imdocrob

Can anyone tell me if a tree fruits once, will it ever do it again or is it just ornamental at that point. I have been told that once they fruit they will not do it again. Is this true? If so, is it specific to certain species or is it the same for all bananas? Thanks for your help. This is a great site for people like myself just getting started in the banana game.

Southern-Grower

the fruiting stalk will die, once it fruits or attempts too.
but banana plants form a corm underneath.
this corm will grow other pups, which will replace the fruiting mother stalk.

some ornamental fruits will have seed in which you'll germinate them to replace mom..

all i can think of..

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Happy Growing,

SG

Enjoy Life as it's too Short

momoese

From what I understand the P-stem will only produce fruit once then slowly die. The corm will live and create more plants though.


yep^

Jeff

Hi imdocrob, after you cut the bunch of fruit from the plant, go ahead and cut the banana plant down. That particular plant will never produce fruit again and will slowly die so you might as well cut it down and give the suckers room to grow. Also, once a plant produces the flower (fruit) stalk, it will not produce any more leaves - it's done growing.

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Jeff in Costa Rica

pitangadiego

One and DONE!

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JoeReal

Sometimes in a very rare event, a pup will bore through the dying stalk that has already fruited and create an illusion that it regrows and bears fruit again. I have seen such a thing only once. This does not violate the rule that once a stalk has fruited, that stalk dies out, but the plant (which is really in the corm) is very much alive, shooting new stalks or pups.

Bananavilla

Speaking of fruit JoeReal, when I cut the Cal Gold bunch down do you want to come down and pick some up or do you want me to drop them in the mail?
Mike

JoeReal

I'm coming down for them if possible. It's almost record breaking high temperature here, and it is nearing thanksgiving. We should have some frosty nights already, but we are still having a minimum of just 48 deg F, and highs today was at 77 deg F.

MediaHound

Whack it at the base after (as) you harvest. This will help the plant focus energy into the new pups. You'll notice they'll grow faster than if you didn't.
The tradeoff is, of course, less aesthetic.

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JoeReal

Whacking it at the base after you harvest gives the clump a very good aesthetic look. The usual practice in most banana plantations that I am familiar with in the Philippines is that they whack it midway the pseudostem during harvest. The theory behind this is that the remaining nutrients in the trunk will be translocated to the growing pups. If the pseudostem is cut all the way to the base, you will have less nutrient and stored energy translocated back to the mother corm and the pup. The remaining portion that was cut is mulched around the mat. Very unsightly to look at, but who cares if you want to maximize yield and minimize fertilizer inputs. This is also the reason why they don't bother taking out leaves that are old and starting to turn yellow, they wait for the plants to naturally translocate the nutrients and carbohydrates in the leaves to other parts where needed. The only time the leaves are taken off is that when they are totally dried out or will shade out the new pups.

For us homegrowers, we want beauty or something pleasing to look at, so we whack them at the base after taking the fruits, take out any unsightly leaves, and to compensate, we must apply more nutrients than what commercial banana growers do.

imdocrob

Thanks for all your help with this guys. Am I to understand that the best time to seperate pups is in early spring. I have a goldfinger that has produced two pups. One is about 1 1/2' tall and the other 6". Should I wait til spring and then just seperate the taller of the two or should both go so that the mother plant can have more nutrients to fruit? Does anyone know how long it take a goldfinger to actually fruit by the way. I have it inside by a southern window and am only watering it very little. It is still producing a new leaf every couple of weeks. Should I continue to let this grow until spring when I can put it back outside? Thanks again for all your help. We don't have many banana growers up here in Oregon.