mjdsinsacto

UPS delivered 3 new plants today--1 ensete m., 1 ensete v., 1 musa Kru

these are small plants with roots and leaves attached.

I will be planting these in containers; what type soil, size pot should I use?

I have some Miraclegro moisture control potting soil, would that suffice? Can I use large size pots or small first, then repot?

For now, I've carefully warped all three in moist newspaper to avoid drying out.

I'm running to Home Depot soon as I get some advise.

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Bob

Hi MJ, I use this in all my pots since I havent found anything better. I throw the MG mix in a wheel barrow and mix with usually perlite and some orchid bark mix by eye to get it to look like a mix that is well drained yet fertile. I hope this makes sense , I can't tell you any better, exactly what size are your plants? I tend to favor oversized pots but don't want to hear you've hurt your back moving them.

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sbl

You can start them in smaller pots and move them up. Compost is what I use for a potting material.

bencelest

a good mix is what bob said and sbl one equal amount of each plus your miracle grow mix. Don't use it alone for it is too wet. The water retention is too much with that miracle grow mix..

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Banana Nut

pitangadiego

If these are really small plants (tissue cultures, for example), add some perlite. Moisture control MG holds a lot of water, and for plants that rot easy or don't need to be soggy, it will often hold too much water. You can always water more frequently, but subtracting water is always very hard to accomplish. The small a plant is (any plant) the more careful you need to be.

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mjdsinsacto

This was very helpful, Bob. I picked up some fast draining potting soil (for palms and cacti), mixed with perlite, orchid mixture, and MG moisture mix--looked real nice and loose. I mixed in some Oscomote as well.

The plants are resting nicely close to my backfence with plenty of soft bright light.

Question: Should I move them to full sun, or give them a week or two rest period before giving them full sun--early morning thru midafternoon (in Sacramento, the sun is hottest at 4 thru 5 PM).

My very first banana plants! A Kru, an ensete v. and also ensete m.

Now all I have to do is not kill them.

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Bob

Hi MJ, I have come to the conlusion over time that transplant shock is a main cause of all sorts of grief for the plants. Since your season out there I would guess is longer than here in NJ I would give them a week or 2 and then quickly but somewhat gradually adjust to full sun. They really don't need much babying other than that. Judge when to water by sticking your finger in the soil and only water when it's dry 2 " down. I only watered my plants a very few times this year due to excessive rain and they've done beautifully.
Can't wait to see some of your pics as they grow. I'm kind of excited for you since last year at this time I was in exactly the same spot and had just really begun my collection. My yard now looks like a tropical plantation( but a bit smaller).

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bepah

I wouldn't worry a lot given that you will be over 100F for the next couple of days. You will need to water your bananas every day if the pots get exposed to the sun, which will heat the soil over 130F. My understanding is that nighttime temps will be in the 70s as well. Water in early morning and early afternoon if needed, but not in the evening.

Make certain that the pots do not go dry.......your new plants will wither quickly due to transpiration problems.

Good luck.

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John Case
Rookie Gardener, Veteran Drinker

Dalmatiansoap

One of most important things is and Im surprised that none of expirienced growers didnt mention is to apsollutlly avoid eye contact with newly potted plants. Some magic force can competlly tide U by the plants and U might have problems with another plants in your area. New plants are so sticky! Or all naners are? I forget.
Good luck!

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bencelest

Ante: I do the opposite. I semi neglect them. So no matter what they do I pretend not to notice. So they show their guile and bottoms for me to see even when they look so pretty and tempting.
I ignore all.
So they try to show off for me as if they are saying, hey mister, why don't you look!!!! I am sooooo pretty.....!!!

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Banana Nut

Dalmatiansoap

Now U see Benny we share same problems all over globe
U have good tactics. Will try that with new beautyes . I also noticed as time is passing there are more and more of them. Or is it just me???
My Siam tryed to show me new leaf today but I ll wait till it sleeps than I ll peek .

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