momoese

Mikevan got me thinking with this sentence.

"but then, I like the huge corms that develop if you leave a few pups connected together"

I believe commercial growers just top the pups as they come up right? I have done this myself when I don't want the pups or don't have time to dig and remove them for replanting.

Do you think the corm gets bigger and makes bigger and more fruit faster by leaving the pup corms attached and just removing the tops?

mikevan

It is my understanding that corm size is directly proportional to plant vigor. All other things being equal, of course. From what I've read, commercial plantings will limit a plant to 3 pseudostems per corm. The mother and two keiki - one being smaller than the other. These rotated out - as the mother was harvested, the next largest would become the mother and another keiki would be allowed to grow. I think this was to balance leaf to fruit - at least one report indicated that if too many nanners grew from the same stool, productivity would be hindered. Too many pups taking energy from the fruiting pseudostems. Not sure if this is true, tho it does make sense.

On the other hand, more leaf means more food going to the corm. And the corm is the life of a banana plant. You can cut away everything else - but so long as you have a healthy section of corm, you're sure to have a nanner plant in short order.

Every pup I got that had a large portion of corm - yours included - seemed to just jump out of the ground with growth. I'd plant them, then get banana-slapped because I didn't move out of the way fast enough. Those that I got that had just the barest amount of corm took the longest to get established and start growing. My Brazilian came as a pretty small shoot with a nice clump of corm. It popped out a new leaf in a few days and now has a second and it hasn't even been two weeks yet! Even with a small shoot - the size of the corm gave it excellent vigor. My DC and SDC were the same - huge honking corms with modest stems - and they're growing like weeds now. On the other hand, a new rajapuri I got that had very little corm took a very long time to get established and at 3 weeks old is just now putting out new leaves.

So - I would leave just a couple of pups on a corm, or three, to encourage good corm formation. Leaves feed the corm, so a few good stems coming out of a corm makes it stronger - so long as they're all contributing. ie - if you have a pup that's perpetually in shade and being supported by the others, then cull it. Then just rotate them so you always have one maturing while the others are a work in progress. I'll have to dig out my notes and provide some links.

Of course - this is just from casual reading and incidental experience and observation - dig around and verify for yourself just in case I'm misunderstanding things.

Be well,
Mike

momoese

Mike, I understand what your saying but I think you missed my point. My bad, I should have been more clear in my first post.

Let try this again! lol If you already have enough pups growing for next year and the year afters plants, but still have more pups popping up all over the place, should they be topped to allow the mother corm to absorb the unwanted pups corm energy. Is this making any sense?

So my point is would topping the extras give more energy to the mother plant verses completely removing them for resale or planting elsewhere.

PaulOdin

You guys have at least got me thinking. I have a few pups in places I don't want them to grow, such as 6" from my neighbors fence, but also in places it would be hard to get into and separate them. I'd never considered that there might be advantages from simply cutting them off.

mikevan

Like many other plants - I think thinning would help the whole since you'll have better light to those you leave attached, and you'll have better air-flow, tho I'm not aware of any foliage fungal problems with nanners. If you have too many of them all bunched up, some are going to be shaded and will likely not be contributing to the corm. Much like suckers on fruit trees or bull canes on grapes.

So, my guess would be to cull out those pups that are not in a position to directly benefit the plant (light is power - if it's not getting light, it's sucking energy). And... well, I'll help you dispose of those pups. Oh... topping. Sigh. Well - I'm not sure how far you need to top it to keep it from growing back, but it seems that portions of the corm that don't have pseudostems attached degrade. For instance. I had one planted in the ground out back that I dug up to replant. The main pseudostem had died back for the winter and a new pup was growing. The main corm had rotted out as the new corm developed under the pup. So - living pseudostems may be required for that section of corm to remain. If you cut it, the energy may be sucked up into the growing sections. Just a guess here... I think the most important thing is to ensure that all pups are or will become contributing members - they all have sun and are not crowding out their siblings. Those that appear to be problem-pups would likely be candidates for culling...

But - this is just a guess - I really hope someone with more direct experience with nanners will pipe in...

Be well,
Mike

Westwood

Mitchel , OMGosh I thought you ment 2-3 pounds on that shipment .
not 23 i really thought it was a typo and for the first time in 6 yrs UPS got me the package befor 6pm it came in at 9 am.
the guy so excited and wanting to see what guitar i picked out LOL . I really tried 6 times to tell him it was not a guitar . but then he asked how much i paid for it . I said I won it for being honest LOL. well i was i think the 2 you sent me befor will work yes a little damage but i am trying. so finally at 10am he left down hearted since i told him i cant open it in full sun. i then told him it was Bananas . he said No way and still didnt believe me LOL Tammy

eggo

Momoese, from what I've seen I don't think topping plants will help it conserve energy because the pup will continue to try to send out new shoots. You need to top And then take a knife and carve into that growing bud to prevent it from sending up new growth. I think topping it in a way that prevents it from sending new growth does give more extra energy to the mother plant verses completely removing them for resale or planting elsewhere.
From a little experience, having around only 3-4 plants to a corm does provide better fruiting consistency and better fruit than a mat that has something like a dozen plants. You would think a giant banana mat will year after year always be having fruit or blooming all the time with consistency, but it really doesn't and when there are several blooms, it seems to produce smaller inferior fruits.

mikevan

That's kinda what I figured. I cull bunches from my grapes and I cull fruits from my peach trees so that more energy can be spent on the remaining fruit. I also cull out unproductive vegetation - balancing leaf to fruit. That is - I cull out branches that are shaded or bull canes on my grapes - vegetation not contributing to the strength of the plant or quality of fruit. And, I've read similar techniques are used to get really gigantic pumpkins and watermelons - culling out all but one or two per vine. Having never grown a nanner to fruit, tho I've read just this that stools are limited to one fruiting stem at a time by keeping a mother and a pair of keiki, I'm happy to have guessed right!


Thanks,
Mike