perk up soon, my Mekong reached 10 feet this summer from the ground including leaves, but still no pups which was kind of weird since it is supposed to send out runners, I kept looking for them while mowing the yard, but nothing this year. Mine seems to like shade much better than sun, and looked much better this year after moving it, but this can be a challenge as it's always dryer under the trees in my yard as they use all the water. I planted a Tetrapanax close to it, so they may both end up being a tangled invasive mess once they get established lol.


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