edzone9

Hello Gang;

Why Does The Plantain Farmer In Central America Cuts Off The Pup & peels the Corm as it was a potato , cut all the roots off & Plant It ?

( They Look Like PR Dwarf Plantain Plants )

I thought The Pups Where ready To become Mother Plants ?.

Please watch the video in the start , its in spanish thou you get the picture .

amantedelenguaje

I am no expert; however, I know a little about bananas and Spanish. Putting these two skills together, this is what I gather from the video. The cutting of the foliage and corm are for the following reasons:

1. Field sanitation/hygiene -- Removing the foliage and roots while cutting the plant just above the grow point allows the horticulturalist to dip the corm in a fungicide to kill disease or insects and prevent the transfer of such things to new fields; even the soil/sand that is placed in the nursery pots has been treated to prevent weeds and disease.

2. Uniformity of size-- They select corms of about the same size and cut off any suckers that may be forming. Since the plants are grown in a semi climate-controlled environment, this allows the plants to develop at about the same rate; when a new field is planted, you won't have such an issue with larger more vigorous plants shading weaker plants. Additionally, they should all begin to produce fruit at about the same time.

3. Protection of the plant--If you uproot a sucker with such a small corm and immediately plant it in a beaming hot field, the plant will not have established roots and will struggle to survive for a while. Removing the foliage prevents transpiration or the loss of water through the leaves. By growing the plants in a climate controlled environment (i.e. shade cloth and controlled water/humidity), the corm has a greater chance of producing a healthy plant. This also allows the plant to form a root ball so that when it is planted in a field, the roots are in tact and ready to grow.

Of course, you do not have to go through such a laborious process to plant bananas. You can just uproot a pup, stick it in the ground, and hope for the best. I'm sure the owner(s) of the greenhouse in the video cannot afford to gamble on the success of their planting methods, and for this reason have taken extra measures to assure that the plants and their fields are maintained in the best possible condition.

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edzone9

I Have Lots Of Pups , I Think I will try that method !
Thank You For The Great Post !

brod

cutting off the major part of the stem and trimming the roots is the recommended method of planting pups in Australian plantations. These are buried deep in the soil.
I have used this method for all my plantings and have great success.
Trimming the roots helps to see if the corm is infected with borers and a remedy insecticide can be applied.
I planted a Red Dacca this way and noticed it had borer and decided to plant it anyway because I so wanted it. It grew fine for a month or so only to die back.

edzone9

Thank You !

I Just Tried That method today , i hope it works as well for me .
Thanks again..

sandy0225

from what I gathered in a limited way by my lack of Spanish speaking ability, I did catch the word insecticide, when they were throwing the corms in the bucket of liquid. I'd say it's an insecticide such as imidacloprid which can be taken up by the plant tissues, it's effective against aphids, whiteflies and other chewing/sucking insects. It could also be tank mixed with fungicides to make it even more of a sure thing. Their plants really did look good! If you did that with bigger corms, you could cut them into chunks to get more plants out of them.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

edzone9

The Liquid was water was bleach to kill the fungus .
i just did that yesterday with a huge plantain corm that a family member sent me from Puerto Rico , But i didnt split it , i should of done so , i also noticed where 2 pups are starting to form .

Thank You..