Quote:
Originally Posted by shkm
My question is, will this 8 ft tall "tree" resume growing in the spring and evenually produce fruit? I have reservations about planting this "tree" so late in the season.
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As you indicated with quotes, your "tree" is not a tree, but a bulb (corm really) that lives underground and sends up leaves to get energy from the sun. The "trunk" (pseudo-stem) is just the stems of the leaves bundled together. It will bloom and produce fruit after sending up around 30 to 40 leaves -- including the ones it produced before you bought it. For subtropical banana varieties like the ones you bought, their growth will slow down during your "winter" and then resume again in your spring.
Sounds like you received good instructions from the nursery. Fruiting bananas need
net 1 pound of Nitrogen and 1.5 pounds of Potash per year. Your plants are already to the size where they can handle a 1/10th pound of Nitrogen per month, skipping December and January in your location. Fertilizer is labeled in percentages
by weight. The 3 numbers are N-P-K, standing for Nitrogen-Phosphorus-Potassium. So if your fertilizer is 20-5-30, then it is 20% Nitrogen by weight. To achieve 1 pound (net) of nitrogen per year, you should use 1 lb divided by 20% = 5 pounds per year. Of course, this calculation assumes that your soil and water supply do not contain Nitrogen, which is not entirely true. Potassium is equally important and is essential for producing a "commercial" size crop. So if your fertilizer is low on potash and there is not much in your soil, then you'll need to find a potassium supplement. A common one is Sul-Po-Mag, aka K-Mag. It does contain a lot of Sulfur too, so be careful. There are other sources, including an organic chelated variety. Check out the URL of my store below and click on Bananas and also Potassium Supplements -- you can probably find these same products in your local area.
If you are not sure about the contents of your soil, then you can obtain a test kit free from the USDA Farm Advisory extension office in your county -- However you will have to pay a laboratory fee (usually $50-$60) to get results. Alternately, do nothing for your soil for 7 years and grow all kinds of plants in it: your soil will then surely be depleted of most plant nutrients!