pup
A new plant growing from a shoot that can be used for propagation.
pup: a detachable shoot ready to become a new plant
A pup is a young plant or plantlet that develops from the base or rhizome of a parent plant, particularly in crops like pineapples, bananas, agave, and certain ornamentals. It emerges as a distinct shoot with its own developing root system, making it suitable for separation and independent cultivation. The pup is not a seed or cutting, but a genetically identical clone arising from vegetative tissue.
In pineapple production, pups form at ground level around the parent plant after fruiting. These shoots can be detached once they reach 15 to 25 centimetres in height and show visible rootlets. Banana plants produce pups from underground corms; a mature banana stool may generate three to five usable pups per crop cycle. The timing of pup removal affects both the parent plant's regrowth and the pup's establishment rate, which typically ranges from 70 to 90 percent for field-hardened material.
Pups offer significant advantages over seed propagation: they mature faster (pineapple pups fruit within 18 to 20 months rather than 24 to 26 months for seed-grown plants), preserve varietal characteristics exactly, and reduce genetic drift in plantation systems. However, pups carry any pathogens present in the parent, so disease-free stock production requires careful selection and often heat or chemical treatment of nursery material.
The term pup is also used in tree crops like cacao and cocoa, where shoots emerge from the bole or roots of felled or damaged trees. In horticultural settings, small pups may remain attached to the parent for several months before reaching separation maturity. Commercial growers grade pups by size and root development before dispatch; undersized material performs poorly in the field.
Pup density and quality determine replanting schedules and production cycles in tropical and subtropical agriculture. Where labour costs permit, manual selection and field-rooting of pups remains standard practice. Industrial propagation facilities use temperature and humidity control to accelerate pup development before sale or transplanting.