Bananas.org - View Single Post - Perlite or vermiculite, organic compost or liquid fertilizer

KokoTheMonkey · 05-09-2013, 07:49 AM

When I was looking for some ornamental plants for indoors, I found out that this site not only had some plants I wanted for sale, but that they also sold Musa Velutina quite cheap.

Kind of disappointed with the Kiwi (it's all shriveled...lol...sending it back) and still in doubt on the Bird of Paradise (they're like 6-7", 4-5 bucks a piece is cheap but I still think I'd rather have 1 big plant in bloom for 15). But the banana is already making me happy. It's leaves are around 90% quality (tiny bit of brown on the tips...it arrived with really dry soil so I think it's just a temporary water issue).

The pot it is in is tiny (roots coming out the bottom) so I am transplanting it to either a 12" pot or a 20" diameter pot. Am I better off just putting it in the big one immediately to minimize the stress of repotting? Or is too big a pot really bad for banana's?

But now I need to decide the soil. Banana's don't like soggy soil, but they do like nutrients and having them in time released form would be better rather then washing them all out. Would Vermiculite promote soggy roots or does it work differently? I've used a Coco Peat/Vermiculite mix for wet soil loving berries outside and no matter how insane the rainfall they don't really care. Then again they're probably impossible to overwater. Do I need to change my mix to include perlite for the banana? Replace all vermiculite with it or just a part?

And banana's require a ton of nutrients, I figured just mixing in organic compost every year would not be nearly enough for them but in topics about soil I see some reactions that state organic banana's in compost/perlite mixes grow really well. How much compost would I need to mix in and how often per year do I need to do this to grow them without liquid fertilizer?

05-09-2013, 07:49 AM	#1 (permalink)
KokoTheMonkey Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 18 BananaBucks : 18,033 Feedback: 0 / 0% Said "Thanks" 21 Times Was Thanked 5 Times in 2 Posts Said "Welcome to Bananas" 0 Times	Perlite or vermiculite, organic compost or liquid fertilizer When I was looking for some ornamental plants for indoors, I found out that this site not only had some plants I wanted for sale, but that they also sold Musa Velutina quite cheap. Kind of disappointed with the Kiwi (it's all shriveled...lol...sending it back) and still in doubt on the Bird of Paradise (they're like 6-7", 4-5 bucks a piece is cheap but I still think I'd rather have 1 big plant in bloom for 15). But the banana is already making me happy. It's leaves are around 90% quality (tiny bit of brown on the tips...it arrived with really dry soil so I think it's just a temporary water issue). The pot it is in is tiny (roots coming out the bottom) so I am transplanting it to either a 12" pot or a 20" diameter pot. Am I better off just putting it in the big one immediately to minimize the stress of repotting? Or is too big a pot really bad for banana's? But now I need to decide the soil. Banana's don't like soggy soil, but they do like nutrients and having them in time released form would be better rather then washing them all out. Would Vermiculite promote soggy roots or does it work differently? I've used a Coco Peat/Vermiculite mix for wet soil loving berries outside and no matter how insane the rainfall they don't really care. Then again they're probably impossible to overwater. Do I need to change my mix to include perlite for the banana? Replace all vermiculite with it or just a part? And banana's require a ton of nutrients, I figured just mixing in organic compost every year would not be nearly enough for them but in topics about soil I see some reactions that state organic banana's in compost/perlite mixes grow really well. How much compost would I need to mix in and how often per year do I need to do this to grow them without liquid fertilizer?