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Banana Plant Soil, Additives, and Fertilizer This forum is an area where you may discuss the soil to grow banana plants in, as well as soil additives such as teas, composts, manures, fertilizers and related topics.


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Old 07-20-2009, 04:05 PM   #21 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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Originally Posted by coub View Post
I have looked at this Richard but it just say to give these numbers but fails to explain exactly what they mean,[or am I missing something?.]
The second bullet:

Quote:
N-P-K: The percentages by weight of Nitrogen (N), Phosphate (P), and Potash (K) in a fertilizer. For example, a fertilizer labeled 4-1-1 has 4% N, 1% P, and 1% K by weight. This is true for both liquids and solids.
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Old 07-20-2009, 07:03 PM   #22 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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I have looked at this Richard but it just say to give these numbers but fails to explain exactly what they mean,[or am I missing something?.]
What they mean are the percentage by weight of nitrogen (N), phosphate (abbreviated P for its functional element, phosphorus), and potash (abbreviated K for its functional element, potassium).

Perhaps we are making assumptions that are false outside of North America. Here in the US, fertilizer is required to have its "analysis" stated on the label. You just look at the bag and find the best price on the formula that most closely matches your needs. Lawns usually get really high nitrogen to make them super green ... but that will make other plants tall and leggy. "Bloom booster" types usually have lower nitrogen and high phosphate. Our bananas are fond of potash.

Here is a picture of a brand (deleted) of fertilizer that is available at the big hardware stores (at least in this corner of the US). The big green arrow points to the analysis. This is a 17-3-11 fertilizer, meaning by weight there is 17% nitrogen, 3% phosphate, and 11% potash. The rest is fillers and/or chemicals that aren't really important to plants, and if you are lucky you'll get 8 or 10 or more "minors and micros" in there too.

For (fruiting) bananas you'd actually want something with more potash / potassium (3rd number) ... if it is available for a reasonable price. We aren't trying to land on the moon, we're just trying to do good by some plants. If 12-2-10 is half the price of the 8-3-12, then you might seriously consider the cheaper stuff.

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Old 07-20-2009, 07:21 PM   #23 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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I have taken the chicken pellets of the top of my red abyssiniun,do I need to replace them with anything else?.And thanks for the advice so far but what is citrus feed,sorry for my ignorance!!!
Citrus feed / food is fertilizer with an analysis (N-P-K again) that is generally considered good for citrus plants. It will probably also have a collection of micronutrients good for the average citrus plant in the average soil that citrus tend to be grown.

Similarly, palm food is a fertilizer with a similar but slightly different analysis that is optimal for palms. It may (hopefully will) have more magnesium than citrus food because many of the popular landscape palms are not native to where they are grown and need more of magnesium than is available (in Florida soils, anyway).

Citrus and palm fertilizers may be hard to find in London, unless climate change is going a whole lot faster than we've been told. But if you look, I'm sure there is a fertilizer that has a similar analysis.
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Old 07-20-2009, 11:22 PM   #24 (permalink)
 
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Talking Re: fertillizer in potted plant

How bout' just eating a banana or apple or pear, veggie, whatever.......then digging a shallow hole near your plant of choice, drop the carcuss in the hole and then covering it up with the soil you dug up!
Viola!! instant compose and plant nutrients!
Sounds easier I thought................
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Old 07-21-2009, 12:22 AM   #25 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

Okay...here's my question. Are the three numbers percentages??? Cause they rarely add to 100. I always assumed they were how may parts....a ratio, if you will. Like 10 parts N to 10 parts P to 10 parts K.
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Old 07-21-2009, 12:47 AM   #26 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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Okay...here's my question. Are the three numbers percentages???
Yes. The 17-3-11 shown in adrift's photo below are percentages of Nitrogen, Phosphate, and Potash. I believe that particular fertilizer contains another 5% of "minors" and "micronutrients", plus about 64% of inert ingredients. All of the percentages are by weight, not volume -- even if you are looking at a liquid fertilizer.
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Old 07-21-2009, 06:11 AM   #27 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertilizer in potted plant

Thanks for the help all, but our composts and feeds don't show the numbers in and around London maybe if I try a large garden centre they may have the info[but I doubt that very much] so any other information would be helpful.Or maybe someone from around here may visit the forum,as I have checked the map and they do exist.
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Old 07-21-2009, 07:53 AM   #28 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

Composts are considered a soil amendment and not a fertilizer. The percentages of nutrients in them are typically less than 1%. Here is a site with reasonably accurate data on compost materials: Primalseeds - % composition of materials
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Old 07-21-2009, 08:57 AM   #29 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

Thanks Richard please remind me what am I aiming for,I took the p.h of my soil about 1/2 hour ago and it was only 4.0.
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Old 07-21-2009, 12:51 PM   #30 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

HOLY CRAP that's acidic! I'm no soil expert, and I realize plants are capable of living in a wider varieties of pH conditions. But speaking of humans, our body pH is 7.4 and even a small change in either direction, say 7.0 or 8 would result in acidosis, and alkylosis (respectively) and certain death. Kinda interesting that plants are able to tolerate this much more readily than ourselves. So this leads me to the question....what are normal soil pH levels?
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Old 07-21-2009, 06:13 PM   #31 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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It's not a ploy at all. Castings are loaded with biology and are a great inoculate for soils and teas.
To get fresh castings, just find any container and throw in worms and food. They'll eat shredded paper, cardboard, rotten veggies, manure.....w/e
To harvest the castings, just feed on one side of the container, then switch to the other side. The worms will follow the food and leave the side that's been reduced to castings.

I sowed these adenium in 1/2" of castings and never got around to repotting them. I poked a hole in there with my finger to show the depth.
Pete what i meant was for the price per bag it was a waste. I know so many more things I could put together to get a good result. I am not against vermiculture, I just think its a shame the charge that for a bag whether it is a fair market price or not A lot of people cant justify spending that much on a small bag.

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Old 07-21-2009, 06:42 PM   #32 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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Originally Posted by LilRaverBoi View Post
Okay...here's my question. Are the three numbers percentages??? Cause they rarely add to 100. I always assumed they were how may parts....a ratio, if you will. Like 10 parts N to 10 parts P to 10 parts K.
It is percent by weight.

If it ever added to 100 that would be some strong mojo!

Part may be filler (purposefully), but it also can be any variety of parts that don't get counted in those 3 numbers. Minors & micros. If they used ammonium sulfate for the nitrogen source, you'd have that sulfur in there. If they used potassium chloride as the potassium source, you'd have that chlorine in there. (On the back of the bag you may see, for example "chlorine not more than 10%.") Potassium nitrate has N & K both, but also oxygen (O3) in there. In the case of "slow release" types there will be whatever resin stuff they use that slowly dissolves to release the goodies.
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Old 07-21-2009, 06:49 PM   #33 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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How bout' just eating a banana or apple or pear, veggie, whatever.......then digging a shallow hole near your plant of choice, drop the carcuss in the hole and then covering it up with the soil you dug up!
Viola!! instant compose and plant nutrients!
Sounds easier I thought................
Read this:

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Old 07-21-2009, 06:53 PM   #34 (permalink)
 
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HOLY CRAP that's acidic! I'm no soil expert, and I realize plants are capable of living in a wider varieties of pH conditions. But speaking of humans, our body pH is 7.4 and even a small change in either direction, say 7.0 or 8 would result in acidosis, and alkylosis (respectively) and certain death. Kinda interesting that plants are able to tolerate this much more readily than ourselves. So this leads me to the question....what are normal soil pH levels?
Well, remember you are comparing the pH of blood with the pH of an environment. We can drink (and even swim in) stuff with a much wider pH range. (consider lemon juice) I suppose plants live a little closer to their environment than we do, but it still is external.

But yeah, that is too acidic for just about all plants. I don't think even blueberries like it that acid, do they (5 or 5.5 for them?)?
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Old 07-21-2009, 07:03 PM   #35 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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Pete what i meant was for the price per bag it was a waste. I know so many more things I could put together to get a good result. I am not against vermiculture, I just think its a shame the charge that for a bag whether it is a fair market price or not A lot of people cant justify spending that much on a small bag.

alex
I agree. That's money that could go toward a closet worm farm.
The castings can be used in small amounts as an amendment and these could be produced for pennies in such a system.
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Old 07-27-2009, 05:33 PM   #36 (permalink)
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I agree. That's money that could go toward a closet worm farm.
The castings can be used in small amounts as an amendment and these could be produced for pennies in such a system.
I broke down and said i was gonna give it a try, I bough Black Castings for mu tc naners that are small so we will see.

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Old 07-27-2009, 06:01 PM   #37 (permalink)
 
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A control group is in order then!
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Old 07-28-2009, 07:45 PM   #38 (permalink)
 
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

For my naners I use 10-20-20
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Old 07-28-2009, 07:48 PM   #39 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

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Originally Posted by LilRaverBoi View Post
HOLY CRAP that's acidic! I'm no soil expert, and I realize plants are capable of living in a wider varieties of pH conditions. But speaking of humans, our body pH is 7.4 and even a small change in either direction, say 7.0 or 8 would result in acidosis, and alkylosis (respectively) and certain death. Kinda interesting that plants are able to tolerate this much more readily than ourselves. So this leads me to the question....what are normal soil pH levels?
Most plants do best at a pH between 6 and 7. Living things can buffer their pH. We can consume many things that are highly acidic.
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Old 07-28-2009, 08:39 PM   #40 (permalink)
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Default Re: fertillizer in potted plant

Well, I do definitely agree that there is a difference between environmental pH and body pH. Yes, we can consume things of higher/lower pH because of our ability to buffer the acid/alkaline levels. Our bodies also have metabolic/respiratory processes to alter body pH to compensate for changes (I assume plants can do this as well). For instance, if our body pH is too low, we begin to breathe more rapidly, which reduces the amount of CO2 in our blood, which raises the pH. However, there is a limit to our buffering capacity (as well as plants). If we consumed only acidic food/liquids, we would eventually lower our body pH enough to overcome our buffering capacity/respiratory ability to counteract this. If you put a fish in slightly acidic/alkaline water, it could survive...but if you put it in water with a pH of 2, it isn't gonna last long.

I guess my question is this: what is the pH range of soil that is compatible with life for banana plants?
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