I have a musa zebrina that I bought last summer and brought indoors over the winter.
I noticed the leaves were dying one by one before there were hardly any left and then realized it had spider mites. I sprayed with neem oil, or something similar but they did come back. Anyway, it made a pup which thrived and didn't get hurt by the mites. The mother died off.
Now, it's been outdoors for the summer and there are like 4 bananas growing in the pot. How do I separate them, and what can I do to avoid the mites again? I don't have the proper circulation in my house, and I did spritz the plant every day.
Should I remove the soil they are in and replant in fresh soil? And if I bring it indoors and it has mites, do I have to worry they will go onto my other house plants?
I'm wondering if it's just easier to get a new zebrina in the spring, but then again I feel like this banana plant is special, it was my first tropical and my first banana and it's thrived for me.
I appreciate any help you guys can offer,
Maureen
question on separating pups and overwintering indoors
Hi Maureen, after reading your thread I thought I better separate my Zebrina banana (I've been putting it off for a couple of months). I use the infomation given by Joe Real. Lay out a tarp for easy clean-up, pull the root ball out of the pot and lay it on it's side. Wash away about 60% of the dirt to expose the roots. Cut into the roots between the mother and baby with a sharp knife making sure the baby has roots and a chunk of the mother corm. Then repot with a good nursery blend mix. I separated about 18 babies from the mother plant about 4 months ago and they all survived. It might seem hard at first, but it was really easy, as long as you use a very sharp knife. When I separated the babies 4 months ago, they were in the ground, but they all made it.
CJ
Thanks, CJ, that's useful information to me! I bought some banana pups last fall, and they did very well for me this summer in my deck bed. I have to dig my bananas this weekend, and I wanted to separate a couple of pups to pot up as "backups" to the larger plants that I'm planning to overwinter semi-dormant in the basement. I am crossing my fingers that I can protect them with sheets and row cover from tomorrow night's possible frost.... I think I need DH's help to dig them, and he isn't available until the weekend!
I guess it's to late to tell you that you need to build a frame around your trees because the weight of a sheet or blanket could break the limbs. I use 1 1/4 PVC pipe and blankets. You can put a 60 watt bulb to help protect your babies.
CJ
Hahahahaha... Actually, we were both pretty sick yesterday, so the trees stayed uncovered. It was supposed to get down to 37 or 38, but I looked out at 2 am and saw clear skies, thought, "uh oh!" I went out just before the sun came up (31 degrees then) and sprayed everything down with the hose. The bananas took a lot of spraying -- they kept wanting to refreeze until it got a tad warmer. The higher banana leaves took some damage, but since I'd planned to prune them off anyway that was not a problem. All of my bananas have now been dug. The one I dug last night is in a pot, and the other 4 are lying on their sides in the basement. My plan is to put them into big tubs of potting soil and let them go semi-dormant over the winter (the basement is generally 60-65 degrees, and I have a reasonably sunny window for them). I also separated a couple of pups to pot up and bring upstairs. One smaller pup came away with almost no roots (oops, I missed), but the larger ones have a few roots on them, so I am hoping they will take.
I don't have a basement, so I built a frame out of PVC pipe and I put my banana trees that are in pots under it during the winter in my garage. I bought 4 light fixtures about $9.00 each and 8 grow lights about $5.00 each and a timer ( I don't remember how much ) all at Walmart. I hung the light fixtures under the frame. The timer is set to run 17 hours a day and because my garage is insulated, the banana plants won't freeze. If the banana plants can go 18 months without freezing, they will produce BANANAS! Because they looked so nice, I made the mistake of not supporting the bananas as they hung on the plant and one day I go to the garage and the weight of the bananas broke my trees! A hard lesson to learn. I knew I had to support the stock, but I forgot. That only has to happen once, but I won't let it happen again.
Anyone have advice about separating the pups from the mom while mom is still in the ground? Do I do the same thing as listed above? Also, will they make by taking them this late in the season? We usually don't freeze for about another 2 months even though our night temps are getting cooler and I wonder if I should go ahead and plant the pups or keep them in pots for the winter. Any help is greatly appreciated!
Barbara
Barb, go to www.georgetown.edu/dml/facs/graphics/test/images/Sep_pups.jpg There is a drawing on how to cut out a pup from the mother plant still in the ground. You need to wash away the dirt to see the corm and roots. You won't hurt the mother plant by removing the dirt and replacing it. If you never seperated a pup before, the pup goes into shock when removed from the main plant. The leaves kinda fold partly closed and can stay that way 4 to 8 weeks. I don't know if it is to late in the year to remove the pup now. I would do it if the pups are going to be in pots and in a bright sunny spot. CJ
I'm pleased to report that the pups I separated & potted up 10 days ago are all looking pretty good still, even the smallest one doesn't look too bad. On the other hand, the smallest mature tree that I potted up has some serious yellow & brown on its leaves, probably because I had to let it dry out some so it was possible to move it upstairs to the dining room (had a dilemna about where to pot... if I do this again, I will pot in the dining room or at least in the kitchen and just put down a tarp to contain the mess). It's had a good drink now, and I hope it will put out some new leaves... when it does, I'm assuming it's OK to cut off or trim back the damaged ones.
The dining room now has a real "British West Indies" feel to it, LOL. So far, DH is tolerating the banana trees in there, but I don't think he's especially happy about them... perhaps in part because he had to haul them around for me.
I did have a question about pups... maybe I can't tell scale on the photos people are posting, but my pups look huge in comparison... The only ones with a few small roots of their own (which I think means they're ready to be separated) were at least 4 feet tall! And yet folks are talking about shipping and swapping pups... Are mine just unusually large?