Splitting banana pups? Use a digging bar.

I read last week that a digging bar was the best way to dig up Banana pups. I'd started earlier this year with a shovel (which mutilated plants, suckers, and roots alike) and then switched to a ditch shovel - better but you still have to dig out around the pup since you can't put too much pressure on the shovel to hoist the nanner out. But there is still hammering involved and damaged roots, pups, etc if you're not really careful.

But the digging bar is incredible - used it for the first time today. Not only does it save the parent plant and pup itself from damage digging, but it makes hoisting it out of the ground with roots in tact really simple. In fact even the new suckers on the pup came out without any issue. One of the suckers was rather "interesting" in this photo - so I photoshop'ed it out, I guess it was growing under the corm of the other pup, it was about as thick as my arm - very strange looking for a sucker. My wife said it was "obscene" - LOL.

Just wanted to say pass word on to others who hadn't switched their methods yet with splitting pups - the digging bar is definitely the way to go! I split three total today and both the mother plant and the pups are as cleanly separated at the corms as I could have hoped for. Compared to the one I split yesterday with the ditch shovel, no comparison. Roots and everything looked great.

Interesting and good to know!
I have a banana in a large pot....and I've ruined a few pups myself.

I'm going to have to google 'digging bar'....never heard of one!

Same here, but I bet it would also be useful for separating the pups from the large crinum lilies, and the Traveler's Palms. Heading to google now....

While googling I came across this short article on the subject.

http://hardwareaisle.thisoldhouse.com/2008/07/digging-bar-is.html

I needed this yesterday when I took a pup off...came off with one root hope it makes it : (

Dutchlady, that is one HUGE digging bar, wow. See the photo above, the smaller 5' or so digging bar I'm using it off to the right. Some stores sell them for $100, but Lowe's or Home Depot sell nice one's for $35. Get one with a flat end, not the pointed javelin type. To be honest, you feel kinda scary walking around with the thing, LOL - feels like you're hunting mammoths.

Hunting Mammoths ROFLMAO

We have 3 sizes of digging bars at my house. They all have a pointy end and a wedge end. They aren't as sharp as the one in the picture though.
One is heavy duty, one is medium duty and then I have a short one about 4 foot and it is pretty light compared to the others.

THe big one, 6' and 20ish lbs, we use for big jobs, digging/prying some of the huge rocks to use for my Koi pond, fence post holes & that type of thing.
The medium duty one, 5' and 15ish lbs, is for smaller jobs and the small one, 4' & 10 lbs, works great for digging/loosening dirt in shallow places and small holes for plants if the ground is hard.

We couldn't do alot of the jobs we do without one. They really are indispensible.

Sometimes my mind just makes odd associations. I read the "Vernon" in Dylan's location and the "pointy end", and I am stuck on the image of hillbilly cavemen with enormous digging bars. One cave man stands in front of a charging mammoth, and in the background you hear his wife yelling "GIT IM WITH THE POINTY END, VERN!"

:)

-Joe

LOL, "and stay out of my garden Vern!"

That's probably the reason for the irate mammoth in the first place:

"Vern, that pesky mammoth's back in the garden agin."

"Ma, I tole you we needed more bones ta hang off the scare-mammoth."

"You go poke 'im n make 'im go home. He'll ruin my 'maters."

And after poor Vern has been trampled, she'll be standing over him saying "This ain't the time to be restin'. If we don't git them pole beans up offa the ground slugs'll eat 'em."

-Joe

You guys are too funny

Oh, that really was laugh out loud funny!