Re: Water suckers
 

Yes or no oh well, I will try both and see what happens in a couple of years...God willing.

Re: Water suckers
 

I'm not sure if he is in a club but


http://www.bananas.org/f2/water-suck...html#post79971

Re: Water suckers
 

Baby naners!!! This is my D. Puerto Rican Plantain, currently sending up it's sixth pup. My basjoo is pupping like is just ate a huge meal but none of my other bananas are doing much besides shooting leafs. I figured this is the result of my last few leafs getting stuck as the new leaf was being sent up but the last leaf unrolled fine.
I don't think a sword is anywhere in my near future.

Re: Water suckers
 

Funny, bc those all look more sword than water suckers to me.

Re: Water suckers
 

I was thinking the same thing.

Re: Water suckers
 

I'm still trying to figure out what these red things are. These are Dwarf Namwahs. I have had them for 4 yrs and never seen anything like this.

Re: Water suckers
 

Indeed they Are swords... as a matter of fact: Surprisingly to me all my my cultivars with a "A" Genotype produced swordsssssss... I'm just hoping winter will not surprise me again...

Just figured I should post a pic since the last post was on 12-20-2013, 10:56 AM yada yada :)

Your red thingys are super swords from my research ;).. well they seem stronger and faster IMO. Heavy fertilized maybe awhile ago?

Re: Water suckers
 

Yup. I over fertilized a couple months ago. :)

Re: Water suckers
 

It would appear that all of my pups are water suckers, but being ornamental anyway, it's no really big deal then.

Very informative thread. Thanks for stickying!

Re: Water suckers
 

Great thread...pictures speak a thousand words...learned a lot here, Thanks!

Re: Water suckers
 

I learned quite a bit.

Today i did pull a water sucker off one of my plants (its leaves where three times larger and boarder than the other suckers of its size)
However the root system in it was huge and i saw previously in the thread that they are meant to have a small root system?

I should probably mention i got all sword suckers off plants that where in full sun and the water sucker off a plant that was in a half-sun area.

Re: Water suckers
 

Water suckers do not occur on plants grown with sufficient resources.

Re: Water suckers
 

I have a dwarf California banana and the main plant just wilted and all,of its leaves look like they got burnt, but the what from the discussion above appears to be a water sucker. The question is if it continues to grow will it ever produce fruit? Or will it just grow? It is an attractive plant.

Re: Water suckers
 

Yes. Water suckers are genetically identical to sword suckers. They might make less fruit or take longer to fruit, but they will fruit.

Re: Water suckers
 

Alright, so I've read through this start to finish (and just went through it again looking for a specific term...that I couldn't find :/) and I have a few questions now:

1) I just separated/repotted (and put indoors) a ice cream water sucker that I waited to let grow to ~3ft tall...and then I was watching youtube videos and saw something I hadn't seen before where a guy swore by the need to let the pup's cut corm "heal" before planting it....I did not do this obviously. Anyone heard of this? Do you do it?

2) That term I was looking for started with an "R" and I think it's another word for a pup or a mat?!

3) I saw someone mention the ability to "force" a healthy plant to throw out pups...how does one do that?

4) another poster mentioned, with quite an air of finality I might add, that they only throw off pups when they're distressed....which seems to go against everything else I've read and watched?

5) those "super pups".....whoa....that's just from "over-fertilising?"

6) I live in vegas...winter isn't terrible here...maybe 10-15 nights below freezing...should I "winterize" my plants, and how far? I've seen people take it down to just the p-stem, some leave the cigar leaf (or part of it), and some leave it all and just put up the mulch/fencing. Thoughts? Also, they're currently all in containers - my thought because I'm a-cheap and b-lazy is just to stop watering them when it gets cold and put them in my garage...?

Thanks ahead of time!

Re: Water suckers
 

Hopefully someone with more experience can answer. I just moved all of mine under a gazebo and wrapped the gazebo in a plastic sheet tarp, made a door and gave them a grow light on a timer and a heater to keep the temperature fairly normal. But I live in Maryland and later in the season we will have fairly extreme temperatures.

Re: Water suckers
 

1) The idea here is that a fresh wound is potential site of infection, etc. I suspect whether this matters depends on a lot of things, climate, local diseases and pests, etc. Personally, I split the line: I plant freshly separated pups in only slightly moist soil or potting mix as quickly as possible, and wait until the next day to thoroughly water them in. I'm trying to keep live roots alive and yet give the wound a chance to heal a bit. I'm not saying that is the definitive way to do it, but that's what I do. I also don't live in the tropics where there are corm weevils, nematodes, etc.

3) You can sometimes force pupping by crowding a banana plant in a container or providing less than optimal conditions; or sometimes chopping the top off a plant will do it; or destroy the meristem.

4) A distressed plant where something bad has happened to the meristem (the growth point at the top of the corm) will often respond by sending up pups from around the outside of the corm. Unless it's gone too far and the entire corm is dying. Happy plants will obviously pup, but for some varieties you will have to wait a long time because they are genetically programmed to pup late in their growth cycle (i.e., close to flowering). And some varieties pup much less than others, and distressing them could make them produce more pups than they otherwise would, at a cost to the "mother" plant.

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So when buying a plant that's been potted from a Nursery or individual is there a way to tell which one you received?

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Most of potted nursery plants are TC and they are IMO much better choice. Course, thats if you dont know the seller in person, becouse the best plants comes from members here.
:woohoonaner:

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That's what I need to purchase! I really want several but I'd like to know what I'm getting and my first two I have no clue what I have.