I definitely need some Banana plant advice.

[palmtree]

Hey Everyone. It's been quite a while since I've been on this forum and I hope everyone is doing well. I have been busier than ever making my yard look as tropical as possible, but lately banana plants have not been in the plans.

Last summer was the first time in at least 5 or 6 years where I did not buy a new banana plant. The reason being is all of my banana plants are growing extremely slow. My palm trees have all put out more fronds in a season than my banana has put leaves! My saba banana used to grow 10 leaves a season but last year it grew 4 and each leaf did not make the plant much taller so it went inside in the fall the same size that it went out in the spring. I have a similar problem with my ensete except that one made about 7-8 leaves last season but unfortunately it didn't actually get bigger.

Does anyone else have this problem? I'm wondering what I'm doing wrong. My other plants haven't given me problems and I fertilize my bananas often enough (and even without fertilizer I feel like this growth is very slow). does it have something to do with me digging them up every year and taking too much of the rootball?

I completely cut back my Saba to the ground when I brought it in this year so it can start over. The mother plant and the biggest pup are now exactly the same size which doesn't make any sense to me.

Anyone have some advice? I'd really like to start using bananas again in my yard but they are by far the least reliable tropical plants that I grow.

Thanks for reading this long post!

[Richard]

Well, Saba would prefer to be growing in an equatorial region. I would not try to grow an edible fruiting banana plant in NYC unless I had an outdoor or indoor greenhouse and free energy to heat and light it. The ornamental Basjoo works well in your area by many reports. Ensete species can grow year-round outdoors in USDA hardiness zone 9b but that's a long way from zone 7. It becomes such a large plant and has large light requirements so again I wouldn't try it indoors without a solarium.

[palmtree]

Thanks Richard. My Saba used to grow well for me. I got it in October 2010, planted it in the ground in Spring 2011 and by that fall the banana was already as tall as I was. It did okay the next season but the mother plant stopped growing and the pup grew very fast. This year neither the mother or the pup or any pups coming up grew well. I'm starting to doubt it even is a Saba since they aren't supposed to pup that much, but either way it's definitely different than any of my other banana plants.

I've seen people have a lot of luck with getting Ensetes get huge here after digging them up year after year but I have never had that luck. This winter I'm storing mine in my garage until it goes back out in the spring and I think with all my bananas I'm going to keep them potted until early summer because maybe part of the problem is that the ground is too cold when I put them in since I usually plant my bananas for the season in late April after the last frost.

[Jose263]

Asking the obvious - how are you feeding your nanas? do you remove and re-plant in same place annually or leave in ground? nanas are heavy feeders and like lots of water when it is hot also lots of mulching - I would think they would grow during warm weather with adequate fertilizer, water, and mulch.
Nanas will pup when they are stressed in order to assure survival of its species.
Happy Growing.

[palmtree]

Thanks TJ.
My bananas generally go in the same place every year, sometimes I move them into different spots but for the most part they are in the same spot in the yard every year (but the soil is always changing in my yard since I'm always adding fresh soil.
Usually I just use Miracle gro fertilizer. I used to use Fish Emultion but I wasn't noticing any benefits from it and it is a lot harder to apply and more expensive so since the plants weren't responding after a whole season of using it, I gave up on that.
Do you (or anyone) have some effective fertilizers?

They definitely see their share of warm weather. Some of my bananas are in a little more shade and some are in burning hot all day sun during the summer, but they all see pretty hot and humid weather and I make sure they get a lot of water too when it's hot out (and as little as possible during the cooler weather in spring).

[Jose263]

Originally Posted by palmtree

Thanks TJ.
(but the soil is always changing in my yard since I'm always adding fresh soil.
Usually I just use Miracle gro fertilizer. I used to use Fish Emultion but I wasn't noticing any benefits from it and it is a lot harder to apply and more expensive so since the plants weren't responding after a whole season of using it, I gave up on that.
Do you (or anyone) have some effective fertilizers?

They definitely see their share of warm weather. Some of my bananas are in a little more shade and some are in burning hot all day sun during the summer, but they all see pretty hot and humid weather and I make sure they get a lot of water too when it's hot out (and as little as possible during the cooler weather in spring).

Alex - Sounds like you may have soil ph and/or fert issues. If you haven't already - take a look at the wiki info:soil and Info: fertilizer blurbs.
Nanas really like potash - I use fertilizer with N-P-K ratio of 25-5-30 mix my own. I think Richard's nana fuel is close to that mix..
Abnshrek turned me onto a 0-0-50 soluable potash that I started using as a supplement last this summer and my nanas jumped up and fruit production improved.
Checkout kelp4less.com they have the 0-0-50 and shipping is free.
You mention adding soil annually - you might want to do a soil test for ph and npk values- I use lots of composted manure 2-3 bags of black cow in the hole and several inches of mulch on top. plus the fertilizer once new growth appears.
Maybe some of the nana heads will chime in.
Happy Growing
TJ

[palmtree]

Thanks a lot for the info. Kelp4less looks like a great place to get fertilizers. I definitely will be buying things from them. I don't know how well the liquid gold will work, but I'm considering trying that out. I couldn't find the 0-0-50 fertilizer on their website though there were definitely other fertilizers bananas would probably like! I definitely will have to get a soil test kit in the spring and see what is going on since I'm sure that has a lot to do with it.