Nathan1023

Alright, I've been trying for almost a week to upload the photos that correspond with this, and keep having problems with that. Right now, I've successfully posted all but one of the intended photos to my gallery. I'll try a few more times to post the last one, but things are close enough, I guess. Sorry that the photos that are posted are out of chronological order. There doesn't seem to be a way to change that.

This is the history of my venture to grow what was supposedly a Super Dwarf Cavendish (SDC) banana plant indoors.

The vendor assured me that it was a SDC, and would get no higher than 4 feet. That, as I later found out, wasn't true.

When I got the plant in July of 2013 (see photo), there were 2 stalks in the pot. The smaller of the two was the one that would eventually bear fruit.

It grew in a mix of 50% rockwool cubes and 50% clay pellets. I used Geopot fabric pots throughout the grow, upgrading a few times to a big 65 gallon pot.

I used Techniflora Recipe for Success nutrients, following their instructions. I watered every day, and fed with every third watering.

I did have some pH problems at one point (see photo), but the plant recovered after I flushed with Clearex.

For light, I used a 1000W Eye Hortilux Blue bulb for most of the grow, for both vegetative growth and flowering.

I can't easily find anything on the reflector to identify it, but if anyone's really interested in that, let me know, and I'll try harder.


In August of 2014, the larger stalk was getting too tall (about 6 ft), so I cut it back, just above its lowest leaves. The stalk survived. In fact, its growth didn't seem to even pause!

I think it was about a year later that that stalk was growing into the light, again. This time, I cut the stalk too far down, below the lowest leaves. This time, the stalk never recovered.

Careful not to make that mistake, again, I'd cut the next-biggest stalk back at least once. It eventually produced a flag leaf in June or July of 2016.

Unfortunately, almost as soon as it started producing fruit, the fruit, being enclosed in its moist flower, got moldy. Fortunately, the mold never spread to about the oldest 20% of the fruit, but everything that grew after that was inedible.

In the end, I got about 20 bananas that were slightly bigger than finger bananas. They tasted like regular, store-bought bananas. All things considered, the whole project was definitely a lot more trouble than it was worth.

beam2050

you mean these?

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Nathan1023

No, there's one more.

cincinnana

Great grow!

The good thing is you got to finish the project and you got to eat bananas that were $300.00 a pound.

I recently stopped mine and moved the plants (SDC) back to soil.
I went from soil to hydroponic then back to soil in three years.
While I did not expect much(because I did not spend much) it was a great learning expierience. It was by no means a pro grow like yours.
I think I am going to try something different next time.

Thanks for documenting your success and the products to used.

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