Greetings, I have several bananas which were in my yard when I moved to a new home last fall. I mulched the root system haevily after frost had knoched down the foliage. I cut them back in the Spring, almost to the grownd. They are growing very well, over ten feet and producing new leaves continuosly. They were planted much too close to a deck. I need advise on separating the "pups" and transplanting the mature trees. BTW, I'm a retired nurseryman from NJ, specializing in specimen trees. Dave Buchholz
I really don't know about them, except that I would wait until the weather gets a little cooler. It might put them in shock to transplant at this time of the year bc of the heat. Just give them time to form a new root system before the freezes set in.
OK, I have three types of banana trees. And this is what I do with mine. To get the pups off the "mother" plant, you have to get as close to the mother plant as poss. If you were to dig up a corm, you would see that the pup is coming from the same corm as mom. What I do is place my gardening knife between the mother and pup and slice straight down. Make sure to get all the way throught. If you cut the corm, you can pretty much be sure that theres roots on it. If not, just plant it and cut the pup off (it will die anyways if theres no roots).It will sprout roots and grow. Its alittle late in the season to see much this year. Be sure to protect the corm come winter. If it gets too cold, it will rot. I lost three corms over the winter that way. Now the best time to move a mature banana tree is before first frost. What I to do, is cut it back, trunk and all. Dig up the corm and store in a dark dry area until late winter, early spring. To move a full grown banana tree is going to be some back breaking work and the chances of it not dying back on its own because of the shock, its next to none. So, its just easier to cut it back and dig up the corms for winter. Some ppl will tell you leave some of the trunk but I cut it all the way back to just above the main corm. I have quite a few out there now that I did that way. DONT cut the roots off. This is how it will grow back. I had a seven ft banana tree I tried to move last summer.....not going to do that twice! My back hurt for days! I hope this helps.
