MediaHound

The following is a step-by-step guide to cutting a pup from a mother plant. This method is very quick and easy and I'm sure if you give it a try, you will be much more likely to move pups around, as you'll find it fast and fun. The result will be many more banana plants colonizing your property, much sooner. And you know what that means. So follow along with me as we seperate a Pitogo huli from it's mother...

Tools required - deep scoop, short handle shovel and a sledgehammer (I usually use a much bigger sledge than this though!).



This is where we will be working. This plant has been growing quite slow for me, so I figure if I remove the pup and move it over a bit, the two stalks won't be competing for the limited nutrition in that area where they are together now. I'll also amend the soil before I'm done.



Positioning of the cut. Place your scoop close to the mother plant that will remain. Notice the pseudostem is nested right alongside the handle of the shovel, touching. The handle is also used to fold the leaf away from your line of sight. Now position the angle of your cut by moving the handle where you hold the shovel away from the mother plant. This gives you an angle that will cut a little bit under the mother plant, or at least cut away from the base of the pup, leaving the most valuable corm material to remain on the pup. This step is important! Line everything up properly.



Sink the blade. With one hand, hold the handle of your shovel in place so you do not tip your shovel and hit your head with the handle when you smack the scoop with your sledgehammer. If you do not hold the shovel steady, it may strike your head violently. Holding the handle in place also makes sure you keep the angle you want.



Here you see the blade is sunk almost to it's base. The corm is severed and now we can lift the pup up and away from the mother.



A look down the incision and we can see the umbilical has been cut. This is when you pump the handle to pry the corm and roots up and out of the ground.



A perpendicular cut is made in this case to assist with popping the sucker out of the earth. Don't worry so much about the roots, enough will remain. What we're after is corm, the potato-like white mass under the stalk.



Up, up, and away.



Now we take a break and walk to get some compost. I use and recommend the UCT-9 compost bins manufactured by Urban Garden Center.



I use the lid as a tray to dump some compost on to carry it back to the planting site.



We're back with some compost.



Using your hands, mix the compost with the surrounding soil and press it down into the hole where the pup was. The roots from the mother plant will bury themselves into the compost and the plant will get a boost of energy for some time to come.



After returning from a trip to the compost barrels, we prepare a new planting hole not far away from the mother in the same manner, amending the soil with additional compost.



The finished product. Now we have two happy Pitogo banana plants, they won't even know what hit them. You can water at this point or just wait for rain.



The whole process can be done in under five minutes.
If you follow these steps, you will have great success in propogating bananas and you will see that by doing this often with your plants whenever the chance arises, the long term effect is plenty of plants that will grow taller, faster, and will be spreading the yard as fast as you can move them around.



Update: there were also some videos added on page three of this thread showing the pry bar method. Pasting the videos here as well:

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

AnnaJW

Excellent tutorial! Thanks so much!!!

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's

pitangadiego

Already potted up several dozen this season. I use a digging bar with about a 2-1/2 wide blade. A lot less parent plant root damage than with the spade.

__________________
Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

momoese

Jon, do you use a hammer with the bar or just use your hands?

pitangadiego

Nohammer, it is heavy enough to jab in between the pup and parent.

Similar to http://www.acehardware.com/sm-collin...i-1274440.html

__________________
Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

MediaHound

http://www.leidytool.com
These guys have some good ones, too. They protect you from shock if you have to worry about that sort of thing for the other jobs you'll use it for.

I need to buy a digging bar to add to my arsenal, too.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

Rmplmnz

I have seen the digging bars for sale at local flee markets..

austinl01

Media Hound,

Thanks for posting such a detailed thread. This is great!

__________________
Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

MediaHound

Thanks, Austin, you're very welcome.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

island cassie

Very clear and informative Jarred. Thanks.

MediaHound

Welcome, IC!

I just bought a digging bar, these nanners better watch out.
:2687:

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

bigdog

Nice job, Jarred. I need to get a compost barrel like that. My girlfriend's mom was going to give us hers, but it's the kind that just sits there and you can't rotate it. Kind of pointless if you need to dig into it periodically to get the older stuff.

I have an easier job of separating pups in the spring, Jarred. You see, mine are all under the house bareroot (except for the cold-hardy ones in the ground). I just snap them off before planting, lol!

bigdog

Jon, are you talking about a San Angelo bar? Those things are awesome. I used one to remove a small tree, for crying out loud. Great for difficult jobs, prying stuff loose, etc. Never would have thought about using it to remove a little banana pup, but I bet it does the job very quickly and easily. Those things are like 6 feet long and weigh 17 lbs.

pitangadiego

There are a lot of variations on a theme. Mine happens to be a "Roughneck" brand.

see http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/cat/pro.jsp?id=62496 or
http://www.tractorsupplyco.com/detai...roductID=25068

__________________
Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

MediaHound

That's the exact one I got.
Home Depot, I think it was $27.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

MediaHound

Frank, you can get them on eBay a for a little bit of a discount sometimes vs. getting them directly from the manufacturer. They burn through the material really quickly, keep it moist and in the sunlight.. it gets burning hot and things break down in there quite fast. I did a ton of homework before I decided to get this particular model, I reviewed most all the composters on the market.
I also use a Flowtron leaf eater and a chipper too.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

kgbenson

Do you like the flowtron, i.e. would you buy the thign again? How heavy duty is it. I bag about 40 bags of elaves a year and would love to be able to use them more effectively.

Keith

__________________
Bee Sting Honey . . . So Good It Hurts
http://www.geocities.com/k2benson/TC...ban/TCban.html

MediaHound

I like it! It does a great job of pulverizing the leaves into a fine, usable substrate.
Keep a screwdriver nearby when you use it, so when the head gets jammed up with fiber, you can easily pop it off and clean it out and get back to mulching fast. It doesn't like damp banana fibers (the midribs), they get stuck, but it still gets them to the point where they compost faster in the barrels, so I don't mind mixing them in if I'm out there shredding things.
Flowtron sells refurbished ones on eBay, their username is flowtronproducs
http://myworld.ebay.com/flowtronproducts
It's built pretty good, it has a circuit breaker and is pretty durable, too. You won't be disappointed if you get one.

__________________
Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.

nucci60

fabulous! a great lesson for us novices!

AnnaJW

I am soooo glad you mentioned the diigging tool! I was just out struggling in our clay soil with a couple of shovels, then - DUH - remembered that we have a digging tool! It's making the planting alot easier!

__________________
-Anna Banana -

Living my life in MMORPG's