On Thu, 12 Aug 2004 09:36:41 +0100, "D Russell"
wrote:


These are indeed new plants, however they are pretty much reliant on the
parent plant for some time, I usually wait until they are at least a foot
tall before thinking of removing them. This is on a Musa Basjoo by the way,
the Musa Dwarf Cavendish I have, and the banarama (which is another Dwarf
Cavendish) both produce much smaller offshoots and I haven't tried removing
them yet.

It is better if you allow the offsets to grow as big as possible
before removing them from the parent. The more roots they have, the
faster they will take off. Even 4 foot side shoots establish with
consummate ease, whereas a 6 incher will sit and sulk for ages.

As to flowers or fruits, don't be too keen, they tend to flower and die,

Well, that's not strictly correct. Bananas are herbaceous perennials
in the same way as Michaelmas daisies or Delphiniums. They produce a
shoot which develops a certain number of leaves, flowers, sets seed
(or not) and then that shoot dies. At the base of that shoot, new
plants arise from the rhizome and the process continues. Unlike hardy
herbaceous perennials, there is no dormant period so the process is
truly continuous and since bananas need a long growing season that
does not fit in with our relatively short summers, flowering generally
takes place in the second or third year of the shoot's life.

..... there are now no leaves
left to send food to the flower, so I think it's probably had it, no more
bananas have formed recently though the flower is still growing.

Musa basjoo produces female (fruit bearing) flowers first and then
continues producing male (pollen bearing) flowers after that. Your
plant is now in the male flower producing phase and the flower spike
will not produce any more female flowers. Basjoo flowers must be
pollinated if there are to be any fully developed bananas. The embryo
fruitlets continue to develop somewhat regardless of whether the
flowers have been pollinated or not. There is a common misconception
that the fruits of Musa basjoo are inedible. Not so. If the flowers
are pollinated, the fruits can develop fully and despite being seedy,
are really quite tasty. Unfortunately, since the male flowers appear
after the female flowers, pollination cannot take place unless there
are several plants in flower at different stages.

Apparently, once they have flowered, you can cut them right back to the
base, and re-plant the base a bit deeper and it may send up shoots from the
base again,

No need to do this - new basal shoots will arise and in time the plant
will develop into a very handsome clump.


Dave Poole
Torquay, Coastal South Devon UK
Winter min -2°C. Summer max 34°C.
Growing season: March - November