Dispose of excess pups
 

Hi

Whats the easiest way to get rid of excess pups? My banana crop in the corner of the yard is getting quite crowded I want to remove some of the larger pups around 1.5m of pstem. I dug one out yesterday man it was a bugger i had to dig all around it, bent one of shovels up trying to leaver the thing out and off the parent plant. I read somewhere you can cut a pup off near ground level then pour some kero over the wound to kill it im worried this will damage the parent too. Any other suggestions? Or am i just going to have to suck it up and go dig them out hoping not to damage the mothers too much.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Pup on the left is one that needs to go.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Cut them off at ground level and gouge out the center to destroy the meristem.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Like so

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Or you could do like I do. Dig out the pup when it's big enough to have its own roots, pot it up. Join a garden/fruit tree club that has an auction at its monthly meetings and sell it. Typically the member gets 80%, the club gets 20.

Treasure Coast Rare Fruit Club

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Restrictions on the movement and planting of banana plants are imposed to prevent the spread of serious banana diseases, such as banana ...

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

I feel like a crime has been committed...

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Did that to 3 Raja Puri Pups this morning.. Mulch.. :^)

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

The key though is too keep them removed which can be a weekly affair. By the way, all my suckers got to the rose bed. Roses love banana plants, bananas and banana skins. They will bloom like crazy.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

I tried this method on my Blue Java and it didn't work.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

commercial growers in Australia chop the pup off near ground level and gouge a little bit out and pour in a cap full of kerosene. I use this method and it works like a treat with no detriment to the matt. The best thing is to get them when they are small.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

lol dw i felt bad doing it but I need to keep them under control. Please don't put my in the banana jail

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Must not have got the meristem.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

I don't have a need to kill pups but if the need arises, I probably would first try piercing the pup with a small stick. I would think anything that binds the center shaft should effectively kill the pup. I would never use kerosene.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Green manure & compost are great for maintaining healthy soil, but using banana plants, bananas, and banana skins for roses seems like such a waste of potassium, when you're really looking for high phosphorous.

These NPK numbers are in ratios based on K being common.

4 - 0.5 - 6 - banana plants, bananas and banana skins

4 - 1 - 6 - The popular "Banana Fuel"

12 - 1.5 - 6 - grass clippings

6 - 12 - 6 - Rose fertilizer

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Adding poison sounds lovely!

Pup corm connected to the mama corm.
Mama corm connected to the mama stem connected to all the pups.
So don't light a match when eating those bananas.

Many commercial growers use stuff you and I would assume couldn't happen.

Caveat emptor!

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Other countries allow their farmers to use systemic pesticides that are banned in the U.S. and the fruit is still allowed to be imported.

How healthy are the bananas that you're buying?

Buen Provecho!

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Do not cut them off ..they will come back...remove the pups after the harvest or close to harvest. If there is too many pups coming up, crush them with your boots. it may come back ..repeat 3-4 times ..then it won't grow back.. you can also use the back end of the the draw bar to crush them...to under ground.\


If you remove the pups with roots of a growing plant that not fruited can reduce the production yield.

Re: Dispose of excess pups
 

Well put.