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junebug
03-16-2016, 04:34 PM
Hello all. I'm new here. I recently bought a Musa "truly tiny" banana plant with the plan to grow it indoors in my fishroom. I have lots of artificial light (in the spectrum for plant growth due to my numerous planted fish tanks) in there and until I get curtains, a surplus of natural light from the window. So much that I'm getting cyanobacteria in a few of my fish tanks, but that's another issue for another time. :)

I am looking for advice on growing my tiny banana plant inside the house. I know they're normally an outdoor plant in my zone, but among the animals living at my house are 3 very large dogs that love to uproot small plants while digging for gophers. So indoors it is.

I have a 3.5 gallon pot I'm planning to use. Will this be big enough? The plant is only a few inches tall right now.

My plan was to use a rich potting soil with plenty of ferts in it, something in the miracle grow potting soil family. I was also going to use water from my fish tanks to water the plant whenever I do a water change, and plain tap water in between water changes. As I understand it, the banana plant will want rich soil and lots of fertilizers, and fish water is full of nitrate and in some of my tanks, a fairly large quantity of ammonium (very low pH converts the ammonia from the waste into ammonium). My understanding from my experience in aquatic gardening is that plants prefer ammonium to all other sources of ammonia, so my thinking is that this should be a great source of food for the banana. I also have general liquid ferts for my aquariums that would work just fine in soil, along with root tabs and such.

Can anyone suggest a good regimen for growing my banana plant in this setting?

JP
03-16-2016, 05:59 PM
Forget miracle grow, it holds too much moisture. I use a mix of 40-50% coarse sand, 20% composted manure or compost and the rest is garden soil or sometimes cheap indoor plant mixes. I put gravel at rthe bottom of my pots. It help for drainage and it gives weight to the pot when I get it outside for summer. Works great for me. I used to take soil mixes like miracle grow and I lost all my nanners . No loss since I use the mix. Do not overwater indoors...

cincinnana
03-16-2016, 06:07 PM
Can anyone suggest a good regimen for growing my banana plant in this setting?

Congrats ...you picked a nice plant to have.
First word of advice is ...do not overwater the plant.

Without going into a lot of written detail check out Youtube keywords "growing bananas indoors under lights"......these guys pack a lot of info in their short videos.
Another even better source on Youtube" how to grow marijuana under lights"

These plants have very similar requirements.

Generally the information is accurate .....just pick and choose what you can do.

I raised and bred tropical fish for many years and eventually switched to just co2 injected planted tanks.......I can assure you can use anything out of those tanks for your plants, your setup sounds nice.

junebug
03-16-2016, 07:23 PM
Should I allow the soil to dry between waterings?

cincinnana
03-16-2016, 07:37 PM
Should I allow the soil to dry between waterings?


Yes ....just use good gardening techniques (https://www.flickr.com/photos/hostafarian/albums/72157659727243221)......treat it like your other plants.

There is a mature Truly Tiny in the link which is being repotted.

junebug
03-16-2016, 07:39 PM
LOL my other plants are in my fish tanks. The South African plants are outside, they pretty much take care of themselves (although we wish the birds of paradise would die, they are basically giant ant factories).

Thanks for the link, I will check it out.

Also, is my 3 gallon pot going to be big enough? I was guessing based on the adult size of the plant, but having no experience with bananas, I don't know what the root structure tends to grow to.

Zeebie
03-17-2016, 12:23 AM
Breed of banana differences aside (Lady Fingers Here)

My Nan's bananas grow in clay soil, but i grow my in pots. A really well draining soil is the best option, potting mix designed for cactus's seems to works really well, just need to throw in some banana food for it.

While the bananas plant is currently small size, id say a 3 gallon pot should be fine until it gets a little bigger.

In Australia we measure some pots in Litres and others in overall size in mm.

So i am not sure how the conversion goes, but my suckers i detach them at 1~2ft tall and put them straight into a W:615 H:442 L:615mm pot. Without doing the maths i think its around 75lt (20~ gallon) pot, i keep them in there until they are about to out grow the pot, which i find is at about 1.5/2m in height then i re-pot them into larger containers (200lt ~50gallon).

But i am sure if your growing a tiny plant, smaller sizing should do you wonders. Banana plants don't seem to mind being a little bit root bound from my experience.

junebug
03-17-2016, 12:29 AM
Breed of banana differences aside (Lady Fingers Here)

My Nan's bananas grow in clay soil, but i grow my in pots. A really well draining soil is the best option, potting mix designed for cactus's seems to works really well, just need to throw in some banana food for it.

While the bananas plant is currently small size, id say a 3 gallon pot should be fine until it gets a little bigger.

In Australia we measure some pots in Litres and others in overall size in mm.

So i am not sure how the conversion goes, but my suckers i detach them at 1~2ft tall and put them straight into a W:615 H:442 L:615mm pot. Without doing the maths i think its around 75lt (20~ gallon) pot, i keep them in there until they are about to out grow the pot, which i find is at about 1.5/2m in height then i re-pot them into larger containers (200lt ~50gallon).

But i am sure if your growing a tiny plant, smaller sizing should do you wonders. Banana plants don't seem to mind being a little bit root bound from my experience.

"Truly Tiny" should only get to about 2ft tall, possibly 3, if the sizing information I've seen is correct. Also 3 US Gallons is ~ 11.3 liters.

I am also hoping that keeping the plant in the fish room will help with A) humidity and B) temperature stability. It's the warmest room in the house (no shade outside the window and we don't have central a/c) and with all the water in there from my fish tanks, the air is gooey compared to the rest of the house. Does anyone know the ideal humidity the banana plant prefers? I believe "truly tiny" is a cavendish variety if that helps.

Juicy Bananas
03-17-2016, 04:19 PM
I have never grown Musa indoor, but like other climate controlled rooms air circulation is key.

exovetek
03-19-2016, 02:06 PM
Truly Tiny would be a great candidate for aquaponics. The idea is similar to hydroponics only the aquarium water continuously flows through the gravel medium that your plant is growing in and back to the aquarium. You will not have to do water changes as often since the setup will essentially be a bio-filter.