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Old 01-30-2015, 02:23 AM   #8 (permalink)
Richard
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Location: Vista, CA
Zone: USDA 10b
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Default Re: Rooting compund on bananas?

Bananas are bulbs ... or more correctly, annual tropicals spurned from corms.

Thinking of a fruiting banana as an oversized Iris that sets fruit is not too far off the mark.

Bananas are definitely not trees or anything close to a perennial plant.

IF you receive a corm and wish to enhance root development with a rooting hormone ... go for it. No harm will come from the effort.

IF you receive a corm and want to inoculate with mycorrhizae -- go for it, the species is compatible with typical commercial mycorrhizae products.

IF you want your fruiting banana to grow and prosper, then feed it with N:P:K ratios of 2:1:3 -- tempered by your local conditions. Those growers south of the Florida Panhandle can get by with less N and P, but for the rest of the continental U.S. it is important. Other standard horticultural practices are also important: keeping the pH (dictated by the pH of irrigation water) in around 6.1 to 6.4, having a soil with drainage, keeping the soil evaporation rate down with a thick layer of mulch, etc.
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