4bubbaswitz

Hi Ya'll

I just became the proud Papa of a pair of Musa Cheeka trees at a 4H country fair over the weekend, however I'm not sure what to do. I'm a refugee from New York where banana trees are sometimes seen on The National Geographic channel. I've googled the breed and not much is out there. Only one member of this site has a tree, and there isn't much if any info listed here so I'm stuck.
I have each 1 foot tall tree in a very large pot (largest Home Depot carries). Soil is 1/2 native and half good quality potting soil with a bit of composted cow poo mixed in for good measure. The pots are out by the pool where the Florida sun hits about 90% of the day. Have I accidently done things correctly or do I have to start all over again? How tall will these trees get and when can we expect to litterally see the fruits of my labor?

Bubba

LilRaverBoi

First off, welcome to the site. Please take a moment to fill out an intro thread so you can tell us all a little bit about yourself. I can't seem to find much info on Cheeka. The wiki page has no info about it unfortunately (though I'm sure someone else here can tell you more than I can). As far as general container care, use well-draining soil, fertilize often during the summer and sparingly during the winter, full light and water when the top few inches gets dry. Best of luck!

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Abnshrek

A lil peet would have helped.. The main thing is that you don't have alot of dirt pile up on the stem and it sits high from the middle and ground slopes to the pots edge. This should prevent rott and help drainage if you should over water on occasion :^)

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4bubbaswitz

The potting soil I used (approx 60% of the pot) Is a good quality peet based soil. My veg gardens are all raised beds with roughly the same mix I used in the pots. Florida "native" dirt in my area is largely dredged from the bottom of canals and used by developers as clean fill. The soil is 80% sand, 10% clam shells, and 10% loam so we compost anything we can to try and get nutrients into the garden. I try not to use chemical fertilizers, but was forced to on the lawn when we moved here over the summer.

Abnshrek

Well glad you have some good stuff cause there's enough crappy potting soils out there. Some places will sell anything to make a buck.

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sbl

Welcome to Florida and the forum. Bananas grow best in-ground and will certainly make it in your area, so if you have space to grow them in-ground I would recommend it. Bananas are heavy feeders and with the rainfall we have in FL and the porous soil it is difficult to supply nutrients for bananas organically--especially the potassium. I am not trying to tell you not to use organic matter--bananas love it--give them all you can, but there is nothing wrong or harmful in commercial fertilizer and if you want your bananas to grow well in our rainy climate and sandy soil it will help to add a handful of fertilizer high in N and K about once a month or so.

oakshadows

much of Florida have horse or cattle farms which have composted manures available for free. Most of them have a pick up yourself which means bring your own shovel. Well worth the trip as this is the thing to add to our sandy soil here. We use all of our composted cattle manure and also a much from a friend who has mounds of old composted horse manure. This stuff is great for holding moisture and also adds a lot of micro and macro nutrients. Add as much compost as you can and also remember that one cannot add too much organic material.

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