Quote:
Originally Posted by pjkfarm
All, I saw some great pictures of Basjoo on Hostafarian's site - BIG question - there were on one picture (with red walk behind zero turn mower in it) 4 pstems maybe 12 feet tall, all leaves from bottom cut off. NO PUPS (maybe 1). Anyway, our Basjoo have dozens and dozens of pups - literally cheek to jowl - touching each other. maybe 7 nice pstems and 40 pups. Is this why the big pstems do not get very big say 10 feet max to tip of leaves and pstem maybe 5 feet?
We have never watered but now are doing so (and fertilising which we never did before either). Should we remove some of (all?) of the pups, like just cut them off with as few roots as possible or no roots? We did thin this mat this year (first time) and took off like 15 or 20 "pups" - basically smaller plants as no idea of what is a "mother" plant.
AND is the explosion of pups due to having chopped in and removed all the small stuff this spring?
Love the form of the plants in the picture, so guess we will have to start chopping lower leaves. Always thought this would slow them down as less surface to produce food. BUT IS THIS TRUE? In our tree nursery, we will prune lower branches to get better height and if not overdone (25-30% of leaf area removed), this works. Is that the same for bananas??
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Cincinnana's fast answer.
For us, Basjoo are grown in pro gardening or commercial conditions.
Maintained plants in a number of gardens are fed an inexpensive garden fertilizer.
Products used are at the discretion of the management/landscape company
Plants are irrigated and in very rich loose soil.
Max pstem height locally in zone 5/6 is a reliable 9-12 ft
Average is 6-8 pstem height
Leaves are upright and 6-9+ feet.
Plants have a winter die back of -5 inches in heavily mulched soil.
No other winter protection is needed.
I have plants in zone 4 under similar conditions with the exception of extremely superfine sandy Michigan(45th parallel) soil and the results are similar. Banana plants love sandy loam soil.
For Mekong Giant fans .....this is exactly what your plant will do in zones 5-8.