Tomsamba

I live in Puerto Rico and have a number of bananas, most of which I planted since the yard had been ravaged after the house had been vacant for some time.
My friends tell me you can't take pups until the banana sets its first fruit. True? or an old wives tale?
What are the most decorative fruiting species? I have one Siam ruby, but that's the only fancy pants banana I have.
Just so you know, I have manzano, ice cream, misi luki, jayuya, saba, maia maoli, huamoa, mafafo and some more that I can't remember at this moment..but all pretty much green.
Are there any caveats about planting other plants near bananas?

Ok...that's all for now.

Bananaman88

Welcome to the forum Tomsamba! I have been to PR twice and it is beautiful there.

There is nothing to the myth that one cannot remove pups prior to the plant fruiting first. I have done this multiple times with no apparent ill-effects. If you think one of your plants may be about to flower, it might be best to hold off on removing any pups as you will be damaging roots in the process which could stress the mother plant and ultimately affect fruit set.

As far as decorative fruiting species, hey, I think any fruiting banana is beautiful. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there aren't many bananas out there with eye-catching foliage that also set edible fruit. Exceptions would be the 'Grand Nain' x Sumatrana cross and the 'Ae-Ae'.

I think 'Mysore' may have a reddish color on the underside of it's leaves.

Rickitikkitavi

You can take pups virtually any time but tends to be better to wait till they have a few leaves. Check out the details under propagation in this link

BANANA Fruit Facts