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JohnnyRotten
10-23-2012, 10:42 AM
Hello.......I stumbled upon this site today and WOW am I impressed. Planted 2 banana trees this year in March .... a dwarf Cavindish and an Ice Cream. and lo and Behold they burned up in the hot sun!!! So a few days later I noticed a few new pup's emerging from the ground. So I covered them with landscape sunshade and they are slowly comming back!! I love the tropical look and feel. Hopefully they will bear fruit for me at some time if not they are just beautiful the way they are!! Hopefully my Banana education starts today and I'm hoping to learn alot from this site!!!!:woohoonaner:
Abnshrek
10-23-2012, 11:12 AM
Hello, Welcome & Happy Growing. :^)
Jose263
10-23-2012, 06:18 PM
Hello.......I stumbled upon this site today and WOW am I impressed. Planted 2 banana trees this year in March .... a dwarf Cavindish and an Ice Cream. and lo and Behold they burned up in the hot sun!!! So a few days later I noticed a few new pup's emerging from the ground. So I covered them with landscape sunshade and they are slowly comming back!! I love the tropical look and feel. Hopefully they will bear fruit for me at some time if not they are just beautiful the way they are!! Hopefully my Banana education starts today and I'm hoping to learn alot from this site!!!!:woohoonaner:
Rotten -Welcome - AZ is a pretty hostile environment for a water-loving plant. I lived in Prescott in the 90s and the valley is really bad.. The experts can tell you if IC and D cavendish will tolerate the heat and sun but I suspect they didn't get enough h2o and maybe soil issues. did you have drip irrigation on them?Maybe other Arizonians can add some comments?
caliboy1994
10-23-2012, 09:17 PM
Welcome! Ice Cream should definitely fare better in your area than DC.
hybridpower
10-23-2012, 09:46 PM
Of all the bananas that I burned up the first year, only the dc didn't come back. The other thing I learned was that using any native soil was a death sentence for them. Likewise, dig the hole out as large as possible, as I had an 8' IC start to die, and upon digging discovered that the dense native soil had formed a "pot" of sorts that the roots couldn't penetrate. It was the most root bound, plant I've ever seen! Amazing that it was in the ground. I've had good luck with "palm and cactus" soil. What part of the valley are you in?
sharont
10-24-2012, 09:08 AM
Hi
This is an awesome site. I live in Western Australia and continue to be amazed with the information that is freely and enthuisiastically given. enjoy
Sharon
austinl01
10-24-2012, 09:14 AM
If you are in AZ, you should definitely improve the soil as much as you can with organics (such as compost, peat, etc.), water very often (maybe a drip system), and think about putting in a misting system for humidity. That's my advise from talking to folks trying to grow bananas in a desert climate.
JohnnyRotten
10-24-2012, 11:44 AM
Of all the bananas that I burned up the first year, only the dc didn't come back. The other thing I learned was that using any native soil was a death sentence for them. Likewise, dig the hole out as large as possible, as I had an 8' IC start to die, and upon digging discovered that the dense native soil had formed a "pot" of sorts that the roots couldn't penetrate. It was the most root bound, plant I've ever seen! Amazing that it was in the ground. I've had good luck with "palm and cactus" soil. What part of the valley are you in?
First off let me say thanks to all the warm welcomes from every one!
Secondly Yes I have a drip on the bananas plus I water them every day!!
I added some soil improver to help break up the chelated soil and I added some iron to make the soil a bit more acidic instead of alkaline. Right now they seem like they are doing good. The ICis larger(by twice) than the DC. But they both have new growth and are looking promising. I also hit them with some Liquid fertilixer that was 10-0-10 and the IC seems like it greened up (got darker green is what I meant to say) over night.
My neighbor has a 10 foot IC in his back yard and he tells me water is the secret! I have to believe him!! This is a learning experience and I will not give up till I have fruit ...........even then I wopn't give up.
I'm in the west valley off of 195th ave near goodyear,verrado, wadell ....etc
Again thanks to all!
bbradley64
10-26-2012, 02:34 PM
Welcome! I am new too. My Mom lives in Casa Grande, AZ and the soil is not the greatest and it is very hot for many months at a time. I would say to keep the plants well watered. I am in North Central Florida and I have good humidity and water my Banana daily and heavily and use All Purpose Miracle-Gro usually twice a week and my Banana (possibly a Dwarf Cavendish) is big, lush and the flower is getting ready to open. The soil here is quite sandy but it is doing great. I mulch the flower bed it's planted in with regular wood mulch. It helps hold in the moisture.
Good luck and post some photos of your Banana plants.
:03:
harveyc
11-13-2012, 02:51 AM
Belated welcome. A friend in Tempe has been growing Tall Namwah for many years and they looked very nice when I saw them as well as in other photos I've seen. You might want to give this variety a try. I know he adds a layer of bark of maybe 4"-6" deep over his entire garden (not just bananas) to help reduce soil temperature and improve moisture rentention.
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