louis14

A good morning to all

Having mastered the transplanting of sword suckers straight into new planting fields, we are now in the final planning stage of building a polytunnel so as to allow pups to developp under less stress, under controlled sunlight and benefitting from mist watering.
The pups will all be put into their individual 5 x 10" black bag, put on tables about 40cm off the ground, in the polytunnel, with a sun shading net to keep the sun under control, maybe in the shading range of 50% for starts, that ratio can be decreased later on so as to get the plants used to direct sunlight..
This 50 m2 open ended polytunnel is planned to be able to receive about 3000 pups in their bags. Bags will be filled with a 50% mix of leaf compost and local soil. A solar pump, connected to a timer will be feeding mist sprinklers that will ensure a suitable humidity level of the soil mix in the bags.
The idea of this is to move the thousands of Gros Michel pups we have right now into this halfway house, nurse them to developp good roots and leaf strength, and then, once the rainy season has started, which should be in three months, move them into a new ready and irrigated field.

I wonder if there is a minimum size for pups we can move. We litterally have thousands of pups, and of course, we intend to leave the largest one in the ground near the mother pseudostem for the next crop. But we would really like to dig the rest of them all up. So how small can they be to support the transplant into bags and greenhouse? We would of course like to keep the failure ratio to a minimum and will only be transplanting sword suckers. Thanks

Tytaylor77

The larger the better! However you can take them any size. Just remember the smaller they are “smaller corms” means your fail ratio will be higher! Moisture levels is key! I always pot them up! Water ONCE! Then place them in the shade to root. Even during summer months i ONLY water once per 10 days! Until I see active growth!

On a tall GM I would say 20”+ would be fairly safe and is about where i cut. On dwarf types some are ok at 1’ You can also look for their 5th-6th leaf. It depends on the variety though!

I really enjoy your posts Louis14!! Please keep us updated and keep posting about your progress! Great job! You are going to be very successful!

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louis14

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer. Is that one foot length as a total length, once uprooted? or is is one foot out of the ground? I'd love to be able to uproot pups that are sticking out only 4 to five inches right now, the weather is so dry and although we water three days per week, these small pups have quite a hard time in the sandy soil. I think I'll try anyway. BTW, I have been using one dash of rooting hormone (auxin) at recommended dilution on fresh transplants and this does seems to help. I will try this also on these new transplants. It's fun for me as I majored in botany at university but then became a businessman. Now I am back using my botany to help me master my bananas

hydroid

About 1.5 ft is about where I have the best luck.

cincinnana

Sir ......We have a member Pr Giants whom can help you with your commercial banana questions..

He grows a lot of good stuff

His advice is respected ... as well as the reputation.

Do email him......great source for information.

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Tytaylor77

Yes 1’ total. That’s about my minimum on dwarf varities. On a tall namwa I won’t cut until they are 2.5-3’.

But “most” that are fruiting in the 8’-10’ range I cut at 20”-30”. They root fine as long as the soil is simi dry and they are in the shade.

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150+ Varieties!!. See profile for list. Help me add more!

www.bananapups.com

louis14

It is really interesting how relatively dry soil conditions induce plants to develop a more extensive root system. This is really going to be an interesting exercise. The crew are busy digging up Galangal for a few more days (which is a waste of money as it costs more to dig than its sale price) but at least we are freeing more space for more bananas. Kluai Hom Thong will be the variety we will be working with. They are fruiting quickly at a height of only 8 feet. (Our Namwah are enormous at fifteen feet) The first bunches of Hom Thong are not that big but I assume this will improve with subsequent generations as the mat gets bigger



Galangal rhyzomes: digging, unknotting, cutting the roots, scrubbing... very labour intensive

kaczercat

We used to have a very knowledgable member from Thailand, Togtan sadly he passed away about 8 years back. He could have really given some good advice. Thailand is the place to grow bananas!

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Matt