KYpalmer

So this is my situation. I live in an area at the moment where the owner has gotten onto the land lady for allowing us to have a raised garden bed. This is what we could afford at the time when we moved in. A small two bedroom home. So all of my palms are in pots and one is inching over six feet tall and the other is about 3 with a couple suckers.
Now with regards to nanners. I'm going to be purchasing a caligold and a dwarf namwah pup and I'm wondering on container sizes for those plants. I'm looking into some 20 gallons and mixing in some peat, perlite, sand and cow manure compost with a dab of fertilizer and water, but what size would you recommend as far as pot sizes and what type of pot for the nanners? A smart pot, a root pot or just a very durable nursery pot?
Or if you have any other nice ideas for plant containers feel free to post your ideas and thoughts. Thanks

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

brothertom2020

Yo KY: I would size my pot to the next size or two up, from what it is in now. Since you are going to be using cow manure, I would not a commercial fertilzer, until the plant has time to settle in to it's new larger pot.

Atleast that is what I do with my palms, including my two new nanner babies...so far so good! :-) Stay Safe, Tom

Abnshrek

I think you could get away w/ a 10 gallon until may or june then I'd go the 20 gal or 25 gal for each banana. It would save your back in the near term. :^)

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

sandy0225

I'd just do like they said and bump them up a size or two. and I'd skip the cow manure and all the homemade soil stuff and use a good potting soil like HP with extra perlite, or sungrow or fafard with extra perlite mixed in. Winter's coming up and you'll need drainage.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

KYpalmer

So its recommended to 10 gallon pot it until the spring and use a mixture of perlite, peat, sand and cow manure compost? That's what I was told before. When the end of march comes ill transplant to a bigger pot, maybe a 25 gallon.

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

venturabananas

Where are the banana plants going to be over winter? Indoors, a greenhouse, a cold basement? The answer to those questions would affect my answer. But I'm with Sandy (who is a pro, literally), skip the composted cow manure in the pot. Too much risk of overfertilizing and insufficient drainage. You can always add fert, but you can't take out the nutrients on the cow poop compost -- and they might be too much if the plant isn't growing much.

Pot size depends on the plant size and growth rate. Don't overpot or you risk rotting them, especially if they are kept below tropical temperatures and growing slowly or not at all. If they are small TC plants, a 10 or 20 gallon pot would be a really bad idea if they were also kept cool.

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KYpalmer

Wow, talk about a kick in the ass. Well that's a bummer. What do I do now? They plants will be over wintered indoors / in the shed where the water heater is and some UV lighting. What I have available here at the home is some 20 gallon pots, a bunch of sand, loads of peat, some perlite and cow manure. :-(

The plants are not tissue cultured. :-( So..........what to do now, time is ticking and they'll be shipped from the person that I purchased from Monday?

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

sunfish

Do not use sand unless it is coarse washed sand,no fine particles

KYpalmer

I have 120 lbs of multipurpose medium course sand

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

sunfish

Some sand has fine silt in it.This settles to the bottom of containers and stays wet.

KYpalmer

Don't know what silt is. I know that the sand I have is good for landscaping, erosion and flood control and it's really good for concrete mixtures. LOL

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

sunfish

Washed sand should be free silt,fines. For good drainage you want large particles.
silt - definition of silt by the Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus and Encyclopedia.

Definition of washed sand

venturabananas

What I would do, given your situation in which it doesn't sound like the bananas will be growing very rapidly over winter, is pot up the pups you receive into the smallest pots that the corm and roots will fit in. I'd use a commercial cactus potting mix (or anything that's really "crunchy" and drains well), but if you want to use what you have on hand, 50:50 peat and perlite would probably be fine to get them through the winter alive. During winter, don't water too much. Pot them up into larger pots in spring.

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KYpalmer

excellent, especially since I have those materials. will just put an order for some smaller pots (5-10 gallon). thanks.

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The well being of the Earth depends upon the humbleness of the inhabitants. Be kind, respect others, plant, nurture, harvest.

Palms, bananas, coffee!.

lkstapleton

I use 45-gallon and 95-gallon wheeled trashcans, painted with hammer-finished gold and copper paint to look less trashcan-like. In really bad cold freezes, I either pull them inside (which gets to looks like a jungle of green refugees) or at least pull them right up next to the house, which is usually enough where I live. The wheels make this a quick operation. Usually, I buy Rubbermaid or Tuff brands, because they are very durable.

Lisa

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