| Well, I have a tiny yard at a place I moved to in January 2009, and in March I planted a red dwarf banana corm right up next to a stucco veranda wall at the western edge of the yard next to the house (since I can’t resist anything pretty and colorful), but I understand this plant takes at least a couple years to produce fruit. Since I wanted fruit sooner, I also put in another corm of rajapuri against the fence on the eastern border of the yard. It has since grown into three slender little trees about 4’ tall now.
Meanwhile, the "dwarf" red now stands about 6’ tall, has a trunk of at least 6" in diameter, and regularly produces ENORMOUS deep-green leaves with beautiful pastel burgundy spines. It must really like the spot it’s in and its "roommates" (raspberries & si qua/ridge gourds, and some salad greens). The rajas on the other hand had been busy all summer fighting for their lives against a couple Brussels sprout plants that I mistakenly didn’t think would last, a burgeoning clump of lemongrass and a tangle of Japanese morning glories…..(Side question: did that spacing mistake cost me the growing season for the rajas, or will they still be likely to produce fruit sometime soon-ish?)
Anyway, yesterday when I finally got around to untangling the raspberry and si qua vines that had grown like crazy through the summer and getting them under control, I noted that the red banana had 3" pups popping up from the ground, one on either side of the main trunk. Nothing wrong with this, except that I do not have space for more banana plants in the yard, and I have no experience with growing bananas. It looks like from reading other posts that the mother plant will keep producing pups, and eventually bear fruit and die off.
My question is, should I just keep cutting out the pups until it looks like the mom is well on her way to producing bananas, and then leave one pup to replace it when it dies off? Another poster said that his rajapuri has produced fruit three times, once every six months. I wonder if that was on the same plant, or on successive pups that grew up.
Also, at what point should the pups be dug up? As we’re heading into the cool season now I’d be surprised if they made any significant growth until spring, but I don’t know. I’m also afraid of damaging the mother plant, so I guess I’ll be trawling you tube for "how to" videos…..
One more question: I have been pruning off the lower branches/leaves on the red dwarf banana plant to make the walkway more passable. It seems none the worse for it, but does that actually damage the plant and/or compromise it in producing fruit?
Thanks everyone! |
