Bananas.org

Welcome to the Bananas.org forums.

You're currently viewing our message boards as a guest which gives you limited access to participate in discussions and access our other features such as our wiki and photo gallery. By joining our community, you'll have access to post topics, communicate privately with other members (PM), respond to polls, upload photos, and access many other special features. Registration is fast and simple, so please join our community today!

If you have any problems with the registration process or your account login, please contact us.

Go Back   Bananas.org > Banana Forum > Banana Plant Health And Maintenance Topics
Register Photo Gallery Classifieds Wiki Chat Map Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Banana Plant Health And Maintenance Topics This forum is for discussions of banana plant health topics such as coloration issues, burning, insects, pruning, transplanting, separating pups, viruses, disease, and other general banana plant health and maintenance issues.


Members currently in the chatroom: 0
The most chatters online in one day was 17, 09-06-2009.
No one is currently using the chat.

Reply   Email this Page Email this Page
 
LinkBack Thread Tools
Old 10-19-2020, 05:57 PM   #1 (permalink)
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 11
BananaBucks : 3,134
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 2 Times
Was Thanked 9 Times in 5 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times
Default How much difference in height should there be between suckers?

I have an 'ice cream' banana plant that's roughly 4 feet tall at the point where the pstem branches out, with a follower about half that size, and a pup that's about half of that.

So my questions are:

1. How much height should be between a mother and its followers? In other words, when should I leave a pup alone rather than de-suckering?
2. How often can I de-sucker without damaging the mother plant? In other words, should I do it as soon as I see a new sucker? or should I give the plant some time to heal from the last set of de-suckering?
3. Can a follower be 'too large' to separate from the mother and re-plant in a pot? For example, could I separate the follower in the picture and re-pot it to plant at a later time? Or is it too late/large to do so?

Thanks, all!

xcadaverx is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To xcadaverx

Join Bananas.org Today!

Are you a banana plant enthusiast? Then we hope you will join the community. You will gain access to post, create threads, private message, upload images, join groups and more.

Bananas.org is owned and operated by fellow banana plant enthusiasts. We strive to offer a non-commercial community to learn and share information. Receive all three issues from Volume 1 of Bananas Magazine with your membership:
   

Join Bananas.org Today! - Click Here


Sponsors

Old 10-19-2020, 07:34 PM   #2 (permalink)
 
Backyard Banana Joe's Avatar
 
Location: Orlando FL
Zone: 9B
Join Date: Jul 2019
Posts: 1,428
BananaBucks : 94,644
Feedback: 3 / 100%
Said "Thanks" 6,976 Times
Was Thanked 1,984 Times in 935 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 184 Times
Default Re: How much difference in height should there be between suckers?

I like to have a follower that will be fruiting ideally no longer than two months after I harvest the bunch from the mother plant, unless winter is coming, but I can't really 100% achieve that.

So if my plants are going to achieve a height of 10 feet, I like to leave a pup when the mother is about five feet tall. Roughly by the time the mother fruits the pup will be about six- seven feet tall (maybe more, the pups grow faster than the original mother)
the fruit takes roughly four months to ripen the fruit, so by that time the pup is very close to fruiting. I also allow a pup to grow about every couple months.

Then when the pup is about five foot or so tall, I leave another one. I also only leave the vigorous ones. It will be obvious which ones are healthy and which aren't.


Forum member Greenie (Rene) told me that digging pups harms your mother plant, which makes sense. It creates a wound, into which rot, grubs, bacteria, ECT enter into the wound causing stress. If your plant is already experiencing stress, ie, standing water, flowering, cold, insects (nematodes on roots, aphids, ECT), it could cause your plant to die. That makes your plant kind of take energy away from growing to heal the spot.

Greenie told me that he recommends cutting unwanted pups off below the soil every couple weeks, adding energy into the rest. It also probably strengthings the plant. The roots from pups that are cut below the soil pulls in nutrients from the soil and adds it to the "pot" of energy the plant possesses/draws from. If they were removed, those roots would no longer be helping the plant. Hope this lengthy response helps!
Backyard Banana Joe is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To Backyard Banana Joe
Said thanks:
Old 11-07-2020, 02:22 PM   #3 (permalink)
 
Join Date: Sep 2020
Posts: 11
BananaBucks : 3,134
Feedback: 0 / 0%
Said "Thanks" 2 Times
Was Thanked 9 Times in 5 Posts
Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times
Default Re: How much difference in height should there be between suckers?

Quote:
Originally Posted by Backyard Banana Joe View Post
I like to have a follower that will be fruiting ideally no longer than two months after I harvest the bunch from the mother plant, unless winter is coming, but I can't really 100% achieve that.

So if my plants are going to achieve a height of 10 feet, I like to leave a pup when the mother is about five feet tall. Roughly by the time the mother fruits the pup will be about six- seven feet tall (maybe more, the pups grow faster than the original mother)
the fruit takes roughly four months to ripen the fruit, so by that time the pup is very close to fruiting. I also allow a pup to grow about every couple months.

Then when the pup is about five foot or so tall, I leave another one. I also only leave the vigorous ones. It will be obvious which ones are healthy and which aren't.


Forum member Greenie (Rene) told me that digging pups harms your mother plant, which makes sense. It creates a wound, into which rot, grubs, bacteria, ECT enter into the wound causing stress. If your plant is already experiencing stress, ie, standing water, flowering, cold, insects (nematodes on roots, aphids, ECT), it could cause your plant to die. That makes your plant kind of take energy away from growing to heal the spot.

Greenie told me that he recommends cutting unwanted pups off below the soil every couple weeks, adding energy into the rest. It also probably strengthings the plant. The roots from pups that are cut below the soil pulls in nutrients from the soil and adds it to the "pot" of energy the plant possesses/draws from. If they were removed, those roots would no longer be helping the plant. Hope this lengthy response helps!

Sorry for the delayed response. Your comments definitely help, and I really appreciate it! I took your advice and cut off the pups in the picture since the plant is expected to get 10-20ft according to google, and they're currently only about 5 feet. I'm going to let them get a bit taller before letting a pup stick around.

I tried planting the pups in a container after separating them. I'm not sure I got enough of the root system. I cut the old leaves off and I can see a new leaf coming out, but it's growing _extremely_ slow, so I'm not sure if that's just residual growth left in the 'pot' or if its actually going to make it through and root itself eventually. At one point, one of the three pups I containerized was growing very quickly (roughly 6 inches of new leaf came out) but then it started browning and the growth almost completely stopped. Very odd! Maybe its 'pot' of energy ran out?

Cheers!
xcadaverx is offline   Reply With Quote Send A Private Message To xcadaverx
Said thanks:
Reply   Email this Page Email this Page






Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)
 
Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
How to tell difference Planter56 Main Banana Discussion 2 11-30-2016 08:48 AM
The Difference... sputinc7 Main Banana Discussion 13 04-11-2016 10:53 PM
I.d. Difference Ptollefson Banana Identification 4 07-26-2014 10:48 AM
What is the difference or are they the same? Blake09 Main Banana Discussion 8 11-23-2009 07:14 PM
Sword Suckers vs. Water Suckers EBurton Main Banana Discussion 4 05-02-2007 09:48 PM


All times are GMT -5. The time now is 12:55 PM.





All content © Bananas.org & the respective author.