First Pup Separation!
 

Update from here

http://www.bananas.org/f2/when-cut-p...puri-5494.html

The pup got 1/3 the hight of the mom and I decided it was time to take a stab at removing it.

After removing. Check out the corm and very long roots!



What I used to remove pup. Barely felt it cutting with this!



Final product. I'm trying out hydroculture with a aquarium bubbler. I put a very small amount of General Hydroponics flora nova in there just to give it something to work with as I've seen recomendations to keep it down or nothing at all until growth starts. The pipe is to keep track of water level. I don't want the PPM to get out of control so I'll be keeping the water level and also removing/rinsing once a week or so.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

congrats on the first sepertion! when i did my first, i got sick to my stomach from hearing the crunch, crunch, crack!

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

OMG I know! I did mine with a saw saw at Bencelest's recommendation! I was successful. I was like... this thing is going to DIE! Grats on your first seperation and that it was a success! It's a beautiful pup. :)

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

I need an update pic when the first leaf is finished because this thing is growing like crazy. Massive root growth. One of them is like 15"+ and they are hanging out all over the place (10" longer than it was). Started messing with PH and it ate enough to raise me back from 6.8 to 8 in a little more than a day. Went down to 5.5 this time with the nutrient change.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

Just wondering what you used to lower the pH? I am constantly fighting the alkaline water here.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

General Hydroponics "PH Down." The plant will bring the PH back up when its feeding.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

Amber:
The "crack! Crack! Grounch!!" you were hearing were the roots that were breaking from the pup or mom that you forgot to dig first and exposed. As long as you have 1/3 of the roots attached to the pup still left, you will be fine.
I just have separated 6 pups from different bananas from my pergola plat to pots to give them a headstart for the coming winter and they were all doing fine in my newly enclosed glass-side patio. Once you did a couple of cuts with your saw saw, you'll think you are an expert and you'll wonder why how it is so easy to do it!!
The key is to cut with the saw saw deep between the mom and the pup to make sure the 'umbilical cord' is severed completely.
The advantage of using saw saw is to give less stress to the pup and mom by not having to shake both when pulling the pup out.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

congrats, I swear my first pup sounded like bones popping! Of course I used a good old-fashioned shovel....

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

Yes, for years I use the shovel method. But I saw someone cutting a 2x4 stud on the finished wall with his sawsaw nice and clean and I thought, hey I could do that too with my bananas.

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

LOL yes, the pup didn't even know what happened to it. It's been sitting in it's own pot, throwing out leaves like mad. The mom corm has three other pups on her (all sword), that I will be seperating soon. My dad is going to raise a brow at me when I ask to borrow the saw saw again. The method you gave me is awesome, I don't think I'd even bother with the shovel method unless I'm desperate. Actually Bence it was all exposed, it was so rootbound in the pot I had to cut the pot off with the Sawsaw! It was so rootbound... I don't even know how it got to that size in that tiny pot... and it threw tons of pups, it had more but my cat decided banana leaves were delicious and ate two of them lol. Again great method^

Re: First Pup Separation!
 

Here are the pics. Strangely the first leaf came right over top of an existing one. The second new one is only a few degrees away from the other existing. I think the one on the bottom right of the photo was burned a little bit when I shorted out the light and blew the circuit breaker ;) Otherwise it looks real healthy and very nice shade of green (better even than the photo). Two new leaves less than a month from separation isn't bad especially for an indoor plant with mostly artificial light! Still building my monster 150W+ watt red/blue high power LED array.