Help with pruning
 

Hello!

I recently bought a home in Tustin, CA. Among the trees planted by the previous owner is a banana tree. I believe it's a "burro" banana.

From what I've been able to gather, the plant has not been properly pruned; there are about six large stalks all growing out of the same root mass:



I covet your advice on what exactly to do with this monster. In this gallery, I posted close up shots of the stalks from the North, East and South:

Banana Gallery - Banana

Forgive the blueish-green tint! Let me know if if more information/pictures would be helpful.

Re: Help with pruning
 

No comment on WHAT to prune, but once you decide the favorite tool amongst many banana patchers is a cordless reciprocating saw.

Re: Help with pruning
 

You want to remove any plants that are close to the fence or leaning your neighbors way. Mat/stand management is a personal preference. After letting some mats go wild I learned the hard way the importance of management. Now I like to have 3-4 plants per mat and they stagger in size so they don't all flower at the time.

Re: Help with pruning
 

I was thinking to use my machete :)

Re: Help with pruning
 

To remove all those large pups a machete is not nearly enough. Banana corms are tough. You're going to need an iron digging bar and possibly a sharp shovel.

Re: Help with pruning
 

And a wheel Barrel, or Bobcat.. or this comes to mind.. :^)

Re: Help with pruning
 

You can also use both hands and just pick'em up and carry'em.

A machete works perfectly.

Re: Help with pruning
 

What's the advantage to removing the entire plant (e.g. including the corm) vs just chopping the stem off at its base?

Re: Help with pruning
 

Bananas

Re: Help with pruning
 

could you expand a little on your very concise answer? :-D

Re: Help with pruning
 

moving the entire plant will give you bananas

chopping the stem off at its base will give you a dead stem - no bananas

I'm not sure which is better, having Orinocos or not having Orinocos. :ha:

Re: Help with pruning
 

You can cut them off at the base but they could grow back and new plants will grow off the corm.
You can dig up the corm and stem and plant in another area if you want more fruit
You can chop the stem off and dig out the corm
You can chop off the stem and gouge out the growing point so it will not grow back\

:)

Just go ahead and chop down any you don't want.Final answer

Re: Help with pruning
 

Thanks for the advice everyone. The reason I asked is because I've read elsewhere that having multiple large stalks will reduce the quality of the fruit. Since that idea has been rejected (implicitly here and explicitly in a private message) I'll go on my merry way!

As for pruning off yellow leaves, is there anything objectionable about how this guy does it:

trimming a bananna tree - YouTube

Re: Help with pruning
 

The only thing I found objectionable was Bird of paradises

Re: Help with pruning
 

the pstems are amazingly soft and easy to cut through. I would not use a stanley knife and cut them like that you would easily cut into the next layer doing damage. I just use good scissors and cut the leaf off at the base of the petiole it keeps them looking fairly tidy.

Re: Help with pruning
 

We need a dislike button!!