cutting off flower
 

Okay my banana flower is no longer making bananas it's now the male flowers...you guys have made me so smart just listen to me talking about male and female flowers. :) Anyway, there are only flowers now no bananas but the flowers continue to be such a mess on the ground and it's an every morning process to clean up all the flowers that have dropped and kill all the ants that have swarmed on them. I'm ready to be done with the mess! I remember reading after so many rows you can whack that thing off...right? Geez, a week ago it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen and I just sat outside looking at it and now I want to kill it. :) I'm such a woman! So can I hack the messy thing off yet?

I will post some pictures of it in my gallery.

Re: cutting off flower
 

Jen - I usually let about 8 inches of stalk grow after the last fruit, then chop the bud off. I figure that the energy will then go into the fruit instead of the flower, plus no more mess and a bit less weight in case of windy weather!

Cassie

Re: cutting off flower
 

Jon's primer suggests cutting off at 12", bot he did also write once that 8" is okay.

Ants haven't found mine yet! :)

Re: cutting off flower
 

Great. Thanks.

What's "Jon's primer"?

Re: cutting off flower
 

Re: cutting off flower
 

The problem is that some stems dry up, rather than just callusing off, and if they dry up past the point that that fruit is attached, it will ruin the fruit as well. Tolerate the mess for a while, rather than risk the loss of the fruit. Better safe than sorry.

Re: cutting off flower
 

I will for sure wait now. Thanks for the great info.
Jen