Did I overfertilize?
 

Hi all.. ive had what I believe to be my dwarf namwah banana plants in the ground since early March.. I was fertilizing them with water soluble banana fuel from Wellspring gardens, but that turned out to be an expensive proposition with 10 plants as they got larger. Last week I switched to 13/13/13 granular, and decided on 4oz per plant each week. My understanding was I was needing about 1 lb per month during the growing season for these plants.. So today is day 6 after fertilizing, and I noticed problems with 2 plants cigar leaves. Besides seeming thin and light green, they were ripping easily as they we unfurling. One of the plants appears the have a portion of the last cigar leaf still wrapped up, with another cigar leaf coming out of that incomplete leaf.. so my questions for you experts..
1. What should I do about the incomplete cigar with another cigar leaf emerging?
2. From what you can see do you believe this is caused by too much ferts?

I should mention these plants are bedded in a foot of mushroom compost and well composted horse manure, covered with 6 inches of wood chips.

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Yeah, looks like that plant is growing very fast and since we haven't had that much rain, its probably due to fertilizer.

The amount of fertilizer you are putting on the plant is equivalent in N as what I put on my tall namwas and sometimes I get a couple funky leaves during the early part of the season when the overnight lows are below 65F. You are applying weekly and I apply monthly so some of my fertilizer begins to trail/bleed off with watering. You should be maintaining a higher average amount of N per plant then me since you fertilze weekly. Because they are dwarfs I would probably apply 1/2 the amount of fertilzer and watch the growth rate. One leaf per week maybe one leaf per 5 days is about the max before you start getting issues.

Your plant looks pretty good to me but I also get disapointed when the leaves are deformed or torn. We also recently had some wind which messes up the new leaves too.

In my opinion, you gotta risk some funky leaves in our zone if you want to get fruit. You also need to bump up the potassium by using MOP (Ace Hardware) or SOP (Amazon).

Good luck!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

That's about right for 13-13-13. You need about 8 lbs per plant for the growing season. You don't have to do it weekly; you can fertilize monthly.



The 3rd picture with the leaf closeup clearly shows green-yellow streaking of new leaf. This is characteristic of nitrogen deficiency. To correct this foliar spray with a nitrogen rich spray (miracle grow (24-8-16) 80 grams /gal or urea at 2%) weekly until the leaves are fully green. Foliar spray is like an injection or IV for most plants.



Now, I think the problem is from the 6 inches of wood chips. Wood chips when decaying robs nitrogen from the soil & plant and you have a lot. You need to remove the chips and replace with fully composted chips. Or use only a thin layer of wood chips on top of the composted chips-prepared soil.

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Thanks for the info! ill adjust and see what happens!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Thanks for your input! My understanding of wood chip mulch, or leaves etc is that it will not interfere with subsoil conditions as they decay.. only if mixed in with the soil. Do you disagree with this? Thanks!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

I don't think it is so much the chips itself but fungus and bacteria that promotes the break-down of the chips. These have to get their nutrients from somewhere and that is in the soil or fertilizer peculating thought the chips. .... Of course when the chips have completed composting the nitrogen will be released back into the soil. Others on the forum have shown improvement after removing wood chip mulch and going back with straw or grass clippings under bananas.


I can't say much else about using wood chips as i don't use them this way. i do have a chip pile i"m waiting for it to compost. It will be about 18 months before I can use it in the flower beds.

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Leaves are a trailing indicator, meaning that they follow the event, and show you what was happening in the past. What a leaf shows, depends on the season: If in winter, or cooler weather when leaf emergence is minimal it might indicate something that happened weeks ago. When leaf emergence is rapid, it more likely indicates what happened a week or so ago. In some varieties (which depends on the manner in which the leaves emerge) the current leaf need to unfurl before the next leaf can properly emerge. Over fertilizing can accelerate the rate of leaf emergence, which means that when a new leaf attempts to emerge before the previous leaf is unfurled it gets tangled in the previous leaf which can distort or tear either leaf. Back off the fertilizer for a little while, util normal emergence is seen, and then begin fertilizing again at a smaller amount, but keep the frequency. A little more often is better than a lot less frequently.

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Thank you for the input! Gonna hold off as you said, on fertilizing, and see what happens next week.. appreciate the comments!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Looks good for a moderately pushed younger plant. I get some spotty leaf burn on mine in addition to twisted up leaves so you are still looking ok.


Keep your foot on the gas!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

What varieties are you growing? So you would continue fertilizing as I was, or cut back until the leaves return to normal?
Thanks!

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

If you are not getting burns I would keep going. I don’t give as much phosphorus and just use Urea and Potash according to Ty’s pushing fertilizer formula.

Currently I have:
Ice cream
Namwa
D. Namwa
D. Orinoco
Pisang Ceylon
Monthan
Pisang raja
Sweetheart
Goldfinger
Cali gold
Raja puri
Patupi

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

Ok thanks.. I know some bananas can handle heavy fertilizer better than others.. just didn't want to damage my plants! Thanks again. As far as potassium, ive been shoveling wood ash at the base of my plants.. I know it can raise PH but just wanted to boost the potassium from the triple 13.. my cigar leaves unfurl light green, almost yellow, but with in a day are dark green.. not sure why they are doing this.. is it normal?

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

updates? i have the same issue now what did u do? did it work?

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

I'm having the same issue with a couple of mine. I was wondering did you ever figure out what the problem was. If so could you tell me how you fixed the problem. Thanks

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

This definitely looks like overfertilizing to me. I would say that your bananas already have access to plenty of nutrients for now since you amended with mushroom compost and horse manure. It's likely not be necessary to fertilize on top of that until the plants are a bit larger. I start to think about bumping up nutrients once I notice a decrease in leaf surface area, shortening of vertical distance between petioles on the p-stem, and/or a slowing of the growth rate that cannot be attributed to the plant nearing flowering, the weather, changes in sun exposure, or other environmental factors.

You may want to consider switching to an organic feeding regimen, as you'll be less likely to overfertilize that way. Water soluble salt-based nutrients are available immediately - so it's easy for the plant to take up too much at once. Organic nutrient sources must be metabolized by the soil microbiome before they are available to the plant, and this can take anywhere from a week to a month or more depending on what you are using. A partially digested liquid product such as fish emulsion will be available relatively quickly, whereas a solid material such as alfalfa or manure needs to be decomposed by fungi as well - so it will take longer to become available. This slow release effect makes it much less likely for the plants to be overwhelmed by an influx of nutrients, even if you add too much at once. Additionally, in feeding the soil biota, organic nutrients promote soil health. Healthier soil means more effective water and nutrient retention and exchange in the soil, and therefore stronger and more resilient plants. Organic fertilization programs have a reputation for being expensive, but there are ways to go about it very cheaply such as JADAM. You can also just pile yard waste, grass clippings, and other organic material around your bananas and supplement with smaller amounts of organic fertilizer if needed - these materials will release plenty of nutrients as they break down. Youre already off to a great start since you added mulch, manure, compost.

Re: Did I overfertilize?
 

It's great to be able to know so many different banana varieties. Looking at the pictures shared by everyone, you can really see the growth of the plants. I'm thinking about finding out what type of soil is suitable.