Kanana

Thanks for the info on the fertilizing and the way you prepped the area. 2000 pounds of black cow sounds like a lot. IIRC, I used maybe 1/2 bag filled in to each planting hole when I planted mine when they were big enough to go into the ground along with a liberal sprinkle of potassium sulfate.

Any suggestions on my back area with weeds? I initially covered this area which was part of my lawn, where I planted the bananas with a dump truck worth of mulch back in March of 2016 that sat there a year which I was hoping it would kill the weeds but it just made them come back with a vengeance the summer / fall of 2016 and I battle it every spring and summer here in SW Florida. I saw a few videos on using black plastic to smother and kill the weeds and I have yet to try this. A couple of years ago as an experiment I tried using this 10x20' thick blue vinyl tarp that was made from an old retractable pool cover to smother the weeds. It didn't actually kill the weeds as I could see roots forming from underneath the tarp and I had moved it around a few times during the hottest part of the summer. Seemed like the weeds laughed at it. I hate using roundup, and at this point I just weedwhack or mow, but the whole purpose was to just have a mulched area to avoid what I am dealing with.

Akula

I used a pallet of Black Cow that I got at a pretty good price from a wholesaler. I guess about 50 bags at 40lbs per bag.

A lot of vegetable farmers (strawberries) cover the soil with a plastic like tarp (plastic culture) so it could work but they run drip lines under the plastic for irrigation and fertilzing. I used burlap in my tomato and watermelon patch which did a pretty good job of weed supression but it only lasts one season. There were some weeds underneath but they were stunted and I pulled the ones that grew through the burlap by hand. Reduced weeding by about 97% vs. without the burlap. The burlap just rots away by the end of the season.

Again I have had great luck mulching with grass clippings. I mow about every five days and just dump/spread the clippings on the patch about an inch deep. Fresh mulch every five days. Mulch plus a subtantial banana canopy shading the ground below the banana leaves zeroes out any weed growth for me.

Another thing is that I have a fence on the other side of my banana patch that provides shading to the ground (supressing the weeds) from the North or the West side (depending on which patch).

Kanana

Is there a go to place to buy burlap? I figure I will need 1200 sq ft or so and I am already planning on buying the 4 mil thick black plastic ($60 or so from HD or Lowes) for this area to kill the weeds and then maybe remove it and do your burlap suppression method. What about cardboard under the burlap for even more suppression? It too would rot after a year or so and also help with feeding the soil.

I would try the grass clippings mulch but most of my lawn in the back yard is a mixture of weeds, bahia and bermuda grass. I've tried it in spots in the past, and the weeds grew up from underneath the 12 inch pile of clippings. Unfortunately I have no fencing on my property and the HOA limits the type of fencing to that ugly white poly fence material and only 5 foot high...

I remember looking this past summer on youtube for weed suppression and someone had these spent bales of hay several inches thick, and it worked to keep it weed free. He was getting the stuff for free (actually re-watching it now, and he said $3.00 per bale), but I've called around feed stores, horse suppliers and Tractor Supply and they want like $9-$11 per bale and I'd need a ton of them. Plus they only sell the green bales and this guy suggested the aged spent straw colored bales. I'll post the video back here if I can find it.

Found it: https://youtu.be/5W40KEKadTk

Akula

Burlap is kind of expensive it seems to me for your purposes but I found 60" wide by 50 yards long roll for $143 including shipping on Amazon. I primarily use it to wrap the pstems of my banana plants up to about 6-8' in height for winter protection. I've been able to reuse use it for three years so far.

Tytaylor77

Cardboard!

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