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tlturbo
05-04-2007, 09:16 AM
OK, what would you do?

We moved into this house 2 years ago March. I brought large pups from several bananas at that house and planted them here. Over the next 6 months to a year, I acquired (mainly from board members) other pups.

My problem is that most of the newly acquired pups have grown great, have several tall pseudostems and several are in fruit, BUT a couple of the pups I brought with me (Goldfinger being the most obvious one but also Gran Nain, Hua Moa, Mysore, Dwarf Jamaican red) have only gotten about 4-5 ft of pseudostem and put out a few small pups. The Goldfinger was a great, fast growing and fruiting plant at the other house (pup from Going Bananas to fruit in about 18 months with 3 other tall pseudostems) so what has happened to it? It gets same water and treatment as all the others, it just won't take off.

Terry

MediaHound
05-04-2007, 10:07 AM
(obvious guess) Maybe the soil is different, it could be a different pH or other factors. Also, maybe you just need to amend the soil. The little bit of work goes a long way. One thing I would do, and from what I have seen at your place, you do have the space there for them, would be to invest in some UCT-9 compost bins (http://urbangardencenter.com/products/composter/uct9/index.html) and start making heaps of fertilizer from things you would otherwise discard.

bigdog
05-04-2007, 06:44 PM
Jarred, you bring up an interesting point about pH. I never would have thought that bananas would not like the acid soil here in Knoxville, but my bunches were small and puny last year. That is, compared to the bunches I got in Nashville, which has alkaline soil. I still don't know for a fact that the pH was a factor, but I'm sure it was something to do with the soil. I had leaves on some varieties (notably Sweetheart) that would all get a little twisted. I did a pH analysis on my garden, and it is 5.1, with lots of reserve acidity also. I need 4,386 lbs. of lime/acre to balance it out! I'm sure that's causing some of the other nutrients to not be plant-available also, so I limed the area well.

I would encourage everyone to get their soil tested at their state ag center. It is pretty cheap, and they can give you a whole lot better analysis than the little pH tests at Home Depot or Lowes, etc.

MediaHound
05-04-2007, 10:11 PM
Hiya Frank. What's this about "reserve acidity", could you elaborate on that for me?
Does it basically have a high buffer and takes more base than usual to bring it up?

bigdog
05-05-2007, 04:58 AM
Exactly. In TN, the Adams-Evans buffer solution is used to determine this. I think it means that it measures Aluminum that is not on the exchange complex, but is still in the soil. Reserve or residual acidity are the terms I've heard for this.

tlturbo
05-17-2007, 08:45 AM
OK, how would you go about amending the ground around a plant that has been planted for about 1 1/2 years? You can only dig and amend the soil in a hole so big when you start out a new plant so how do you amend the soil after the grove starts to get several feet around? Just throw manure and fertilizer around on top of the ground?

I'm trying to decide what to do about the Goldfinger that isn't growing. It has one pseudostem 4-5 ft and 4 or 5 pups just sitting at a couple of inches tall and not growing. The plant is growing but very slowly. It gets water like all the rest. The corm is probably 18" or bigger. Would you just put organic compost, manure and fertilizer all around the top of the ground or dig it up, make the hole bigger, amend the soil and replant it?

Terry

MediaHound
05-17-2007, 09:44 AM
Can't hurt to pile it on around the p-stem. It will leech the nutrients, plus some roots may even come up a bit to get closer into it all.
My Goldfinger has slowed down a bit, too, fwiw. I did recently peel back some old sheaths from the pseudostem so they didn't attract more rot and bugs, that helped a lot as it's looking really healthy now but growing slow.
Give this weather a chance to kick the plants into gear, though.

tlturbo
05-17-2007, 09:47 AM
Thanks guy - I wasn't realishing digging up all these slow plants. Problem that bothers me is lots of others are loving this weather. I have huge fruit clusters on 2 Dwf Cav, 2 Raja Puri, Dwf Orinoco, Misi Luki and now the Dbl Mohi.

Take care - Terry

MediaHound
05-17-2007, 10:14 AM
Is your Double double?

tlturbo
05-17-2007, 11:13 AM
Nope - it's the first pseudostem BUT there are 3 more stems staggered behind it so those SHOULD be double (or more HEE HEE)

I just went out and dug the Goldfinger up. Dumped in a bag of compost, some fertilizer and plopped it back in and watered the dirt in all around it. NOW let's see if it shows increased growth. I'll post on progress.

Later - Terry

MediaHound
05-17-2007, 12:00 PM
I just was out there working, too. I emptied half a barrel of compost around my banana plants.
Need.... more.... compost.. lol


:chefnaner: