Chickens and Bananas
 

Does anyone know, Will chickens kill my banana plants? Been considering making a coop around the bananas. This would def help keep my weed problem in check. But Worried, they will also eat all the new pups or all the banana roots. Not sure.

Anyone have any input on this?

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

I have one chicken who is always in my bananas. She never harms them at all. They dig so much there won't be weeds.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

It's generally fine, but I have had them eat young plants and suckers to the ground before, so you might want to protect any young suckers you want to keep with a wire mesh cage or something like that until they are too big for the chickens to damage. I would also make sure to provide plenty of mulch around the bananas so when they are digging around the plants they mostly dig in the mulch and hopefully won't be digging up too many roots in the soil.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Exactly my thoughts. And don't grow tomatoes unless you protect the fruit...

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

They'll damage the leaves a bit and damage the pups a bit but the worst is the xxxx all over! They do eat bugs though... Overall, not a bad thing because they will fertilize it but it will not be looking it's best... lol! They don't eat the plant. They don't eat the bananas. I've never seen them damage the roots either. That was when I lived in Mauritius.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Now only if I could get some BULK mulch on the cheap. LoL

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

If you can make acquaintance with any tree trimmers in the area, there always seem to be some who are willing and sometimes even excited to drop off truck fulls of wood chips after jobs rather than driving them to a facility if they have to. Never hurts to ask.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Not in our county. There are no dump charges even for businesses. In addition the county prefers whole logs because they sell them to an electrical plant which means most companies don't have chippers. If you can hookup with Asplund when they're working in your neighborhood (or closer than the dump), they chip and will deliver for you.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

What about these? Just need a pick-up, a shovel, and a durable back. :0519:

Yard Waste and Mulching

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Check Craigslist.
https://spacecoast.craigslist.org/se...mulch&sort=rel

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

I used to drive 35 miles to buy cheap mulch in the neighboring county. It was free for residents of their county but for me it was about $7/ton. Finally I realized that my county road department had mulch that I could get for FREE...2 miles from my house!

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

At the Sarno road landfill, you can get a pickup truck FULL of compost for $15. It is ok compost, but sandy. You will get a lot, so be warned.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

In MD, I had all I wanted delivered for free; the dump charged huge fees for brush. In OH I had to pay for the rotten nasty leftover stuff they couldn't sell to the places that "finished and dyed" chips. Here in Brevard County I can pick up free compost or mulch (really pretty mulch) for free but I have to pick it up or arrange for someone to do it for me.

There are 3 dumps in this county; not all have compost and mulch. I know Cocoa (mid) doesn't have compost; I don't know about mulch. WF lives at the southern end; again I don't know what his "dump" offers. But I do know they won't deliver for any fee so, unless you have a truck or know someone with a truck, you're out of luck obtaining "free". Which is why I mentioned Asplund. When they come to do my section of the street, the guys said they'll drop 30 yards for me. *gulp* Audible gulp. "Could you bring a partial load?" They laughed some more and said it's possible. 30 yards is a lot of stuff...

ETA: Hmmm, WF, I only have a standard bed 93 Ranger so about 1.66 yards of "stuff" but perhaps we could trade for spare pups? And a tour?:ha:

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

For mulch I have been buying 50LB straw bales (compressed straw) from Tractor Supply for $10.99.
Standlee Premium Western Forage Certified Straw Grab & Go Compressed Bale, 50 lb. Bale - For Life Out Here

The 50Lb bale goes farther than 6 of the $2 bags of mulch, breaks down pretty quick. Do get some seeds sprouting, but they dont seem to thirve well and easy to just pull up and drop.

Here is my Peach Cobbler mango with straw mulch (cleaned up & mulched not recently planted). The mulch has been there about a week, is pretty thick. The 6 foot diameter circle used over 1/3 of the bale (but less than 1/2).



Have used it around the jackfruit trees, bananas, dragon fruit, mangoes, atemoya and just about everything I have in the large pots.
DM

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Chickens don't care for banana plants. They will eat up all your old bananas though! We get so many bananas we can't eat them all, when they go black the birds get em.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

I do not have a truck. Melbourne waste is about 45 min from where I live.
If I had a pickup truck. I would get my max of 2 yards every day on my way to work. I do a thick lay of fines then a tick layer of wood chips.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

3 yards for $125 is really expensive, I need about 12 more yards to finish my yard off, till winter. Then i will need another 15 or more yards.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

I have been considering using hay bail's. Bagged mulch is crazy talk when I need 15+ yards ever season. LoL
I think Hay is higher in Nitrogen. Do you know if tractor supply is cheaper than the feed store?
I also was considering raking up pine needles from the back lot and spreading them around also. LoL

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

FYI Pine needles are VERY acidic.

Re: Chickens and Bananas
 

Non soil tester speaking...if my assumptions are wrong, feel free to say so.

Supposedly the average pH for FL soils is 6.1 (slightly acidic); coastal areas tend to be more alkaline. I've read that bananas prefer a range from 5.5 to 6.5. I've used pine needles on blueberry plants but didn't notice a tremendous surge in activity which is why I don't believe they alter the pH that much. (Up north where the soil is definitely acidic pine bark mulch is often used; the average homeowner doesn't lime soil before application.)