If the kids do not leave home, Mom dies.

This has been my experience with Dwarf Cavendish Bananas. If you do not remove all suckers, Mom dies. Yes, you can wait until the kids are old enough to leave home and be on their own. If you keep weeding out the kids, Mom lives a long time and produces many, many kids. I started with one D. C. Banana, now I must have 20 and I have already given away over a dozen. Is this also true of other plants? I guess it is a suckering vs. clumping thing.

This message was edited Feb 16, 2013 9:37 AM

Does this relate to all banana,s? I have 2 that I planted last year.

I have two bananas. A dwarf cavendish and a giant dwarf (edible) banana which I found on sale and couldn't resist. I'm wondering about containers. Any size recommendations? Also, what do you use for fertilizer? I usually prefer to use fish emulsion or keep it as natural as possible since everything is outside anyway.
However, container grown plants sometimes need more food options. I appreciate all comments/ advice and thank you for taking the time to share your knowledge.

My limited experience says Bananas need lots of heat, sun , water and food. Cannot imagine giving too much of any of those. OK, outdoors in the summer they willl not be placed in full sun. I'd advise seperating the pups, starting some more pots just to be safe. Gene

gasrocks- are you saying you would not place a banana in full summer sun?

Very, very few of my house plants are out in full sun for the summer. Not even the Bananas. They get sunburned if I try it. Guess they are used to lower light levels and can't take what others might want. They are healthy, without etiolation. I have 3 areas outside for the plants to summer. Each has a different amount of shade and/or protection from rain. We get too much rain here for most all of my succulentd to handle. I water them by hand. Gene

Interesting, thanks Gene.
I have a banana pup which barely made it thru winter with two leaves. Since those broke, the new ones came from the base in natural sun so I guess those are used to it. I did badly sunburn a tropical Hibiscus from the greenhouse. I should know better!