MediaHound

A good mat would have one tall stem in fruit, one stem next in line close to fruiting, and one small short sucker after that. If you wish to alternate removal of the pups with the smallest sucker, that can be done. So instead of removing pup #4 that emerges, one could remove #3 and leave #4 to become the last in line that may be left.
On larger mats with a high level of care and fertilization, and not a large space constraint, there could be many more stems than this, but this gives an idea of the system that's used. With limited space, the opposite could be considered.
Staggering them is key.

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