Good afternoon Steemians,
Today I'd like to talk to you guys about the best way to transplant banana pups, the little bananas that will one day grow big and give you fruit that come out from the corm (banana root area) of the mother stalk (what I like to call it).
This is a mature Nam Wah banana stalk. It will be giving us fruit this year. You'll see little pups at the base.
What we want to do is separate this pup from it's mother (terrible lol) so it can begin to have it's own corm and everntually it's own pups. (this is how today's bananas are propagated, by pup or "suckers")
Here is a link that talks about the way banana's are propagated today http://homeguides.sfgate.com/propagation-bananas-71355.html
Get your shovel out and carefully separate the pup from its mother, making sure not to cut off too many of the pup's vital roots. I've mixed some cow manure, potting soil, and sand in a pot to place into the new hole I dig for the pup. It's ideal to plant into a pot so that you control conditions more, but I wanted to plant directly into the ground since this method has worked for me in the past.
Cover up the hole where the pup used to be and the mother will go on growing, just fine.
Dig a hole in the new location where you want this banana to be. Make sure there is enough space and ideally put it where it will receive at least partial shade.
Plant it in the ground so that the roots are pointing downward and horizontally and not up. Put your good soil under and on top of it. Get some good mulch and put a good 2-3 inch layer on top. Your new pup will require a LOT of water at first.
Get some water (3-4-5 gallons or more) and slowly start to pour it around the base, so that it gets down and can be taken up by the roots. I like to also dig a small trench around the banana, so that when it rains, more water will get down there. If you live in a flood zone, you might want to put a LOT of mulch around the banana, creating a mound. I'm lucky in that we don't live in a flood zone.
Water thoroughly for the first week or so, until you see that it begins to grow again (and even then water it a lot)
Hope you guys found this post educational. I'm very passionate about growing food, and if you are too, follow, upvote, comment, whatever you'd like!
