harveyc
10-23-2007, 12:24 AM
I bought a nice Ae Ae from Stokes a couple of months ago because I could no longer resist.....
It arrived looking fantastic, enough to convince me these people are expert packers! They do a good job with other bananas but do a lot of work for the $30 or so they charge for shipping an Ae Ae. My Ae Ae pseudostem was about 18" and it had 4 nice leaves. I noticed that all of the leaves had a slight pinkish edge to them and wondered at the time if that was normal or not. My Ae Ae saw its first gentle breeze when I decided to put it outside one day to get it some sun and I was devestated when its oldest leaf snapped. Yikes, that leaf cost me $50, I figured! I didn't cut it off and it is still green (nicely variegated, actually) and helping feed the plant, but it will come off eventually. I had a new leaf emerge a couple of weeks ago and another new leaf should be open by next week. It likes the sheltered life in my shop! :) However, I noticed that the leaf that opened up two weeks ago does not have this pinkish edge yet. Any thoughts on that? I wonder if that is a good sign or a bad sign.
I asked the person at handling my puchase at stokes about some culture conditons shortly after the purchase and she responded with the following:
Hi, I spoke with Mr. Stokes,
He said (we find best) for the PH to be 5.5 to 6.
Humic acid is used to lower the ph
And to raise it you can use dolomitic lime
You can plant this in the same kind of soil as you do for the rest of your bananas, a well drained soil, not a heavy clay soil. Grow in partial shade, not full sun.
I need to calibrate my pH meter and test the soil, but I was curious about the humic acid comment. I know it is used as a soil amendment, but I didn't remember ever reading about it being used to adjust pH. Anyone know much about that? Some friends have indicated the use of vinegar to adjust pH, but how do I know how much to use? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Mahalo,
wannabe a'ea'a king
It arrived looking fantastic, enough to convince me these people are expert packers! They do a good job with other bananas but do a lot of work for the $30 or so they charge for shipping an Ae Ae. My Ae Ae pseudostem was about 18" and it had 4 nice leaves. I noticed that all of the leaves had a slight pinkish edge to them and wondered at the time if that was normal or not. My Ae Ae saw its first gentle breeze when I decided to put it outside one day to get it some sun and I was devestated when its oldest leaf snapped. Yikes, that leaf cost me $50, I figured! I didn't cut it off and it is still green (nicely variegated, actually) and helping feed the plant, but it will come off eventually. I had a new leaf emerge a couple of weeks ago and another new leaf should be open by next week. It likes the sheltered life in my shop! :) However, I noticed that the leaf that opened up two weeks ago does not have this pinkish edge yet. Any thoughts on that? I wonder if that is a good sign or a bad sign.
I asked the person at handling my puchase at stokes about some culture conditons shortly after the purchase and she responded with the following:
Hi, I spoke with Mr. Stokes,
He said (we find best) for the PH to be 5.5 to 6.
Humic acid is used to lower the ph
And to raise it you can use dolomitic lime
You can plant this in the same kind of soil as you do for the rest of your bananas, a well drained soil, not a heavy clay soil. Grow in partial shade, not full sun.
I need to calibrate my pH meter and test the soil, but I was curious about the humic acid comment. I know it is used as a soil amendment, but I didn't remember ever reading about it being used to adjust pH. Anyone know much about that? Some friends have indicated the use of vinegar to adjust pH, but how do I know how much to use? Suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Mahalo,
wannabe a'ea'a king