endeitz

Hello,

This is my first year trying to grow bananas. I did quite a bit of reading on this forum before planting, and have followed many of the basic tenets. I was wondering if the experts out there could help me with some troubleshooting. First, a picture of my little patch:



Question #1: A matter of identification. Is the banana shown in the photo below a Saba? Is it even possible to tell before it flowers (if it ever flowers, of course)?



I ordered it from ebay, and would like to share the pups with others, but since I'm not sure myself that it is actually a saba, I would feel better with some independent verification.


Question #2: What is burning the leaves of my smaller plants? I have small Basjoo and D. Orinoco plants that have yellowing and burning of the leaves. My two thoughts are either over-fertilization, or too much sun (I am in Central Texas, and it has been a brutally hot late-Spring early summer). I fertilize once a month with about 0.1 lb Nitrogen using whatever cheap stuff I have on hand.






Question #3: Is it normal to have problems with the wind blowing the plants over? I deep water with soaker rings near the base of each plant, but it seems to loosen the soil up so much that strong winds can tilt the whole thing over about 30 degrees. I have had to stake my bananas with rubber rope and rebar:




Question #4: I have D. Brazilian and Brazilian plants, and both have occasionally put out a very "droopy" leaf, one that was hanging down even before it unraveled. They are the leaves nearest the camera in this photo:



Is this a sign of something? I am afraid that I am overwatering by really soaking them a couple times a week, but the weather has been so hot that I'm afraid not to water.


Question #5: Why are the Orinocos growing so slow compared to the Brazilian and Saba? All of the plants in the "patch" (see first picture) were planted at the same time, but you can see that the two leftmost plants, which are regular Orinoco, are much smaller than the back three, which are Saba, D. Brazilian, and Brazilian. Is this normal, or did I mess up the Orinocos somehow?

Sorry for such a long post, but I just happen to have a little time today to put it all together. Any advice anyone can give will be welcome.

Thanks,

Ed.

mskitty38583

quit an nice little plantation you got growing there!!! and as for question #5, my oronico is growing slow too...so i dont think you have anything to worry about on that one. as long as you get a new leaf you should be ok. as for the rest of the questions.....im still new here to.

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stumpy4700

Welcome Ed, While I don't know the anwsers to all those questions, I do want to say congrats on a great lookin "little" plantation of yours. As far as the fert. I have read unaminously that they need a higher 3rd number nutrient. IE: 10-8-15 for example. The 3rd is potash what ever that is, but they definetly react better to that. Looks Great

CookieCows

Well I know that you'll get the help that you need here and you have such nice looking plants! I really enjoyed looking at them. I got trunk envy looking at that big one you have staked. We have wind here and I hate it too.

Good luck and post more pics as time goes on!!

Deb

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endeitz

mskitty: Thanks for the encouragement on the Orinocos. I hope they take off when the weather gets back down to the 80s.

stumpy: You are right about the NPK ratio. I am too cheap to buy anything but lawn fertilizer, so I end up with something like 15-5-10. I should be supplementing with additional potassium of some sort. . .food for thought!

Deb: Thanks for your words of encouragement. I really hate how the wind shreds the leaves (usually right after a big beautiful leaf emerges). I will definitely take more pictures in the fall, just before Jack Frost arrives to put the hurt on the patch (snif!).

Cheers,

Ed.

hydroid

Welcome to the forum, that's a nice banana grove you got going. I'm not an expert but your Saba looks just like mine, I'd say it's definately Saba. I use palm fertilizer and so far everything looks great. I had the opposite effect with mine, as the Orinocos took off first but after they peaked, the Sabas are now passing them up. Hope this helps.
hydroid

damaclese

i cant answer all of your Questions but all try on the ones i pretty sure of the one you think is a Saba given its waxy blueish leafs id say its a Ice cream i can see the slit brown red in the edges of the pdeuls and leafs that would be my guess as for the firt they do look a bit blues green id back off on the fertilizer a bit looks like to much nitrogen and yes the "K" needs to be higher you can use wood ash if you don't want to buy it i living in a brutishly hot climate too "Vegas" and they ones that are yellow its hard to say but its either over water or to much firt they can grow with out to much fusing and as for the wind blowing you should stake them when u plant them they tend to blow over in high wind so yes thats normal and as for droopy leafs some variates just droop other wise the look fin to me the bigger the leafs get the heaver they are if you go in the the pic section you will see that allot of the really big plants have droopy leafs but I'm not by any means an expert i don't have any Orinoco's but from what if read they tend to grow a bit slower in hot weather there bred more for cold so when it cools of a bit all bet they start to grow faster

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endeitz

Ice cream, huh? That is interesting. Hopefully I can get it to flower so that we can get a definitive answer. Until then, I will keep the pups to myself, or at least tag them with a heavy disclaimer!

That seems reasonable to me. Hopefully when summer turns to fall, they will have a couple of months in the 80s to stretch out a bit.

Thanks for the advice,

Ed.

Rmplmnz

I have an easy answer on the Saba question....feel the base of the pseudostem...is it round or "oblong"...if it is oblong it probably is a Saba...

Chironex

That second pic kinda resembles the wacky Hua Moa that Gabe got in Colorado, except yours is larger.

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Richard

Ed, you might as well introduce yourself in Member Introductions, Social Announcements & Good Wishes - Bananas.org.

By the way, do you know Ed Self -- a rare fruit enthusiast in your area?

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