SurfCityPalms

Hello All,

This is my first time on this site so I had trouble navigating to see if this question has been asked before. If it has, my apologies.

I have an AeAe that is about 10+ feet now and I have finally gotten my first two pups! One is just a couple inches and the larger one is about a foot with a base of about 1-1.5 inches. My questions is, when is the appropriate time to remove the larger pup? Should there be roots or do I need to root it?

I consider myself the be on the expert side of the fence regarding palms, but a novice when it comes to bananas; any and all advice is appreciated!

Jerod

sunfish

Do not remove before roots form

Time to separate the pups for the Spring

varig8

I would agree with the prior post. Having said that, I would ask you why you want to remove it? Having grown Aeae for many decades, it would be my suggestion to you that you allow the first few suckers to grow into a stable mat. (They ARE finicky until you've got a nice big healthy mat of them). If you start removing the first suckers, this weakens the mat-the 'mother' will fruit and die, you've weakened the mat by removing suckers so early, so less chance of having a sustainable future mat to harvest from. What happens if you loose them at this early stage of growing........ya got nuttin down the road! Just a suggestion from past experience.

SurfCityPalms

That makes sense. I only wanted to remOve it to put it in another place in my yard so I could have more bunches. I guess I'll have to just be paciant.

Jerod

robguz24

One of mine is currently putting out 10-11. So far I've removed 3 and the mother plant probably has a couple months before it flowers. 7-8 seems like a lot to leave there to create a mat. What would you suggest?

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My micro-farm

Stay on my Big Island banana farm cottage

Magilla Gorilla

Aloha Rob,
AeAe's are finicky on the mainland. I grow them at my Santa Barbara house. Their I do try to leave them to create a stable mat. For us in Hawaii, with the soil that is more acidic, it may not be as necessary. I only move plants to relocate them to another area in the garden or to trade/sell personally.
By the way, the breadfruit festival will not have their own banana kiekis for sale. Someone will be supplying them.

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Andrew

varig8

Growing in Hawaii, as you experience, conditions are ideal for the Aeae. Yours is showing its appreciation by producing so many pups. In this case, it is not harmful to remove the majority of excess suckers. Ideally a good fruiting mat consists of the 'mother', a half grown kiki, and a smaller one emergent. This amount seems to produce the best fruit as not so many are still, (at least partially), feeding from the parent tree. You must remember that with Aeae, large portions of the tissue in the leaves without chlorophyll must be maintained via the normal green tissue. As the mother fruits and then dies it is replaced by the larger kiki, and next smaller one, and an emerging one-so this 'maintained' cycle continues. After the growth of 3-4 plants growing in the mat, then the excess suckers could be removed and replanted elsewhere. Often times entire white suckers (etiolates) will be produced which should be removed and thrown into the mulch pile. Occasionally entire green suckers will also be produced and these should also be removed so that the offspring from that will not overpower the variegated Aeaes. These reverted plants need not be thrown to the mulch heap however, of course these would grow and produce fruit as well. My point in the original posting was to allow the mat to develop with at least 3-4 plants before removal of any excess suckers to insure continued growth and to improve your chances of not having a huge loss and ending up with none!