Banana Pup? When and How?

I've browsed through the previous posting about Bananas but would like to ask a question:

I rescued this "Dwarf Banana Tree" from a local greenhouse about a month ago. It was sad, and in a very SMALL pot with roots exposed. Brought it home, immediately potted it up to a bigger pot with lots of fresh potting medium (50/50 potting medium and perlite), watered it, and have kept it out on my patio - which gets mostly filtered light with maybe an hour of bright afternoon sun.

Anyways - - this thing has rewarded me with about four HUGE subtle succulent new leaves......
.....................AND A PUP! So when and how do I go about separating it?

What about the leaves.....will they split and "fray" like many of the pictures of Banana trees I see in PlantFiles?

In advance, thanks for any/all info! BETSY

Betsy, I would wait until it gets a bit bigger. How I always handled my dwarf Cavendish pups:I'd just unpot the whole thing, grab an electric meat cutting knife, and cut between momma and pup. I'd repot the two halves in new potting soil, and in a week I would have two plants you'd never know were once living in close proximity. :)

The only thing I made sure I did was keep the soil moist (but not soaked) for the first week. I didn't worry about fungus or rot.

-Joe

P.S. I use past tense, because for a while I kept giving away pups. Well, last fall I left momma out in the cold for too long. Now I wish I'd have kept at least one spare pup (all of them were murdered by their adopted parents. :( )

It's doing well!

Bananas will always pup at some time. It's their way of propagation since in nature, the fruiting lead is determinate, like a Bromeliad. It will bloom, fruit, and die. Think of the pups as new branches. I usually make divisions in the late Winter (assuming you're going to leave them in a pot) when the plants are more dormant.

The leaves will split if they are exposed to high winds. Some varieties are more tolerant of splitting than others.

Thanks, Joe & Dave! Great info.I will wait til fall and it's bigger before separating them.
...but I gotta tell ya, Joe - - I CRINGED at the thought of taking an electric meat cutting knife to this beauty! LOL It sounds like something out of a movie!

Heh, the electric knife makes cutting through the soil a breeze (just cut straight down, halfway between the two plants.) You'll separate them, and you'll see where you may have cut through a large piece of root, but both nanners will bounce back very quickly.

Got the d-mail, and thank you for the offer!!! :)

-Joe

Hi BetsyJ. I am almost your neighbor, I live by the Long Creek Firehouse. Any just wanted to say nice job with the Banana. I love to rescue plants. I havent had the chance to do much. My children are finally out of the house and I have time for lanscaping, gardening and whatever. I rescure 2 Luna Blush Hibiscus from K-Mart this year that were practacly dead. Look at them now.
I hope to have a banana eventualy. Sanford always had beautiful ones.

RW,

I used to be your neighbor. We left Decatur in October. Does it still reek like dirty gym socks over by Fairies Park? What part of Decatur do you live in? My MIL still lives there and works at Bergner's.

RW - I dmailed ya! This banana I rescued from Williams Greenhouse.

Bama --
Hey there! Don't mean to jump in before RW answers you but.....Yes, it still smells like that in Fairies Park (LOL). Of course, most people will tell you that's simply "the smell of money" because it's from ADM. =0) You left Decatur in October, huh? Didn't happen to work at IP did you? Betsy

I didn't work. Mostly I tried to sleep through the days that they ethanol plant processed moldy grain (key word there is 'tried'). It didn't smell like money to me. It smelled like death and cancer clusters.....especially multiple myloma according to the CDC. But then, I didn't grow up there and my DH and I both got cancer there, so I'm a bit biased.

Well I see Betsy jumped in. HeHeHe. Actually I have been slow in response last few days. I only have everyother day and am tending to someone in my home. Betsy is actually the only one I have been talking to. Just meet her here, and hope to see her in person one day when everything slows down at my house. BamaBelle I did just dmail ya. But I see Betsy said YES too imagine that. LOL

ROFL! Imagine that! Before ADM bought all the soy plants one friend in the area said his kids called that part of town Stinky Staley. Actually the smell of soybeans didn't bother me...it was a little cloying and sweet, but was OK. It was the smell of the ethanol taht was unbearable. It smelled like gym socks form someone with athletes feet combined with the stench of a wet dog and burning hair. As close as my MIL lived to the plant, the stench got into the house no matter what we did. And when it was really, really bad, When we walked outside it gagged us.

Where we live now, we are close to a yeast plant and about 20 miles from a paper mill. Some folks complain about the yeast plant. I've only smelled it twice...once when I was down at the square and once when we drove past the plant. To me it smells like lunch room rolls baking. Others say it smells like beer. Neither is unpleasant. During the winter (which lasts for a few weeks in Janruary and February) the paper mill smell wafts into the area. It isn't too bad. For the most part you can't smell it when you are inside your home or office...but even when you can, it is NOTHING compared to the ethanol plant. A little Fabreeze sprayed around the room takes the smell right out. I can't tell you how much money we 'invested' in Yankee Candles trying to cover up the ADM smell!

You care for someone in your home? I reckon that explains the 'medic' in your screen name. I have a lot of respect for home caregivers. My grandfather had a bevy of caregivers for several years. Two of them are still 'with' the family. One of them keeps house for my cousin. The other one has just become part of the family and comes by every day and comes to most family functions. We'd adopt her if we could...LOL! In fact, we are dong our best to get my uncle to leave his nagging shrew of a wife and marry our gal! He'll never do it, of course, but he drives 5-6 hours to see 'us' regularly...leaving his wife at home...and usually brings our gal a treat or two.

If either of you ever shops at Bergner's, stop by the Lady's Better Dresses department (next to juniors) and say 'hi' to Joanie Roanie (Joann Roan). She's my MIL and a really sweet lady. She isn't a gardener, although when she had her own place, she had a pretty spiffy yard and hanging baskets in the Spring and Summer. She had a gorgeous peony bush that I just loved....but they don't grow here. Wah!

Anyway, like I said, she is a really sweet lady and would be tickled pink if ya'll dropped in and told her you 'knew' me and came by to see her for me. I worry about her...but she won't move down here as long as she is able to live independently. I suspect that the only way she will move down here is if her daughter puts her in a nursing home and we go up there and get her out. But, you know, at 72, if she is happy working full time and going to lunch with her lady friends, etc....then that is what keeps her going, and she should stay there and be happy. Uprooting her and bringing her down here among strangers, no matter how much she is accepted by my family and made to feel welcome, she would just wither away. However, I'm hoping that we can get her to start visiting us this winter and she can start making freinds...taht way if she does end up moving here down the road, she will already have a strong support system of freinds so she won't go into culture shock.