I am by no means an expert but what I do has never killed a pup yet. First you want it to be big enough. I think 12" is consensus for minimum. Yes you do have to take some of the corm. How much is hard to say. I always unpot before cutting but I try to visualize the fair share between mother and pup and make my cut. I do not do anything to the fresh cut corm except pot it back up. I believe I am getting lucky with no treatment here. Take it easy on the sun and the water until you note active growth again. I have only been doing this for a few years now. The more experienced members will move in shortly and point out my mistakes.

Well if it were me I would just let them grow some more, I would wait until the babies were at least 2 feet before cutting them off, maybe taller. Yes you need some corm before it will root. Good luck

These offsets have to develop enough roots on their own capable of supporting the plant, BEFORE you sever them from the parent plant. As above, pot up and water well.

Cheers, Barrie.

The main plant is only 24"? How tall were the pups you cut off? I guess more importantly, how big around were they? I have received pups that were still just suckers with no leaves formed yet, but they were quite large. One was about 18" tall and was about 3" in diameter at its base. It had plentiful roots also. Obviously, the bigger the corm the better chance for survival.

Let me clarify. I bought the plant from Rural King (yeah... couldn't believe they had them either) when it was about 18' high with one leaf and one on the way. There were three tiny suckers coming up at the time. It was in a one-gallon pot so I transplanted into a 5-gallon and fertilized it. Since the end of april it's grown to six leaves with another on the way.

do I really need to wait until each sucker is as tall as the existing plant before propogating? I guess I was just jumping the gun in my enthusiasm. I'm hoping to plant it or a child in the ground to see how it'll do over the winter with protection.

Trying to make my backyard a little tropical...

thanks for the help.

-Brian

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:410605}}

brian, your plant and your suckers are just way to small to try to get anything with enough root and corm to make it. in 2 months your main plant should be 6-7 foot tall and that sucker should be 2 foot tall. at that time you can remove it including part of the corm and replant it. leave the new pup in mostly shade because it will be stressed by the cut. when it starts showing growth, move it back into the sun.
by all means put it in the ground, it will be fine over the winter with mulch and plastic to keep it from rotting. mine was 8 foot the 1st year, 10 foot the 2nd year, and 12 foot the 3rd. it will become a large clump. my musa zebrina i have thinned in the fall every year, ( it becomes clumpy too ) with just a shovel by just cutting them in thirds, like you would elephant ears.

just remember to fertilize weekly and water frequently in this heat, they will grow very fast if you do this. if you have had this one several months and it is only 2 foot tall, you need to fertilize more. of course if you had it indoors most of that time it is understandable. good luck, sue

I agree with the minimum height. I do not divide any pups until they are a foot high, with a fistful of root development. The only other time I propagate smaller plants is when I use tissue culture, and that is a whole other ball game.