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larry
05-09-2008, 09:18 AM
Hello All:
My name is Larry. I am a retired Psychologist, 2007, who just moved to Arizona. I planted one Rajapuri and three Mysore Banana plants and they have doubled in size in less than three weeks. What do I use for fertilizer? they get 2-3 hours of indirest sunlight daily.
mskitty38583
05-09-2008, 09:25 AM
welcome larry! welcome to the best banana info spot on the planet.i believe you can use any balanced fert.( all the numbers the same like 20-20-20, 10-10-10) or you can use a top dressing of compost, or chopped up fresh green veggies like shredded cabbage and chopped up fresh spinach. i like to use organic compost w/ composted cow poop for my outside nanas. and i use the cabbage and spinach for my inside nanas. im sure everyone has their fav. ferts they use.
Richard
05-09-2008, 10:39 AM
Hello All:
My name is Larry. I am a retired Psychologist, 2007, who just moved to Arizona. I planted one Rajapuri and three Mysore Banana plants and they have doubled in size in less than three weeks. What do I use for fertilizer? they get 2-3 hours of indirest sunlight daily.
Hi Larry,
Welcome to the forum. Good choice of fruiting bananas!
Fruiting varieties planted in the ground need about about 1 lb of available Nitrogen per year, a scant amount of Phosphorus, 1.5 lbs of available Potash, plus minor amounts of secondary and trace minerals. An ideal N-P-K formula would be 32-1-48, applied monthly for a total of 3 pounds per year (since it has 32% ~= 1/3 available Nitrogen by weight). You won't find this produced commercially. The good news is that the bananas plants will largely ignore excess Phosphorus so that you could cheaply buy a palm or citrus food with an N-P-K of 8-4-8 or 8-6-8 and all the minor elements (e.g., Vigoro or GroPower) and apply it monthly at a rate of 1 cup per plant (or 3 cups every 3 months), since 1 cup weighs about 1 pound and you'll need 1/0.08 = 12.5 lbs of the fertilizer per year to achieve 1 pound net of Nitrogen per year. For the extra potash: IF you are already supplying 1 lb of potash/year as in the above example, you need an additional 1/2 lb per year. Two example ways to get this would be:
7 pounds of wood ash (N-P-K about 0-0-5) per plant per year, or
2.25 pounds of Sul-Po-Mag (N-P-K = 0-0-22) per plant per year.
Take it easy with the Sul-Po-Mag. It is a dense material -- weigh it before you use it and don't apply more 3/4 pounds at a time. You can buy it cheaply (50 lbs for $20) at an agricultural supply store. Nurseries on the other hand often sell it at excessive prices.
:woohoonaner:
lorax
05-09-2008, 10:47 AM
Welcome aboard - what they said!
Dean W.
05-09-2008, 09:08 PM
Welcome to the forum.:D
MediaHound
05-10-2008, 01:39 AM
Welcome!
In addition, this link should be useful:
Info:Fertilizer - Bananas Wiki (http://www.bananas.org/wiki/Info:Fertilizer)
magicgreen
05-11-2008, 10:35 AM
Larry Welcome to the Worlds best banana forum.
Larry I use all the above and anything else I think might be good!
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