wordwiz

I want to sell some banana plants this spring, starting in early May. I really believe in selling big, healthy plants that will bloom/produce fruit by the middle of September, unless I tell the buyer it will take two seasons for fruit.

Anyway, I have several varieties but the main one I want to sell is the Darjeeling, since it is suppose to be cold-hardy enough to survive Ohio winters. I finally got a (one) seed to germinate in five weeks, no idea how long it will take the other four to pop up. Nor do I have any clue how fast they will grow.

Basically, what I want is to have plants that are not lost in a one-gallon container nor too big for it; in other words, plants whose roots come close to filling the container.

I'm decent at raising seedlings and have found watering/fertilizing regimens, along with fertilizers that are conducive to good root growth, more so than foliage - at least for tomatoes, peppers, basil and some flowers.

Assuming an eight week germination period, and a target date of May 1, when should I sow them?

Mike

LilRaverBoi

Um...last year? No, but to be more serious...fruiting time for bananas really depends on the variety and the care they receive (water, light, nutrients/soil, etc). I don't know that there really is a certain 'age' where you could predictably sell the plants to someone in May and expect mature fruit by Sept. And plants would need to be rather large to do so in this time-frame (again, depending on the species). Bananas typically fruit in 18 mo to 2 years, from what I've read (may not be totally correct)...though I've heard of people keeping plants going for 3+ years before fruiting.

Not sure how well an endeavor of selling bananas to schedule fruit will be....I'd stick to selling them for ornamental use (and possibly fruiting).

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Michael_Andrew

Hi Mike,

If I was gonna try and sell plants I think I'd order from Agri-Starts. Germinating musa can be a challenge.

Agri-Starts, Inc.

Michael

wordwiz

I can live with this, in fact, I would sell them with possible fruit being a bonus. So if I want a plant to start selling in early May, one that is almost too big for a one gallon pot, when is a good time to sow the seeds. Or maybe a better question is how many inches a month will the average larger type banana tree grow?

Mike

Abnshrek

If your looking to sell decent sized plants I would have them germinating already.. and take all the previous members advice, and save yourself some trouble.. :^)

__________________


I'm a Nannerhead :^)

jmoore

I planted some darjeeling seeds at the end of last summer, they came up after about 3 weeks, they are now still only 3 inches high. I'm not expecting them to reach any decent size until the summer returns.

natej740

Do you live in Ohio??? I may be willing to buy some of the Darjeeling bananas off of you. I am looking for some "red tiger" sikkimensis.

wordwiz

Nate,

Cincy. If I get enough plants, I'll be happy to sell them. I'll post what kind of success I have - I'm trying five seeds at a time, using all kinds of different methods to see if one works better than another.

Mike

LilRaverBoi

I'm with Michael...I'd try some TC (tissue cultured) plants to start with. You'll have much better results than with germination (bananas aren't exactly the easiest of seeds to germinate...far from it). As far as when to start...as soon as possible! There are pictures in my gallery with approximate time periods of growth since I've had them just to give you some ideas on growth rates. If you want plants to sell that might fruit within a summer, plan to begin with at LEAST 1 year old plants (which will be quite large FYI).

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

wordwiz

LilRaver,

If I can get plants the size yours appear to be 3-5 months later (I'm presuming that's from when you transplanted them), they will be a great size to sell.

Mike

LilRaverBoi

Yeah, dates quoted in my gallery are taken from when I received the plants (from the pictures that just have the plant genus/species, etc ). I'm not sure how old the plants were when I got them, but probably at least a couple months. Just figured my updates at least gave you an idea of growth rates. Keep in mind, though...I transplanted the IC and SDC into a 7 gallon pot immediately when they arrived, so they probably grew faster than if they were in smaller pots.

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

wordwiz

My one and only seed that has germinated did so two weeks ago. It's a darleeling and this is what it looks like now:



Haven't used any nuits on it yet. But I wonder, how big should it be before I transplant it? The potting mix is only about 1.5" deep in the tray (and there are four more seeds in it!).

Happy New Year!

Mike