serial_killer

Hello everybody. I'm a noob here and to bananas in general. I am an avid hydroponic/aeroponic gardener, I currently have 2 grows going on, a 16 site bucket style Deep Water Culture setup growing red peppers under a 400 watt HPS and a 24 site aero chamber growing 2 types of loose leaf lettuce undera 125 watt CFL. In the past I have grown all sorts of food, and flowers in all sorts of different home built setups, thats what I like so much about it, the DIY aspect, and seeing the outcome after a grow is finished.

I have built a waterfarm style bucket and tomorrow will be picking up a Dwarf Cavendish to try to grow in it. Havent found much info on growing them hydro. I'm sure I can concoct a good nute formula with enough trial and error (I use general hydroponics 3 part flora series nutes) but if anyone has some suggestions on that NPK levels. Also how wet does the tree like to be? If you dont know what a waterfarm is it is a drip style hydro system that pumps water from the res up to the drip ring by an air pump, not a water pump. How often, and how long should it drip for?

No artificial light for this plant, just a very bright corner of my living room, with both a south and an east facing window.

I am not really growing this with goals of high yields or amazingly fast growth as you would expect someone to start growing hydro in pursuit of. I simply love hydro, and I think a hydro banana plant would make an awesome conversation piece. As long as the plant remains healthy I will be happy.

Thanks
Dan

jeffreyp

Increased Yields with Hydroponic Systems by Greenhouse Sensations

I'd stick with a dwarf variety like little prince, truly tiny, or super dwarf cavendish.

lorax

Welcome! Please keep us posted on your results.

wordwiz

Dan,

What part of Ohio? I'm from the Queen City, just found this site a few weeks ago.

One problem I may see with growing a large plant in hydro would be if you need to change the water - unless you have a very strong back or strong friends to help!

Mike

serial_killer

Or a drain on your res I hear bananas eat so much that you can usually get by with adding nutes/H2O with no need to change cause the plant will strip the solution down to almost pure water in just a few days. We'll see what happens though. Its only about 2 feet tall at the moment so not to awkwardly large.

I'm from Grove City, 5 minutes south of Columbus on 71, exit 100. Never heard of Queen City, where is that near?

dan

wordwiz

Dan,

The Queen City, home of the Bengals and Bearcats, Reds.... Cincinnati!

Mike

Abnshrek

Hello & Welcome from the Sportsman's Paradise :^)

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buckeye5755

Nice to have someone else from Central Ohio! I'm in Whitehall growing a Gran Nain, 2 Dwarf Cavendish and Dwarf Ladyfinger under a 600 Watt HPS system.

sirmoebly

Hello from northern ohio......

cherokee_greg

welcome

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Greg zone 9 Fresno,CA
http://gardenjot.com/garden/view/1980/Gregs-Banana-Farm

serial_killer

Here are a few pics of her. The local hydro shop has a huge banana tree in a 175gallon water farm, I'm gonna go up and talk to them about it tomorrow, what they recommend for nutes, what drip schedule they use and such.

LilRaverBoi

Welcome to the site! I know a few other people on here use hydroponics to grow bananas, so it def CAN be done! Not sure on full-sized plants as I've never seen anything larger than a few feet. Hope you enjoy the site and learn a lot!

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matt18e

Dan I'm from the queen city also. Grew up in Loveland near Kings Island. I'm also growing bananas hydroponically now. I had a basjoo in a waterfarm setup like yours (which works great) and I currently have a Dwarf Cavendish in a simple bubble bucket system I made. I just transplanted the basjoo to normal dirt to see how it would react. The Dwarf Cavendish is out growing my two potted ones and has pushed up 2 pups. I use maxigro 10-5-14 on both, fluctuate the ph between 6.5 to 7.5, and right now I have the ppm at 450. Its been working pretty good, the little guy is pushing up leaves like crazy. Good luck to ya.

GO BUCKS

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serial_killer

O-H!

I have taken several trips to pick up stuff off craigslist from Loveland.

I went to the local hydro store today to talk about their banana waterfarm. They also use maxigro but said I will be fine with floragro, maybe later I'll get maxigro or pick up an additive to get some more K to it. How big of waterfarm did you use? This is just a 3.5gallon, I have really nice square pot 75 liter setup down in the basement but with the plant this size I didnt see the need to buy the rest of hydroton it will take yet.

Also per their advice I am just going to try leaving the drip on constant at first, is that what you did?

novisyatria

welcome Dan
i think put bananas in gel maybe not good. gel like you used good for ornamental plant such herb. bananas is big plant so need more space to growth optimum

regards from jakarta

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Novi Syatria
Lab of Tissue Culture , Dept of Forestry, Faculty of Agriculture, Univercity of Bengkulu, Indonesia www.kuljar.com email: novi_syatria@yahoo.com

serial_killer

Thats not gel, thats a hydroponic medium called Hydroton (a name brand here in the US but its like tylenol, the generic brands are the called the same thing) It is pellets of clay that are heated untill they blow up.

Pretty much just man made lava rocks but a more uniform shape.