New Banana Mom
 

I bought a house in South Austin in early August that has beautiful bananas around the pool and on the side. Of course this is during the hottest part of the Texas summer with the temps over 100 every day and me trying to figure out the not ideal sprinkler system and keep them alive.

Right now they are very wilty (will take some pictures later) and I don't know if that the natural cycle or if something is wrong. I also don't know if I should cut them all down/back or just clean up wilty and dead leaves.

I'm a new banana mom who didn't have 9 months to plan for this! lol

Will try to link to the image:



Banana Gallery - StarostkaD Gallery"]Banana Gallery - StarostkaD Gallery[/url]

Re: New Banana Mom
 

What a beautiful yard! It is common for them to wilt in the afternoon heat, however they should recover in the cooler parts of the day. If you have leaves that are actually brown or yellow you can remove them, also some leaves will collapse at the base, where they connect to the main stem. Mine do this during hot times when they are stressed for water.. they will not die but i remove those anyway as they will not stand back up. Make sure you water them heavily, mulch them thick, and I try to mist mine with the hose in the hottest part of the day. They generally look like a healthy stand to me otherwise. Also, make sure they are getting a proper fertilizer, and maybe some supplemental pottasium such as potassium sulphate. Congrats on the beautiful backyard, and welcome to bananas!

Re: New Banana Mom
 

Thanks! Glad they look healthy to you - it is so hard to tell. Winter plan is to redesign the sprinkler system to take better care of them. Someone mentioned chicken poo as a good fertlizer and I laughed but googled it and it seems true.

I have many questions and if someone has a good book or site to suggest, I welcome that. Among questions:

Can anyone tell what type they are (I will post that in the identify board too)?
Should I cut them back sometime soon?
Should I be weeding out the shooters and only allowing some?
We don't have many hard freezes here, but if we do, do I need to protect them at all?

Thanks for the welcome and sharing knowledge. We love this back yard and I want to maintain its beauty (meh - a few changes to the accompanying plants). We also want to actually taste our bananas someday!

Re: New Banana Mom
 

Hi! Glad to see another new woman on here! Besides me that is! Anyway, I am not trying to be mean but I’ve wanted to say this from the first time I read your post. Your joke about not having 9 months in advance to learn to take care of your banana babies, sorry to say is dumb. I’m sure you were only joking but still. I wish you good luck on growing all of your plants!

Re: New Banana Mom
 

Yard looks amazing and plants look great. Wish you the best of luck with your plants.
You're going to need to see what the fruit looks like before someone can try to tell you variety
Cutting pups(baby plants) is really up to you. How do you want your plants to look like.
I live in Baton Rouge and I mulch for multiple reasons: food, protection and retain water.

Re: New Banana Mom
 

As my Grandmama would say, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." You don't like my joke - fine - I don't need the name calling.

Re: New Banana Mom
 

Look, I’m sorry. I probably should have kept this to myself. However, I don’t understand how you think I was calling you a name. All I said was the joke was dumb, not calling you dumb. There is nothing else I said in my reply that was name calling. I don’t appreciate you trying to imply that I was calling you names. Seriously? I am allowed to have my own opinions. Needless to say I will not be speaking to you again...

Re: New Banana Mom
 

I got the joke, it was funny. There's always going to be people that are uncouth and have no filter. I think you just found one. My goodness if people "said what was on their mind" every time that one said something totally idiotic this forum would have all sorts of activity. Frankly I don't even think they're real. How could they be?

And you've adopted some fine young 'uns by the way.

Mods delete this if you need to but honestly crap like StarostkaD got is bull****

Re: New Banana Mom
 

lol - thank you for your note. Filters and just kindness are in short supply these days it seems.

I am loving my new babies and grateful for the confirmations on here that they look healthy and are doing what they should be. I love gardening and have always loved puttering in my yard but never considered growing bananas. Fun new challenge. I have two bunches that are fairly mature (I think) and I hope we get to enjoy some fruit before the weather turns cold. Looking forward to witnessing the whole process next year!

Re: New Banana Mom
 

Hey Folks, there's this Button, in the lower right of your postings, it's called the "EDIT" button.
I'd rather see people learn how to use the "EDIT" button on things like this than having Us mods delete parts of threads.

Try it some time, it really works quite well. :)

Re: New Banana Mom
 

I only want what I said gone if the mods want it gone. I know full well how to use the edit feature. Maybe "DD" should edit her nasty elitist comment to the new member. She/he/it has some weird scammy intentions on the freaking banana forum of all places. Bounce me if you must, I'm a pretty nice dude but this Departed character is about a dip****. Have a blast

Valor_X I'll send you out another bordelon but otherwise f*k this place

Re: New Banana Mom
 

when members start harassing and attacking other members, after being asked to leave them alone, they get banned.

Please choose your next words wisely.