sandercohen

Hi everyone,

well, 4 of my 5 protected bananas (4 basjoos and 1 sikk) survived the winter and are now about 5 feet tall. They have not grown the way i had hoped due to the drought all summer, and all my bananas have been madly pupping all summer long. I have separated about 15 pups successfully so far, but the bananas just keep pupping instead of growing taller.

i have watered 3 times a week during this dry spot and fertilized with organic ferts every 2 weeks. Last year i had no pupping until the last few weeks of summer.

It is great that i have a ton of new bananas, but what i really want is a couple of HUGE plants next year, and all the psudostem saving ideas have so far failed for me.

any thoughts on how to proceed would be helpful.

man with the yellow hat

I have lots of pups to. I also have a three year old that is flowering to, my pups from last year are pushing nine feet, I will post some photos real soon. I dont think your doing anything wrong, right now you should be seeing at least one new leaf a week. Good luck, mike.

cactus6103

Does the old saying; first year they sleep, second year they creep and third year they leap apply to banana's? Mine are doing good, but I thought they would do better. By the way, I have one Basjoo, two Sikk and four Zebrina?. Thanks, Red

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frankthetank

How do you guys plant up your pups? I've separated 3 now from a 6foot tall Basjoo and it has 3 more that i want to separate. I just stuck the pups in small pots of compost and haven't watered??? I thought i read if you water them before they put out new leaves, they'll rot?

I can't imagine how many pups i'll have next year!!!

edit: I plan on bringing everything in side this winter. I'm not sure if i'll chop the leaves off the big one and just save the corm or do the whole plant in a container (i have a dwarf cavendish (its about 4ft tall) i did that with last year that did just fine).

sandercohen

I a would love to hear your magical recipe. I have mastered cutting the bananas to the ground and mulching deeply covered with a tarp, but I have never saved a psudostem successfully, so my bananas are only 5 feet tall right now.

I would love to see your huge banana plant and learn how i could do the same. I have over a dozen basjoos coming back every year by my pool, but they are tiny compared to yours.

man with the yellow hat

I wait a bit longer and wait until the pups have good roots of there own and then seperate from the mother. I do this right before frost, then bring them inside potted. I do water about once a week because I let them grow at a slow rate until spring.

man with the yellow hat

I use the Big Dog method on the one I want to flower. Basjoos need to be kept really cold, so a unheated garage would work for you because it would keep out the exterme cold when it sets in.

frankthetank

Huh. The one pup was almost 2 foot tall with good sized leaves so i cut it (the first pup) and it had no roots! Its been a couple weeks and i'll give it until fall to see if it come back.

sandercohen

I did some searching for big dogs overwintering method, and need some clarification. Yellow hat... do you store your basjoos in the garage for the winter? I can see that in TN where big dog lives, but my attemps at overwintering in crawl space and attic have failed miserably.

If there is a step by step process you could post i would love it.

thanks!

nucci60

Hi, When you seperate a pup on basjoo that is far from the mother, how can you be getting any of the mothers corm? Are you just depending on the pups roots?

man with the yellow hat

Before the first frost I dig up at least one of the mother plants, first I separate some of the pups and keep them in a plant friendly room in my basement. Then I just cover up the mother plant with some dark fabric, set on eight inch blocks, and forget about it until spring. My garage has some heat but at that low level next to the floor I cant imagine it is much above the outside temp. I will post some pictures of the basjoo that I garaged this past winter, it is now starting to fruit.

microfarmer

If you cut straight down next to the pup, you may not get any roots. I separate mine closer to the mother, not closer to the pup, and try to take a small bit of mother's corm with it.

My Goldfinger is a close pupper and I have to make an angled cut under the mother's corm to get any roots at all.

Here are links that might help you out...

Time to separate the pups for the Spring

My Way of Separating a Pup

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frankthetank

I've killed 2 pups now seperating them. I'm going to try again soon.