I started growing bananas about 3 years ago and asked the same question; and got different answers - cut 'em off vs. let 'em grow. What works best for me is to let 'em grow. I get one stalk fruiting while the others are growing so I am always with fresh bananas. Soon as I harvest I cut down the stalk that bore fruit and make room for the new pups. Maybe the multiple stalks produce smaller fruit but I haven't noticed a difference. Good luck! Nothing tastes better than a fresh banana right from your yard.

I agree with billbrandi. You'll probably get various opinions on this one.

If you want to use one or two of the pups to start additional plants I'd let them grow until they're about 18 inches tall, then separate them from the mother plant (cut them off right at the base of the mother plant).

If you don't want to start new plant, I'd let 2 or 3 of them grow right along side of the mother. That way you won't have to wait too long between bunches of fresh bananas.

John

I have actually toured two banana plantations in Costa Rica and Guatemala. I like bananas I guess. The commercial growers have one main plant and one pup to replace it at all times. After they cut the fruit, they hackoff the mother plant and leave it to decompose and fertilize the next generation. They use a ton of pesticide and fertilizer. In my yard I just let them do their own thing.

As I understand it, the stalk that fruited will never fruit again, so if you let it live after fruiting, it eats up the nutrients that would feed the producers.

Yeah, it only fruits once then the grower cuts it off and leaves it on the ground to decay and release the nutrients into the surrounding soil. At least that is the way they did it at the plantations I went to.

I have another funny story from my tour. They have these blue bags over all of the fruit stalks. One guy in the group who actually owns a plant nursery walks up to one and promptly places his head in the bag so his wife can take a picture. Our guide just stared at him. Of course these bags are impregnanted with pesticides to protect the fruit.

Thanks for all the input everyone. This really helps and now I know what to do. If anyone has any other banana variety that they would like to swap, let me know. I'm really getting into this banana growing!
:-)