Want a Banana Plant? Just Take A Pup!

I was watering my banana trees today (actually, bananas trees are not really trees at all, they are in fact the World's largest flowering herb!).

So...I was watering my banana PLANTS today when I noticed something. See, my original plan for the banana field was for it to grow along the fence that divides me from my neighbors property. Yes, bananas are awesome, but I also loved the fact that they do such a good job as a privacy fence.

Truth is...my neighbors backyard at the moment is less than favorable to look at so I'm really counting on those bananas to do a good job covering that view.

This is how the banana strip looks right now:

Notice my poor attempt at covering the view to my neighbors hideous yard

However is not all bad news...take a closer look and you will notice something. My bananas are propagating like crazy:

This is one of my smallest banana plants and its got, one..two..three...four pups!!!!!

So with every single banana plant shooting up pups like crazy, why don't I take some out and spread them to the sides to cover up my fence faster??

But before you go digging up your pups, it will probably help if you understand their anatomy. New shoots look something like this (line shows cutting angle):

So out came the shovel:

And one single cutting motion at the right angle...

And your pup is yours to do as you please bwahahaha!!

Now I have sped up their lateral spread, and everybody looks happy!

That's a proud mom in the left watching one of  her pups move out on it's own!

Kat Williams scoping out the "new" resident

I hope that if you learn anything from this post is just how easy it is to propagate bananas, so if you have a neighbor with some plants, go ahead and nag him for a pup. Better yet, tell your neighbor you know how to dig it up yourself!

Update: It is been two months and the banana plants are getting huge. I have decided against transplanting any more pups in between the mounds. I did a bit more research and it is recommended that a spacing of about 8 feet is kept in between each mound. I say it will probably be another two months before I get the banana privacy fence that I want.

My original point still stands. Bananas are very easy to transplant =)

Here is a picture of the progress:

Have a good one, and keep learning!

Planting Corn this Season? You Should Try Dent Corn

September is here and you still have time to start your corn plants.

I've noticed however that most folks in South Florida grow the sweet corn variety.

This post is my plead to get you to try dent corn, also known as field corn, or yellow dent corn.

But first I think it's important to give you a brief background:

While dent corn makes up about 90% of all the corn grown in the US, it is mostly used for animal feed. For this reason many people know the variety as "cow corn". It has many other uses, like making tortilla chips, or even making ethanol fuel.

Because of it's importance in animal feed production, this type of corn has been labeled as "animal corn", while sweet corn is dotted with "people corn".

That makes me mad. I actually prefer the taste of dent corn!

Dent corn also has more nutritional value that the sweet kind. Besides tasting great, each dent corn kernel is completely "meaty" and not filled with the sugary liquid like the sweet type. No more spraying the person in front of you with corn juice!

So how can you tell them apart? Well as the name implies dent corn has a dent in each kernel while sweet corn doesn't. I took a pic of both for comparison, you can see the dent corn on the left:

I  picked the biggest seed I could find from each pack, the dent corn kernel looks way more impressive!

On the pictures below you can see the difference in corn ears, notice how sweet corn is more pale:

Dent Corn

Sweet Corn

So now that you are convinced, how do you plant it? Easy!

Plant the kernels about 1" deep in good loose soil. Space them 8 to 12 inches part, and space each row 24 to 36 inches.

I usually put two kernels per hole to increase my odds. If any don't come up you cant always go back and replant.

Provide plenty of water for your corn. After all, corn is part of the grass family!

 In about 5-7 days your rows will pop up and your corn will grow very fast from there.

When the plants reach about 6 to 8 inches it is a good idea to mound some soil around the base of the plants to keep them from bending during strong winds.

When corn is planted in large fields the outer plants provide wind protection for the rest of the field. In small beds however it is a good idea to mound soil around their base for extra support.

Corn ears will be ready to harvest about 100 days from time of sowing.

Have you tried dent corn? Let me know what you think, 

 Keep on learning!

Strawberry Space Saving Tip

Plant your strawberry plants on your raised bed cinder blocks and send any new shoots to adjacent holes.  Great way to save space!

Keep your care tags whenever possible, they come in handy when trying to remember varieties.