john_ny

Jack, Please tell; How is Central America more advanced in this?

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John

Jack Daw

I've been in contact with a lovely person from Nicaragua, who studied n Slovakia, real expert and he briefly described some techniques they use (cascade production). They don't use TCs yet are able to fill the banana fields within a reasonably short time. I will study the technique and link some materials as soon as it's verified (thus working), as I will have to write them in Englis (I was told about it in my mothertongue ). I will try this propagation this winter or probably the next spring to see, whether I understood the technique right. If so, I will post a lengthy thread about it with lots of pics. Soon.
The outcome is about 10 to 30 plants a corm (depends on the size of the corm)

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Thnx to Marcel, Ante, Dr. Chiranjit Parmar and Francesco for the plants I've received.



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pitangadiego

In my experience at doing this (which is limited), if the corm stays in ground after fruiting, a lot of the "eyes" will not ultimately produce pups. Cutting the corm up seems to increase pup "yield".

Also, there are other reasons. Sometimes I do not want an old corm corm crowding new plants in the mat. Also, sometimes a plant, or corm will will come out of the ground by falling over, or for other reasons, and will no longer have roots in the soil, so cutting the corm up can yield more plants. If the corm is allowed to just lay on its side, I generally see pups come from the bottom "eyes", but not often from the to ones, so they generally go "to watse". Again, cutting can increase the number of plants. If plants get crowded in a mat, I might remove a plant before it flowers, to make space, and I can cut that corm up for propagation (not very often).

The point is this: in some situations it makes sense to divide the corm for propagation purposes, and it is nice to know, should the need/opportunity arise, that it does work.

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harveyc

The last I heard, Tony's California Gold had 11 pups which is more than normal. I've been wondering why his plant has produced so many pups before it has even flowered. One thing keeps coming to mind that I may give a try. Many rose growers use alfalfa pellets around their roses to help stimulate the development of new canes as alfalfa contains a compound (I forget the name, but I think it starts with the letter "t") that encourages basal bud break. I wonder if the use of alfalfa pellets, meal, leaves, and/or a tea made from alfalfa would encourage more buds on a banana corm to break and form pups. I've got about 280 tons of alfalfa in the stack on my farm right now so I guess I should do some experimenting!

Oh wait, I just did some more searching and found this interesting comment on GW:
I wonder if my wife would mind me using the blender to emulsify some alfalfa??

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Bob

Ya think?

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harveyc

Sometimes!

Actually, I have plenty of un-cut alfalfa along the edges of my field and I think I'd have an easier time with some fresh alfalfa in the blender over some that's been dried with hard stems and all.

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edzone9

Hello Gang;

I just tried this today,with a Plantain plant that was hurt during few days at 33f , i split the huge corm in 3 big chunks , honestly i could not identify the so called eyes ? are the eyes where the roots sprout out of ?

Anyways , so i cut it in 3 portions planted them in some good soil .
am i missing anything ? i have another corm i can practice on .
Very interesting .
Also is a Video available showing this practice ?
I planted the flat cut side face down & the Corm material facing up , Is that the proper way ?

Thanks Great Thread ... Love Science

edzone9

So you plant each divided individuall section 100% under ground , Or do you leave a lil exposed ?

Thank You ..

pitangadiego

Just leave the "eye" or bud exposed.

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Abnshrek

I'm 1 for 1 on this and the eye was below surface and popped up inside a week. It was just below the surface.. :^)

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edzone9

Thank You !

PR-Giants

Corm pieces like that normally grow very slowly in the beginning and even though pitangadiego's method
will work fine, here in Puerto Rico the exposed surface will take a beating from the sun.

I prefer to use Abnshrek's method, about a half inch under the soil, although "popping up inside a week" has not been my experience.

ARH can take months before they start to effectively grow.

Because of the slow rate of growth, I plant all the pieces close together.

This also makes caring for them easier and most, if not all, will produce many plants and will need to be divided and relocated later anyways.

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edzone9

Thanks PR Giant !
Sounds like fun , i already did this ( dont know if i did it correct ) , But i see one poped out already , it does take a long time , its a Giant plantain .

Its amazing how Banana's grow pups and fast , i just repotted a Gran Nain to a bigger pot , when i cleaned off the dirt from the corm , it had 3 pups growing from it & the Mother plant is only about 18'' Tall.

So you get 4 plants for the price of 1 .

PR-Giants

This is an ARH piece planted on Aug 16 2012, and didn't start to grow above the soil surface until late October or November, and did grow a nice root ball.

aug 16 2012 - This piece was originally destined to grow in Port St. Lucie, but became unadopted.


dec 6 2012 - it is the plant on the left, with the dark green leaves.

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bengtang

Why keep them away? They protect the banana plant from caterpillars, snails etc.

As for the corm dividing method, i have done it, nothing special, no need to remove the roots, just look for the buds and cut out a piece of corm with the bud in it and plant it with the bud facing up. The soil here is heavy orange clay so i plant very shallow, in a depression but just below the surface of the soil, almost exposed, so that the cutting doesn't suffocate.

Usually when you dig up the corm you will also find one or more suckers starting to grow, those can be used like any other suckers. The buds should be cut out with as much corm attached to each as possible, like wedge shaped pieces of the corm.

Nicolas Naranja

Certain species of ants can actually damage the fruits. They will also tend aphids and mealybugs.

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edzone9

I did this for the 1st time after reading this post & It Worked ! Took a long Time But The Corm Peepers are Growing ..

PR-Giants

Know your ants.

Some species will destroy the pseudostem.

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PR-Giants

How did you cut the corm?

Did you leave some of the corm center connected or did you only remove a thin layer
of the outer corm with the peeper?

These are photos of a Hua Moa peeper 17 days after planting.

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edzone9

Nickolas sent me a Giant Plantain & I Planted It In Winter Time NE Florida , We Had 3 Cold snaps wiped out everything i planted In My Yard ;(.

So I Cut Down The PS To The Corm , Cleaned It very well & scrapped any Black Stuff .

I Then Cut The Huge Corm In 4 Just Like The Pics In The TuTorial & Planted Half In The Ground & The Other Half In Pots .

Both Divided Corms Sprouted In 4 Pups ..
I had No Idea Of What I was Doing It Worked ..

Now i have 4 Giant Plantains , I Plan To Fill My Yard again .
I also did a mistake By Covering all my trees with Plastic , I think they would of been better Of Without any Covers ..

I Also Lost Half Of The 7ft Avacado Tree that I planted From Seed About 2 Years ago , But The Lower Half If Alive & Has New Growth , I Guess It Will Be A dwarf Avacado.

I also Bought a LiLa Avacado Tree about 8Ft Tall Grafted , Its The 2nd Most Cold Hardy Avacado Tree Next To The Joey .
The Avacado Tree Can Take Upto 18f It should be Ok With NE Florida.

Thanks Ed..