Richard

Your potash source, 0-0-60 is muriate of potash and not appropriate for plants as it contains high amounts of chloride. If you want to continue applying fertilizer by hand where the water will hit it, then use Sul-Po-Mag (also called K-Mag).

The Osmocote 19-6-12 is a good formula to use with a potassium supplement. However, it works best in a soil mix or applied underneath (or mixed in) the mulch layer on surface of the soil. When it sits exposed to the air, a good portion of the nutrients escape into the atmosphere.

Measure the amount of fertilizer you use per year. For an established plant in the ground coming up from your "mother" corm: use up to 5 pounds Osmocote 19-6-12 plus 1.8 pounds of Sul-Po-Mag 0-0-22 per plant per year.

You need to remove all pups as the plant is growing except one that comes up at the time the plant is flowering. If you have a lot of pups around your flowering plant, this could be the main reason for the small bunch size.

Also, the height of a plant is measured from the base to point where the rachis (stem of the fruit bunch) comes out. This looks to be about 7-10 feet on your plants?

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