Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Using UF's "Bananas in Florida" article as a guide I rounded off everything and came up with the figure of about 10 gals per mature, in-ground, plant every day assuming no rain. As a matter of point I water mine every other day. This all assumes of course well drained soil.

Does that sound about right?

I figured about 100 sq-ft of area for the plant giving me about 40 cubic feet of water per month using the middle of the road 5" rain per month they show as rain per month needed. That works out to be about 300 gallons per month per plant or mat.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Someone has been doing some cypherin'. I water based on what worked in the past.. I water them for time based on size and numbers. Hopefully my water pressure don't change drastically or I'd be all messed up. :^)

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Randy ---- I use 4 Netafim emitters per mature mat. Two for a first time sucker. Two feeds from the main running to a tee. They are the light green emitters rated at 5 gal per hour with a main line pressure of blah blah blah. In this heat the program is set for 25 mins twice a day. So a little under 10 gals goes down each time, like you said.

I fine tuned the setup with shut offs on the feeders tweaked to reduce the flow for low lying mats to avoid flooding/overwatering. When the weather cools down it is reprogrammed to 35 mins once a day. Wahla!

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Yada yada yada

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Thanks for the replies. 10 gallons a day should do it then.

I bookmarked the Netafim page. That is interesting.

One thing I have noticed is if it hasn't rain in a while, spraying the plant down washes all the stuff and bugs out of those leaf, cup like areas

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

No, it doesn't seem even close to right.

Can you post a link to UF's "Bananas in Florida" article.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

In my opinion the math should look like this

(target rainfall 5" - average July Georgia rainfall 5") / 27,143 gallons per inch of rainfall per acre / plants per acre 1450 / 31 days in July = gallons of water needed per day per plant.

(5 - 5) / 27143 / 1450 / 31 = 0.0 gallons needed per day for July

(5 - 3.7) / 27143 / 1450 / 31 = 0.8 gallons needed per day for August

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

I see where you are coming from and your way of figuring gallons per plant makes sense and is a better way to document the source.

The big difference is I figured 100 sq-ft per plant which was my guesstimate and you figured 30 sg-ft per plant. The UF I quoted from says "Commercially, plant spacings of 8 ft x 8 ft (2.4 m x 2.4 m) to 11 ft x 11 ft (3.4 m x 3.4 m) result in 360 to 680 plants per acre for this part of the world. That is around say 70 sq-ft per plant.

Here is the link.
http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/s...nasFlorida.pdf

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Thanks for the link.

Those spacing numbers were thought to be correct in 1972 when the article was written and were intended for my part of the world, but since then they have been updated. Your part of the world does not commercially grow bananas, but you do have peaches and peanuts.
Our rainfall numbers are very similar and we both are in the correct range not to need irrigation, but it may shorten my time from planting to harvest by a day or two per year. I happen to prefer single digit water bills and an extra day at the beach.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

We have been fighting a drought so I have to water more often than not.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Check your soil. Are you keeping it moist? That's all you really need to do. Ten gallons a day (=70/wk) is way more than I give mine (2-5 gallons / wk), but I have heavy clay soil and my climate is much cooler than yours during summer.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

It sure does seem to be a lot. I have very sandy soil. It is hard to find a rock anywhere. I do check the soil before I water by . Right now, if it doesn't rain, each plant gets 15 gallons, every other day but is has been overcast for the last few week wirh showers. If it gets real hot and dry again I think the ten gallons a day with 3/4 pound of 10-2-22 a month.

I am getting good growth. My ice cream Pstem is over 6 feet tall and nearly a foot across at the base. I planted it as a TC 4 months ago.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

I've heard that it takes roughly 48" of water to produce a crop of bananas in the tropics. That would equate to about 5 gallons/per mat/per day. It seems like a lot until you figure that in my area an average banana gets 2300 gallons of water/year from the precipitation.

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

Ha ha. That's silly - you're in a drought and you're watering more often than not? What would give me the impression you wouldn't water at all (the 'not' part) during a drought? OF COURSE you're watering more - than usual, not more often than not! Not is never! More than not could be once a month!

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

one inch off rain over 1 acre 27,154 gallons of water which is over two hundred thousand pounds

One inch of rain over 1 square mile 17.38 million gallons of water which is over 72,000 tons

And all of that weight held up by clouds

Re: Gallons of Water for a Mature Banana Plant
 

REALLY!!!!


THE CAT IN THE HAT

"We looked!
Then we saw him
step in on the mat!
We looked!
And we saw him!
The Cat in the Hat!"

“I know it is wet
And the sun is not sunny.
But we can have
Lots of good fun
that is funny!”

“Look at me!
Look at me!
Look at me NOW!
It is fun to have fun
But you have
to know how.”

“'Have no fear, little fish,'
Said the Cat in the Hat.
'These Things are
good Things.'
And he gave them a pat."

"Then our mother came in
And she said to us two,
'Did you have any fun?
Tell me. What did
you do?"

And Sally and I did not
know what to say.
Should we tell her
The things that went on
there that day?":waving: