Can a Banana Overdose?

[Deadon2]

I was never good in biology in high school. So I'm probably behind the curve on this question.

I have to assume that a banana knows how to grow. Given sufficeint fertilizer and water, it will do what a banana knows what to do.

But, if you over fertilize in a certain NPK nutreient, will the banana overdose and become somehow retarded in it's growth? If you give it too much N or P or K at any point of devolpment, won't the banana know it doesn't need that much and not uptake?

[Tytaylor77]

It will still use the extra NPK and cause problems. Usually Nitrogen will cause light green and sometime almost white new leaf growth. The new leaves will also be deformed and twist.

Potassium will cause burns mostly on the leaves. I have seen too much of (I believe potassium) make fhe plant pause for a few weeks. You can put too much!! Too much of one thing can also cause uptake issues for another! Say Calcium.

[edwmax]

Yes! ... But not without help.

[pitangadiego]

You can over fertilize, but you are not likely to be anal enough to put that much on.

If you over-fertilize, generally the worst symptom is the leaves getting tangled because they are growing to fast:

[Jose263]

All of the above - plus, if they get too much phosp?-ugh, brain freeze- The middle P in NPK. They may choke, (bloom too early)

[Deadon2]

Got it. Thank you all.
My banana anxiety just went up another notch.
I feel like a drug pusher.

[CraigSS]

That is funny.

[Jose263]

Originally Posted by Deadon2

Got it. Thank you all.
My banana anxiety just went up another notch.
I feel like a drug pusher.

no worries ...take some potassium... good for your health and BP but don't overdo it

[aruzinsky]

Originally Posted by Deadon2

I was never good in biology in high school. So I'm probably behind the curve on this question.

I have to assume that a banana knows how to grow. Given sufficeint fertilizer and water, it will do what a banana knows what to do.

But, if you over fertilize in a certain NPK nutreient, will the banana overdose and become somehow retarded in it's growth? If you give it too much N or P or K at any point of devolpment, won't the banana know it doesn't need that much and not uptake?

Too much of any dissolved solute will draw water out of the roots and kill the roots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osmotic_pressure

That is less likely to occur when the solute concentration outside of the roots is gradually increased so the solute concentration inside the roots reaches equilibrium. That implies don't apply a lot of fertilizer suddenly.

At lower levels of solutes, things get much more complicated. Too much Mg inhibits uptake of Ca, blah, blah , blah ....

Urea is interesting because it does unusual things within a plant. For example, see

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00750524

http://www.ipni.net/publication/nss.nsf/0/EA265C5FE184D4F285257C8300753585/$FILE/NSS-25%20Urease%20Inhibitors.pdf

In my experience, when enough urea is applied, but not enough to kill the roots, plant growth is temporarily stunted, for, maybe, 2 weeks, and then rapid growth occurs, which more than makes up for lost time.

I only mention this to point out an opportunity for you to do personal experimentation with urea.

[Deadon2]

Being in south Florida, 6-4-6 citrus fertilizer is pretty ubiquitous. I've always used that on my banana stand of Dwarf Orinoco. Beginning of the year, I started throwing down a fistful of Potassium Sulfate per tree in addition to the fertilizer. Six months later, I can see about a 30% increase in trunk diameter at the base of the new growth. I'm gonna guess this is going to translate to bigger bunches of fruit later this year. Again, I'm kinda new to this.