TommyMacLuckie

I've been a little busy and have been away a good bit. I've got dwarf cavs, sabas and orinocos blooming (and one mystery banana I have yet to figure out). Was going to do an experiment - those on the west side will have their blooms cut off when the small flowers appear; those on the east side will remain as they are.

I recently read something about it, cutting the bloom off when the little flowers start dropping, and I seem a little foggy. I've had to cut down plenty of bananas before in the past that still had the bloom on and the fruit was huge - actually knocked me to the ground.

Thoughts, etc...

asacomm

You should not cut off the female flower, but cut off only male flower in
order not to abuse the nourishment to the female flower.
Is this the answer that you want to hear?

jeffreyp

cut the bloom after at least 10" after the last hand.

ron_mcb

i just cut my bloom hoping to grow the bunch as possible before the frost. like the guy stated before give it approx 10 inches.... its supposed to save some energy that the plant is wasting on producing male flowers that could be put into developing the fruit.

there may be some risk of the plant being affected by pathogens at the cut site, or other problems.

i was wondering if it was a good idea to seal the cut with something (like wax). any ideas about that while we are on this subject???? has anyone ever actually experimented with it?? what happened???

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naw mek smaddi ditate fi yuh. naw wan gwan a pawty yuh naggo.

TommyMacLuckie

I'll indeed do some more research about it. I've seen lots of pictures of the stalk being cut right below the fruit, some with the bloom still going and the fruit is nice and fat in both. On plants that are mature.

I've seen fruit with the bloom still on and withered, small (usually damaged orinoco - freeze or wind damage - and small ie not fully mature dwarf cav).

I've also been attempting to take note if the amount of fronds has an influence on the fruit but so far have not seen anything note worthy. There are bananas coming out and getting rather large from one that broke in July that has only one frond on it.

ron_mcb

i think the experts say to leave some space between the last hand and the cut is because if there are any problems like rotting it would have a little ways to travel up the stem.. i was hoping someone would share any experience, and or theory about capping or sealing off the cut.

also.like a lot of plants the size and strength of the root system affects the fruiting more than the number of leaves the banana has. i have seen a banana fruit with no leaves (right after being decapitated).
i think some people count the leaves that a banana produces as a reference point to tell when the plant is about to fruit. i think its more approximate than an exact science.

__________________
naw mek smaddi ditate fi yuh. naw wan gwan a pawty yuh naggo.

TommyMacLuckie

I was only going by photosynthesis for fruit production. Which it's been rather obvious that that, ha ha, does not matter. I guess, in a sense, because the whole plant is one giant leaf!

ron_mcb

most people automatically assume when you said you wanted to know if cutting off the bract affects fruit you were asking about disease.thats why you were getting advise on how far to make the cut.

ok seen.. i now see you are experimenting with removing some of the male flower bracts from certain species and leaving some intact.to see if it affects fruit development. ok good experiment.

i have re read your posts and now i see where you are going with this... i have seen many photos of guys getting fruit from a banana that has only a couple shredded leaves and the p stem is covered in dead leaf sheaths(which could be used for photosynthesis as well if they werent covered.). the pics dont help desperate people growing a new variety confirm identity of their plant either.

i dont know how photosynthesis occurs but the plant seems to grow a decent bunch..maybe its running off of stored energy as well?

__________________
naw mek smaddi ditate fi yuh. naw wan gwan a pawty yuh naggo.

TommyMacLuckie

Oh, yeah. Didn't occur to me. It's nothing to do with disease, just plant maturity, how much green will make a difference in fruit amount and size, etc. Over my 15 or so years of dealing with banana plants I never wondered about it because I didn't know to wonder about it and every plant I ever had to cut down was doing just fine with astounding fruit. As in, they were growing wild in a yard and the blooms were all intact.

It's just a wondering. I would think where they are wild they make great fruit and nothing prunes them like, for instance, banana plantation workers do. So far the ones I have pruned off have not shown any difference compared to the ones I've left alone. Time will tell I suppose but as fast as they grow, haven't seen anything.

Oh and I figured out what the mystery plant was - it's a Thai Gold! Little tiny white things sticking out of the flowers where the tiny fruit is growing, vibrant yellow bloom, fantastic. I had no idea. The one that I had planted or whatever before Gustav and Ike and then moved in for winter storage died. Something obviously happened after that, I guess it wasn't dead after all. It sure looked like it though.