wheelman1976

Hi, I joined a while ago but am not just starting to get active with bananas after I got a combination of 30 red dwarfs and dwarf brazilian bananas. Many of these were extremely healthy from the get go with solid root masses and standing about 18 plus inches tall. These were all grown in a greenhouse environment until I got them. I promptly planted them outside in my backyard. I have what I think is pretty good black dirt with good drainage.

So far, the dwarf brazilians seem to be doing quite well, but I seem to be noticing drooping leaves on the red dwarfs. I have these plants in two separate areas of my yard and both groups have decent wind protection at this point because of their height. They are always watered with well water. Only difference in care is that one batch I did hit with miracle grow and from what I can see that hasn't made any difference between the two batches.

Lastly, both are in full sun, as they were when they were in the greenhouse. Weather here in Michigan has been 80 plus or more each day. Rain has not been great but I've kept up on the sprinkling every morning the last few weeks.

Any ideas of what I should do? I just saw a thread asking about ammonium sulfate and never saw this mentioned before anywhere else, so can someone suggest what I should do to get my dwarfs perked up?
Thanks

momoese

Sit back and wait, don't over analyze the situation. Water as needed to keep the soil moist but not wet. Once they set root and acclimatize they should be fine. (about a month)

wheelman1976

Thanks for the advice, it's been about about two weeks now and I didn't break up the pot dirt to loosen the roots because they were so packed with roots. I just figured they'd get moving with the roots struggling to get out of the pots.

I was worried because one species seemed to have no issues while the other seemed to not take being planted so well.

wheelman1976

Here's a few photos of what I'm talking about. One can clearly see the difference between the two types. The droopy ones are red dwarfs.

dkf85281

Sprinkling may not be enough... I noticed here in Hawaii, I need to water my dwarf reds everyday... at least a gallon for my TC pup and 2 gallons for my other plant (about 3 feet tall)... If not they start getting droopy.

wheelman1976

I watered pretty heavy last night with well water and when I walked out again later I noticed that they seemed to be perking up. I gathered with the mulch on the surface that not alot of sprinkler water gets through to the dirt. I was wondering if it had more to do with the water or that the sun had gone down. We've had blistering sun the last couple weeks.

I've got my banana fuel ordered so once I get that I'll start that as well. But in the meantime I am just trying not to overwater them.

momoese

In the heat bananas will droop during the day and spring back at night.

wheelman1976

It's interesting how the red dwarfs do it more so than the dwarf brazilians....

Gabe15

The response you are seeing is not wilting, but just the leaves folding to attempt to reduce surface area exposed to the sun and cool them down, this is very normal in warm weather when very sunny, and especially with newly transplanted young plants.

On another note, what are your plans for 30 bananas planted 2ft apart in Michigan? Just a nice tropical summer bed filler?

__________________
Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

wheelman1976

Good question.... I am planning on digging them up in the fall. I haven't gotten that far really in my planning stage yet. When I got them I had to get them planted quickly as the pots were just packed with roots. Now I'm hoping they'll grow a good bit and come Sept/Oct I will dig them up and overwinter dry in my basement garage. It holds a pretty good temp in there over the winter months and I've had good success with canna rhizomes the last couple years doing virtually nothing but throwing them in a cardboard box.

If you have any suggestions on what I should do I am more than open to hearing what you think!

momoese

That is going to be a lot of work! We have several member who do this, why I'll never understand. Banana crazed I guess!

wheelman1976

I'm working on a mekong and a basjoo this year as well. But when you're given 30-35 great specimens of dwarf brazilian and red dwarf, who in their right mind would turn them down? So far my track record for keeping bananas alive over winter isn't good so I have to play a numbers game and have ALOT of them!