damaclese

[quote=lt_eggbeater;79091]I'm in Arizona also, North East Mesa, so not too far from you. My bananas have been growing like weeds also. In fact twelve of them are currently fruiting. Mine get very little shade, getting blasted by the sun doesn't seem to affect them as long as you water them enough.[/QUOTE

I'm in total agreement on that lots of water but i do think you have to fertilize them more when you water that much don't you?

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harveyc

Soils vary a great deal, but average about 1/3 in pore space. You don't want to saturate your soil completely as roots need air also (it's not possible to saturate sandy soils unless you've got a hard pan below it). As long as you don't water more than what the soil in the plant's root zone will hold, you will not leach out fertilizers. If you water carefully, the only increase in fertilizers will be due to increased plant growth.

When I irrigate the orchards I farm I calculate how far I need to wet the soil and estimate the water needs based on calculating the volume of area I want to moisten, converting the volume of square feet into gallons (1 cubic foot = 7.5 gallons) and then run my sprinklers for the length of time I need to get the volume. This takes some experience to factor in existing soil moisture and I have soil moisture probes buried at 15" and 30" in 3 locations to monitor moisture.

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lt_eggbeater

The native soil here is pretty bad so every banana is planted with about 6 cubic feet of potting soil. There is also quite a bit of granite base around underneath so I guess I could possibly over water them. However this has not happened yet. They usually get about 32 to 64 gallons of water per cycle depending on the size of the tree and whether or not I have gotten around to adding an extra emitter. In the summer they get watered daily. I dont fertilize that often either.

damaclese

wow that sounds coplicated im watering ever other day untill it gose over 100 then its ever day

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lt_eggbeater

Nah it's pretty simple its all on drip system that is set to water for 8 hours a day. I have 4 gallon emitters, so if the banana has only 1 emitter its gets 32 gallons a day, if it has 2 emitters it gets 64 gallons a day.

gadget

What I have learned growing bananas in the desert.


My soil is clay with a high ph, and with lots of salts.

I add iron, and the cheapest granulated fertilizer.
I think my successes is due to planting plants a little high in the soil and putting down a layer of compost then a thick layer of mulch. I do not mix amendments in with the native soil I just add to the top.
The battle for me is to keep my soil damp and getting the plants nitrogen.

All I can say is mulch the ground the soil stays cooler and conservers water.

Plant desert legume trees around your bananas and under plant with legumes.

Plant things close so they can shade each other and share resources.

I also plant things that are not as heat hardy next to my bananas and they tell me when to water.
Watering- I do drip with lots of laser line encircling the plants, so each plant gets about 20 to 30 emitters for good coverage. Water a lot at one time, to try to flush the salts out of the root zone. I also hand water a good portion of my plants, I enjoy it and works well for the plants, but I can not leave for more than 3 or so days at a time.

I still have problems with drainage, nutrient diff, and salt burn. and newly transplanted plants like to rot. But once the plants are established they have no big problems.

For my potted plants all are on my covered porch and only get an hour of direct sun. This is the only way most survive and look good threw the summer, in the sun I could not keep up with watering. The only potted plants I put in full sun are cactus, succulents, and desert palms.

most plants look good but Here are some pics of my problem plants
canna,I dug it up and put it in the garbage. I think it had the virus.

under watered banana


This banana has had problems with ruffled leafs it comes and goes.


april 15


june 8

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Last edited by gadget : 06-24-2009 at 05:23 PM.

damaclese

i don't give them that much water we are on restriction with irrigation
but we can water with a hose any time we want except from 7am until 7pm
so i water almost exclusively with a hose I'm rebuilding the irrigation system maybe I'm not giving them enough all have to rethink that they seam to be growing pretty good I'm getting a new leaf ever couple of days

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damaclese

gadget thanks for contributing its vary helpful to me iv only learned what i have do to experimentation seeing your plants lets me know what is what they don't look that bad to me maybe i don't know what they should look like in the first place the canna looks a bit over watered maybe some iron i do have to put iron down every year it seems i was getting ready today to put some down iv got slight yellowing on some of them mostly the ones in the pots

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ronaldstaton

Wow you guys water a lot. I have 1 emitter on my plants that stays on for 1 hour a day. They are thriving. Maybe becuase its a mostly shaded area I dont need as much water?

lt_eggbeater

Yep, mine are pretty much directly in the full merciless az sun. Roasty toasty.

damaclese

mine are on the east side getting sun until 1ish i cant get them to take any more then that they burn up still 2 or 3 gal a day ott to be more then enough
in tropical environments the only need 1/2" of rain a week

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lt_eggbeater

2 or 3 gals a day would not cut it where mine are positioned. Most of them get none to very little shade at anytime during the day.

damaclese

well its now the end of June and the Bananas are showing there new found ability's to tolarait heat we just hit 101 this week a bit late this year but i knew it would come sooner or later
the ice creams are the tallest despite starting out with all the rest in the first batch but thats to be expected there now about 5 ft tall the Brazilian its growing the most robustly its leafs are so big it almost look like a fake plant its baby is just 4" shorter then the mom and looks like its going to be bigger well i would expect that since momma was in a pot for a year and baby has only known the good earth around its feet I'm defiantly watering allot so iv increased the feedings to weekly with Kellogg's organic thats 1 tbs a week for post and a bit more for the in ground ones i also dosed them with Iron weed
Iron supplement with sulfur things were not looking to bad but i thought the looked a bit limy in general and some of the non Banana plants like my grapes were defishintce showing some signs of iron deficiency so i decided i would do the entier property thats allot of iron! even thou the bananas have really increased there growth rate over last you i still think they arnt growing as fast as some one that lives in a wetter climate but for Vargas I'm happy hell I'm more then happy I'm ecstatic! I'm almost positive that there will be some kind of fruit later this year when the cold will get to it but iv got a plan to deal with that more about that later

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lt_eggbeater

Mine are growing well also, and it has already hit 108f in my yard in the shade. There are now about 14 stalks that are fruiting. The latest being a saba. I was kind of hoping it would get taller before fruiting, its about 14 feet at the stem now, although it has three pups on it that are almost as tall which will probably wind up being taller than the mom. Its only been in the ground from a tissue culture for about 14 months.

ronaldstaton

118, 115, 116 those were the high temps for the past 3 days here in Chandler, AZ. Nanners looked pretty wilted, but still seem to grow. Quite a bit of browning on the leaves that are exposed to the sun all day. Lets hope the monsoon kicks in soon...

lt_eggbeater

Same temps here no wilt, no browning, and no shade. Just watering the heck out of them.

ewitte

Its been somewhere between 98-103 the last 3 weeks or so here. They were doing fine even with 2-3gal every other day. I do have the sprinkler on again at 5am but it only really hits one of the banna plants good and about 10 minutes.

ronaldstaton

With all the 110+ degree days and the last 4 nights of dust/wind storms my large original nanner looks pretty ragged. All the leaves are browned and frayed. In fact no new leaves have emerged in weeks. Its about 13 feet tall (Ice Cream). Hopefully its not on its last legs. All its pups (about 7) seem ok, a little wilted but contining to grow. Any of you other Arizonans having the same issues?

Ohio'sBest

When I was down there in AZ. a few years back, I visited Whitfill nursery that had Eucalyptus trees protecting their bananas.

damaclese

I just planted my big Ice cream (Blue Java) in the ground its pot was over heating and i was havint a dickens of a time geting it to drink water or take up any firtalizer now its doing good my other IC is starting to put out consecativly smaler leafs im taking this as a sign its going to fruit but the p-stem dosint look like its sweling so im taking a wait and see att. on it i just recived from scot a bunch of banana plants that know one wanted in thie action is all be planting more but im defanatly runing out of room as my yard is only 7000 sqft and a big chunk of that has a house on it o well i just dont want the Bananas to take over and look messy im keeping the pups under control i dont want any masive clumps still no pups from the Ae Ae but it looks grate and its P-stem is swelling so it mite be geting ready to fuite too all be repoting it up to a 44" pot here in a few weeks when i get the pot there kinda hard to find in theas parts Sima rubys puting out desint sized leafs for the first time iv had this plant for a year it was a runt sold to me by a felow meber here i wont say his name i will never buy from him again last spring after not having grown much at all it split its p-stem then pushed out a bunch of realy small leafs and started gaining from that point on the HY one of the rarest Bananas on the plant is doing awsom pushing out one leaf after another aslow my KM5 is growing to beat the band those are all part of my rare banana colection i need to repot them all they are geting root bound
its a good thing i keep all the pots i get from the land scaping nursry

any way thats the progres report for july and i know now bananas are good in the desert if you just put them in the ground and not in pots if at all posibal

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