Kostas

Hello,

I read a great article from Gabe if i remember correctly that correlated planting depth with yield and days to flowering and maturity. 60cm was the best depth in his findings. My question is wether bananas adjust their planting height with each pup,to their liking and also,since banana seeds need light to germinate and thus germinate close to the soil's surface,what is the depth a banana would grow at in nature?

I planted an Orinoco Tall in my garden temporarily last fall and planted it so that the rhizome is just buried under the original soil depth(clay soil but fast draining from the worm tunnels) and added maybe another 5-10cm of good soil above it but now i have decided this position is good for a banana long term and wish to keep it there. I am worried about the shallow planting depth and that is why i would like to know how they grow in nature. If that is how they grow in nature too(the wild species i mean),with the rhizome just buried,i would rather leave it as it is and remove a few cm of the top good soil i added,and spread it out to level out some the mound as it doesnt look natural as it is. Then a good mulching should make it happy!
The other option is to dig it out and replant about 15cm deeper. I wouldnt dare try anything deeper in my clay soil! That will set it back a month though and i would rather not do it if not absolutely necessary for its long term well being.

Thank you very much in advance!

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caliboy1994

I think that the real issue you'll want to worry about with planting depth is wind. Do you get lots of wind where you live?

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Kostas

No,my garden in Pyrgos is quite wind sheltered. Even leaf shredding seldom happens on my bananas there and even then,its a few tears here and there only! I didnt support that plant after the transplant at all and it never leaned with the wind,it rooted as i left it,leaning just a little from the weight of its leafs and towards the wind and sun.

The fun thing is,the area nearby Pyrgos can frequently get gale force winds and even strong hurricanes have formed more rarely,causing astonishing damage! They never touched Pyrgos strong,they were felt like just stronger than normal wind!

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caliboy1994

You're lucky then. We can easily get gale force winds strong enough to snap a banana plant in half here. You'd probably be safe planting them a little bit more shallow, but keep in mind that when you plant a banana you want to keep the soil level the same as it was in the pot at first, then throw stuff on top after it's acclimated.

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sunfish

I have planted bananas much deeper than the original depth with no problems.There was mention of planting deeper for wind resistance

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caliboy1994

Planting deeper would make it harder for the wind to topple the plants.

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sunfish

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Nicolas Naranja

I plant suckers at least 1 foot deep. I think each generation of suckers comes up a little bit higher so I think a deep planting encourages a longer life for the mat. In Florida, water is a limit to production so planting deep puts the roots deeper where they can access water.

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TommyMacLuckie

I've planed bananas at varying depths and have noticed no difference but that may be where I live. I've set bananas down in places and have forgotten about them and a few months later you'd never know. And yes, they do eventually find their own depth. I set some dwarf cavs down on the ground one day and then go busy doing something else. 3 weeks later I went back to deal with them and they had erupted so I left 'em. They made pups and so on - I just removed them from that spot finally - but just setting them on the ground can work. The saying goes, if it touches dirt it'll grow. With wind, who knows. Hurricanes have knocked some over that were planted deep and left others untouched and vice versa.

Kostas

Thank you very much all of you for your replies!

Very useful and interesting information! Your experiences are great and i thank you very much for sharing them with me!

The banana i am talking about,i dug it out from the ground and moved it to Pyrgos so it wasnt potted. I chose the planting depth as i got it as a pup. I stuck to shallow planting in fear of rot from our winter rains during its original planting. After digging it out and moving it to Pyrgos, i just made a depression on the ground to accommodate the rhizome and set the rest of the shallow root(pan) i had taken with it,just rest on top of the ground,and made a little mound of soil around them. Thats how its currently growing in Pyrgos. Do you think it will find its own correct planting depth as it pups or should i dig it out again and plant deeper? It surely has rooted well again as its been growing fast since last fall,just a month after moving it!!! I would certainly prefer not to disturb it if it can find its correct planting depth by itself.
I would think that as a rhizome growing plant,it should have mechanisms to allow it to pup at the depth it considers the most suitable for the pups's better growth. I do have heard about mats going shallow with time and toppling easier but from what i have seen,the soil these mats are growing on has become yucky,muck,boggy,bad for the root health and thus the plant decides to go shallower in search of better root conditions. So,in this case,its the bad soil that causes this and not a wrong response from the plant. Correcting the soil or not letting the soil degrade that much would allow the mat to choose to grow deeper and better. I would think that bananas would select correctly their growing depth as banana mats have proven to survive for many decades in unmanaged plots of mixed vegetation with no need for replanting or management of any short.

What is your opinion?

Thank you very much in advance!

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Olafhenny

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Kostas

Thank you very much for sharing your experience
Its good to know that!


As for my ''Orinoco'' in question,i decided to leave it as it is,as its growing very well anyway and the corm is a little under the original soil level of the garden. If it wants,i think it can send a pup deeper as Tommy's experience says!

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sandy0225

When I plant the basjoo a foot deeper, then I don't protect them at all. No mulch or bags of leaves. I think the protection over the top of the one you had planted a foot deeper caused the ground to stay cooler there. That's why the corm was still looking good but not growing yet. It still thought it was too cool to start growing. The ones I planted a foot deeper are up around 3 feet tall already this year, but I didn't put any mulch on top of them at all. Just let the stems freeze down to the ground with the winter freezes and don't do anything else.

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blownz281

Every type of plant I have ever planted I always dig a hole deep enough to make sure the top soil root mass is a few inches below surface. You can always plant something to deep so becareful.

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bengtang

If planting seeds, just sow on the surface of the soil, or at most plant just below the surface, maybe 1cm deep.

If planting corms or suckers i tend to dig quite a deep hole and put them in, then cover the root part loosely with soil but leave the rest of the hole unfilled, or pack it loosely with dead leaves etc. The corm needs to breath, especially if the roots and leaves are not established yet, so don't tamp it in tight or it could suffocate, especially in heavy clay soil like i have here. The soil from the hole is piled up around the edge, and slowly will fall back into the hole and fill it, but hopefully by then the banana will have grown roots and leaves and be able to stand being buried deeper.

As for subsequent generations of suckers, they tend to grow out from the bottom of the existing corm, so they don't get shallower. Also, in sandy/loamy soil the corm can pull itself deeper using contractile roots. In heavy clay or rocky soil it may not be able to do this that well.

sunfish

Banana seed do not need light for germination

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Olafhenny

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