Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Hi everyone,

I'm new to the banana tree world. I transplanted 4 Musa Basjoo from another residence to mine on June 2, 2016. All of them have new leaves coming up but they're staying the same height so far. I wanted to give them a boost and was wondering when I could start to fertilize them? I went to my local nursery and picked up the fertilizer the staff advised. I've heard to wait at least a month but wanted to get your opinion.

I'm located on the boarder of zone 7 and 8 in Georgia.

Thanks for your help!

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

When you say transplanted, do you mean the whole plant or did you separate pups?

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

I transplanted the whole tree. They were/are 3-4 feet.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Congrats on your new additions.

Basjoos will benefit from a general garden fertilizer..... nothing special.
This variety is grown for the foliage and not the fruit.
An inexpensive 16-16-16 or 12-12-12 which I use will do just fine.

You may lightly fertilize them if you wish......water well, those roots need to get established.
Basjoo is a spreader so the plant will establish roots before height.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Thanks for the reply, cincinnana!

I went to my local nursery, I told the lady what my scenario was and she gave me Root & Grow 4-10-3 Root Stimulator by a company called Bonide. She said to add 4 tbsp per gallon of water every two weeks.

What are your thoughts on what she gave me?

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Sounds like a good plan and a good product.
Water soluble products when correctly used are a good choice.

I also use Miracle Grow on my Basjoos with great results as well as the granulars I mentioned before.

I use a rooting stimulater/ hormone on my transplants also..... the stuff works.
Once your plants get more mature you may fertilize more often.

The real key is how well you prepared the area you planted them in.
If you really worked the soil to loosen it up your basjoos will reward you with lots of pups.

.

Untitled by
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Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

I don't know if its the cheapest route but I find Miracle grow the easiest. It's working pretty good for me. As Cincinnana has said prepping the hole has a much larger affect on the overall health of the plant than the fertilizer used.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Thanks for the insight!! This forum is awesome.

I planted my Basjoo just outside our grass in an open woods area so there are some roots, rocks, black dirt, sand, etc in the soil and it is somewhat compact I noticed. I planted them at least 10-15 feet away from any other tree to maximize growth as much as I think I know best. The holes were about 2-3 times larger than the corms and I left some(about 1") loose dirt underneath so the roots can take hold better. They get some sun during the day but not all day long. I did not add any top soil etc.

The person who I got them from told me to just dig holes, throw them in, and they will get huge.

What do you think of my scenario?

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

I have found that mine like water but don't like to be wet, so good draining soil is the order of the day. I am fortunate that my local GC has good soil since most of my yard is rock and clay so I dig a big hole so that the corm is 12" or so down with 2-3" of good soil under it and then fill that hole with good soil. In the early spring I top dress with mushroom manure and feed miracle gro once a week or so.

Your depth will vary on your location (freeze depth), but I have found that good soil and feeding and they will take off.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Does top dress mean just put extra soil on top around the base(without going up too high)?

I'm a newbie. All the info/tricks I can get, the better.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

exactly

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Technically top dressing refers to adding nutrition to the top layer of soil around the plant. Dirt alone does nothing for the plant unless there's a sizable depression. (This can happen when you dig a huge hole then don't pack dirt around the plant when transplanting (not heavy packing but good firming) or don't water it in.) Even so you should add compost, well rotted manure or wood mulch which give more goodies to the plant than just plain dirt. Eh, dirt if you life on the east coast of FL is sand so I only use mulch or compost since I have yet to find a source of manure here.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Urine works wonders. Plus, it's free.

Re: Transplanted Musa Basjoo - When to Fertilize?
 

Welp, it looks like my Basjoos were stoked about the 4-10-3 Root Stimulator by Bonide the lady at my local nursery sold me. I could tell the difference in color of the P-stem in just one day as they turned from a dark dull green to a nice lime green color. The instructions on the bottle of root stimulator says to use 4 Tbsp per gallon but I used 3 Tbsp per gallon just to play safe.

It seems the roots took about 3 weeks to really recover from the shock of transplanting and establish themselves. Now, new leaves are exploding out of all of them and this little pup peaked its head out on the 4th of July! Its a freedom pup! It took just over one month for the pup to emerge from when I transplanted the 3'-4' Basjoos on 6/2/2016. It was the Basjoo that had the most leaves(6th leave was almost opened) but not the most height or sun.

Is this fast for a pup to emerge or about normal?

Does anyone know what triggers the Basjoos to sprout pups?

When is it safe to separate the pup to a new location?