Taking off the banana pups will not hurt the mother at all as long as you make sure not to damage the root system. I would wait until the pups are at least 2 feet tall because they should have good root systems by then. Just make sure to keep some pups with the mother because when the mother gets old enough it will fruit and once the fruit ripens, it will slowly die and the pups will take over and the process will continue. Bananas grow very fast, so i think you can have your banana jungle pretty soon especially if your in the tropics.

Good luck!

Thanks for the help and advice.
One last question, about how big of a pot size should I eventually put these plants in? As I assume it's a native type of plant the ones behind our house get to about 12'-15'tall. The pot I have now is about 18"across and about 12" deep. I do have some large ceramic pots that are quite big (about 2.5' across) and they will go in these eventually. Im just not looking forward to lug to try and muscle these things to the 3rd floor rooftop.

You should put it in a big pot, and then when you want to drag it up you can do the same thing that people in cold climates do when winter comes, dig it up, cut the leaves, trim the roots, drag it to its new location, and repot. It will still be heavy and if its really big, it might take more than one person to drag it up, but its easier than dragging it up with the pot. Once you get it up, you can repot it and give it some plant food as well as water, and it should take off. Thats the only thing I can come up with to keep it easy to take up, but maybe someone else has better advice. They will stay smaller if in pots, but will also grow slower.

Good luck!

Well, I just hauled one of my ginormous clay pots up to the roof and re-potted the plant.
It looks kind of pathetic...a one foot banana plant in a pot thats about 2 feet across. I know it will grow in to it, but it looks like a 3 year old kid wearing daddies clothes...
I'll move the pup i took off last night to a larger pot in a few weeks.
Thanks again.
Justin