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I'm sooooooooo happy!!!!!!!!!!! I got my first banana tree! Rajapuri! It's looks pretty cool considering it's size. :) I know this might sound crazy to all you experts but one thing I don't know about rajapuri is its ph. If any of you please take the time to tell a newbie like me what its ph is I'd be very greatful! :) Also in all the time I've been here I don't really know how to post pics. :rolleyes: Could any of you tell me how? I'm going to try to take some of first banana tree ever!!!

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What do you mean by ph? Like its given value of acidity or alkalinity??? Or might you mean pseudostem height? Maybe possible hardiness? plankton hemorrhage? pink highlights?

To post photos simply upload them to the gallery or any online photo hosting site of your choice, copy and paste the given URL tag into your post and thats about it.

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:ha:

Congrats on your baby!

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Pretty Hairy...:2691:

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Wow I didn't know that ph could mean so many different things! What I ment is it's acid level or whatever you'd call it. You know like some plants ph is 5.5.

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Banana Berserker,
I know exactly how you feel!!!!!!
My lst banana was a basjoo!
Then I acquired Sikkimensis, lil' prince, Orinoco, Saba, and just received a beautiful Ensete maurelli from Sandy!
Iam soooooooooo proud of them.
Everyone I talk to knows I have bananas!
I even make the gas & electric meter man look at them!:2239:
Your on your way to being totally addicted!!!!!!!!!!:2718::2718::2718::2718:

Good Luck.............Magicgreen

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Ohh about PH.
I know little. I mix miracle grow potting soil, coarse sand, and perlite and hope for the best!

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The acidity/alkalinty levels are measured in pH, lower case p, and upper case H. You can find some ancient definitions of what the p stands for(the upper case H means Hydrogen) if you google it but, basically, the lower the pH number is, the more acid the soil/water is, and the higher it is, the more alakaline. A pH of 7.0 is neutral, neither acidic, or alkaline Stuff like PH could mean pharmacist, public housing, or public highway, etc.

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Raja Puri would prefer a soil pH of 6.3 to 6.5, but it has been known to tolerate slightly alkaline soils and more acidic soil -- provided it is kept well-fed with Nitrogen and Potash.

The fruit of Raja Puri also has a pH, which relates to how it tastes along with its Brix value, which is the percentage of sugar in the fruit. I have not found the actual values anywhere yet.

Raja Puri roughly translates to Royal Pancake.

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congrats on your new baby!!!! it is exciting moment when get your first tree.:0496::2200::scroll::2737::ukkibannana:

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Congrats, and good luck with your new plant!

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Lol magicgreen! Thanks everyone for the info and the congrats! Why would anyone call a tree a royal pancake???? Anyway I had two more questions.

1.Has anyone had thoughs white spots on any of your plants (I have some on my orange tree) They're on the leaves and I've tried spraying the tree with water and they go away but then within minutes as the leaves dry they come back. not to concered as they've been there forever and the tree is doing well but thought I should know incase they pose a threat.

2.Is the pH for a banana tree very important. Is it worth buying something to test the soil with? I will gladly buy one as soon as possible if needed.

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From what I've read pH is pretty important for healthy growth as the plant can't absorb the nutrients as well if it's not right and not all plants are happy in the same pH but I'm a newbie also so please someone with more knowledge correct me if I'm wrong.

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Isn't northerntropics.com sandy's web site?

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Never mind I looked it up. :) Thank you sooooooooooooooo much sandy!!!!!!!!! I got it from northerntropics.com and let me tell you if ever I need another nanner tree you know where I'm getting it from!!!!!! (The prices are also good there)

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CookieCows, you are correct about pH ... I don't know if I would consider you a newbie!

To test pH, I would recommend an inexpensive probe (under $20) that does not require batteries or electric power. Be sure to take several measurements, all in the root zone of the plant. Here are two examples, sold by reputable dealers in the $5 to $15 range, and very expensively elsewhere.

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thanks guys. I'm overjoyed to learn that there inexpensive!

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You all aren't kidding about an addiction... a month ago I finally convinced my husband to let me have a dwarf cavendish, course I got two in case I killed one with my brown thumb. Then I decided I must have 2 ice cream bananas, and 2 dwarf red...once again, two in case I kill one. Then I proceeded to order 2 Dwarf orinoco, and 2 Manzano...and a basjoo...and now I have orered so many, that I was sent 2 red abyssinians for free...and I have gotten rid of one..and almost cried, one of my cavendish, because I LIVE IN ZONE 4, and I don't have room...I'll make room. Trying to get my husband to put on a sun room for me. LOL. Banana plants are addicting. Well anyways,I know of a great fertilizer, it is at www.wellspringgardens.com...I think that is right, or off ebay from wellspring100. It is called banana fuel. And I use it, it is very affordable, and I like it, lasts forever. I also plant in 1/3 perlite, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss. So far working good. But I have not ever checked pH. I suppose I should. These things are my babies, I even make a warm room for them on cold dreary days...I'm NUTS! LOl. Glad to hear about your new addition to your family, you will LOVE it.

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Congrats on your new banana! That was one that I bought last year. The leaves look wilted right now. I don't know why?

I just got two unkown bananas myself yesterday.

Richard, thanks for the information on the fertilizer. I have some fertilizer in the garage I was thinking of using. It's 8-2-4 fertilizer. Would that be good to use on my bananas?:2223:

Dean

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well you know that getting 2 nanas is always a must, you know just in case one dosent survive. its just a have to thing. lol! i couldnt stop at just 2 though, i went to the lawn and garden show in feb. and walked out with 5 basjoos. then i just had to give one to my best friend. so now i have 4 basjoos. thats just in case...lol.

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Well, twenty dollars was all I had! LOL!!! I would have bought all three. At what point is one able to identify an unknown banana?

Dean

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Dean,
after consulting a bunch of people the fertilizer should be something like 10-10-10 or was suggested 14-14-14 which is for grass sins Bananas are very heavy feeders and need allot of nitrogen after they get going
and as with any plant micro nutrients are essential for good success for example i live in NV the soil is some of the poorest in North America its mostly salty sand so i have to add sulfur to bring the PH more in line i don't want to get to in to soil chemistry but adding the appropriate micro nutrients to your soil will bring on bang up growth for any of your plants

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Thanks, damaclese, I'll have to get a fertilizer like that.

Dean

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An ideal fertilizer would be 16-1-24. This mixture is usually not available. Some fertilizers marked "Rose Food" are 8-4-12 which is a good substitute. Basically, you would like the K in N-P-K to be 1.5 as large as the N. Bananas will ignore most of the P, so no need to have high amounts of that.

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Cool, I'll have to get some rose food!

Dean

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Guys, does anybody know what to do about thoughs white spots I mentioned before in the forum?

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thanks Rich i got that 14-14-14 thing from the supplier that i bout my banana from so really sorry if i passed on some bad info. do u think micro nutrients are important
i live in Nevada and the soil here has almost no good stuff in it just salt and volcanic decomposed granite well at least it drains well LOL! o and lots of rocks i for got that hehe

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Well, "triple 14" certainly works. To maximize your fruit production, you would like 1.5 times as much Potash vs. Nitrogen, and at least 1 pound of Nitrogen per banana plant in the ground per year. Here's a short consumer-friendly article with a bit of "how-to" in it:

http://www.plantsthatproduce.com/col...ertilizers.pdf

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It could just be hard minerals in the water that show up when the water dries on the leaf. There are also some types of scale, but those you can tell by scraping, and killing them with your finger nail.

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Lets hope it's not scale! Your right it's probably just water. :) Another question I had... I'm not sure what it's called but it's when you take a stem or leaf from a plant, put rooting hormone on it, and stick it in the ground/water and it starts to grow into a plant. Can you do that with a banana tree/callalilly. I know the callalilly was kind of out of nowherebut I have a really nice plant that I would like two of!

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No, Callas or bananas will not grow from a cutting.

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That stinks! Have you ever tried? are you sure????

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i tried it on callis, nope it wont work. callies are bulbs. they are one of my fav. flowers. sorry.

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O well, can't have everything. Thats strange though. A friend of mine gave me it and told me it was from her plant. Like she had split it in two or something along thoughs lines. If anybody knows how to do something like that I ( and I'm sure some other people) would like to know how to do it. I love my calla and I want to make sure if dies for any reason I'll have second one jjjjuuuusssttt like it :) also can you grow fruit trees from a cutting? preferably pomegranates, pineapples, and orange trees. Can you grow anything from a cutting exept bulbs?

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if your friend had a clump of callies then all she did was divide the clump. how long have you had your callies? they should make more bulbs every year if you feed them correctly. dividing a clump is just digging them out of the dirt and seperating a few bulb and moving them. i just did this to about 4 clumps of iris back in november. you would have to ask richard, chong, joe real about the rooting of trees by cuttings. i know it can be done, but ive only done it so far with corkscrew willows, crepe myrtles, green american willows and a few others. sorry i couldnt be of more help.

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Thanks! That was helpful. :)I know how to grow things from cutting just don't know what kinds of things you can do that on. I've had my calla 5 years...I think... Maybe I'll try that. Thats probably what my friend did. Thanks again! Any extra info on how to "separate" the bulbs would be very helpful. If I'm confident enough to do this without killing my only calla I might try. :)

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after they bloom and the greenage starts to turn brown, dig the clump up and divide your bulbs. wipe them off with a soft dry towel and repot or re- plant. thats how i divide my tulips, daffies, cannas, and iris, etc.

p.s. if your gonna replant in a pot put a teaspoon of bonemeal in the hole before you put the bulbs in. you ll be amazed what they do the next year. if your gonna put them in the ground use a tablespoon of bonemeal and then the bulbs.

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The only way that will work is if you tissue culture it, which involves hormones and a few other things, and you get thousands of plants, but it's not as easy as using hormone on cuttings from other plants.

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Do you think you could tell me how to tissue culture it. (You don't have to if it's to hard to explain)

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I wouldn't be the one to ask, but it involves lab equiptment, tools, hormones, ect.
There's a few threads on the subject, and there are a few online resources, and companies you can order videos on how to.
One recent thread on the subject- http://www.bananas.org/f30/tissue-cu...ited-3877.html

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thanks

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No.

Yes.

Yes, I've done apples, peaches, and citrus. With peaches, for example, you take the cuttings in late winter/early spring, before they have leafed out. Here, in the New York City area, that's around St. Patricks Day, which is good because it coincides with the time peaches are normally pruned, and there are lots of cuttings available.
I used cuttings about the length and thickness of a pencil. Dip them in the hormone and stick them in a bed, outside, with bottom heat. The idea is to keep the bottoms warm, to promote rooting, and the tops cool, so they don't leaf out too much before they have roots. I was potting them up, in June, and, somehow, two of them were left in the bed. When I noticed them again, in Sept., they were about 3 feet tall, and one was even branched. The root balls were too big for a one gallon pot. Next spring, the branched one had flowers and set fruit!

See my posting on Hydrangeas http://www.bananas.org/f8/hydrangas-4286.html

Pineapples are like bananas. They fruit once, and then die. Asthey are dying, they put out pups, shoots, slips and suckers, from below the fruit. New plants can be grown from these, or the top from a store bought fruit. They can also be grown from seeds.

See my posting on Pineapples http://www.bananas.org/f8/wanted-pin...-p-4092-2.html

This post is getting a little long, so I'll get into some of the other things, and tissue culture later.