Beginner Gardening: Ensete ventricosum starting to grow sideways, 1 by bari_sax

bari_sax wrote:
I've had great luck growing Ensete ventricosum in our SF Bay Area backyard. After 2-3 years they're giant. And of course, once they get this size, they become giant sails and (with their almost non-existant root system) blow over at some point, although this can be mitigated with some guy wires.

In any case, I have one that has appears to now be bending and growing sideways (unless I'm wrong and it's actually about to produce end-of-life flowers). If it continues to grow, the center of mass will just pull the whole plant over. So I'm trying to how to deal with it. I can cut the plant where it's starting to bend (about 8 feet off the ground), or just wait for the right time and cut the whole thing to the ground and either remove it and plant another (as I did before in this very spot), or see if it will generate pups after cutting down (as it appears is possible even with this species if I'm to believe what I've read on various forums).

Any advice?