How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

Okay, well I'll be honest....I'm not much for separating pups from plants. Usually I don't have anything large enough or enough of them to even bother. So the other day, I was watering one and happened to move my hand quickly past the pseudostem of my super dwarf cavendish and accidentally broke off a small pup that was growing off the side of the corm.

The story behind this pup was that the main plant in this pot stopped growing over the winter and died back to the soil (and was cut off just above the soil). The plant was replaced by a pup and grew into a new main plant. From the side of the old pstem (about an inch remained firm above the soil line) grew a new pup.

Anywho....it was really too small to transplant off, but I broke it off and it had NO ROOTS. But, rather than toss it, I figured, I'd try to keep it going. So I placed it in a shot-glass with water in it till I figured out what I was going to do to it. I kinda forgot about it for a week or so....didn't do anything with it except make sure it had water in the shot-glass. So I pulled it out and low and behold it has a bunch of roots now! Totally ready to be planted now....and I have no doubt it will be just fine!

So for anyone who has a prematurely separated pup with no roots (or very few)....just place it in a glass with some water and forget about it. I've heard a lot of people that have lost pups when they were separated too early, and apparently they root just fine in plain water (had nothing added whatsoever). I guess give it a try...I'm kinda surprised it didn't rot, but no rot at all.

Here are some pics of the pup before:

Pup that got broken off is at the bottom of the pic growing off the old pstem (the kinda sunburnt-looking one).

Here's a more recent pic of the pup before it got broken off (on the left).

And here's what it looks like now:

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

So when you put in a shot glass of water, I assume you kept it indoors away from the sun right? This will help me, because I like you said, don't do it often, and not very adept at it, lol. I'm about 50/50 on having them live, and oddly, it seems the larger pups are the ones I have had issues with.

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

graft it back wherei t broke off ??? >:P you might get a stronger plant :P

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

That amount of roots is usually sufficient. If you however remove a pup with no roots at all, putting it in neither hot, nor cold, but room-temperature water will help them stimulate new root growth (Marguerite aka marenmar has done it already, but I can't find a picture and that post).

In her case it was a tropical variety (SDC?), dunno if that is an important factor or not.

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

I've noticed if you have some of the white part at the bottom of the pup, they root, if they're all green, they don't. I think the white part is corm cells, and they usually develop into roots. but if there's absolutely no white or pinkish white, you're wasting your time. Also if you have a fish tank with a filter on the back, you know the kind with the little cartridge, you can put your pup in there just barely submerged and root it. Just don't forget about it or it roots into the filter and you can't get it out without damaging the cartridge.

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

It will root in soil too. Ive done that with a DC, just push it a little bit into
the soil and put sticks around it to prevent it from falling over.
Keep it a bit on the dry side and it will root.

Ron

Re: How to Save a Prematurely Separated Pup
 

Yeah, it was inside just sitting my dresser. Freshly transplanted plants do best when they are placed in cooler (not cold/cool, but not sweltering heat) places out of direct sunlight. It had no direct light during the rooting process, so that might also be beneficial since it would be working on roots more than foliage.

Yeah, mine didn't have any roots to begin with. The pics of it in my previous post were of it now...after it's been rooting in the water a week or so. I didn't take a pic of it originally right after I broke it off. It started rooting within a day or two and continues to grow roots out very strongly.

It might have rooted similarly if I had just pushed it into the soil, but I figured it would get too dried out, so that's why I went to the water method.