Richard what you're claiming is
FALSE.
And even folks with just a basic understanding of bananas will know that.
Decades of research has shown that bunch size (i.e., # fingers, & # hands) is determined many months before bud emergence and
no magic potions added after your "initial bud fall" will affect that.
Proper soil nutrients during the bud formation phase is a key to producing large bunches, and if you're capable of doing that then you're probably also capable of providing proper soil nutrients during the fruit filling phase.
The skin of a banana is comprised of cells and the research has shown that these cells can be stretched a little lengthways. This is commonly seen as the effect of hand pruning, you'll get longer fingers and smaller bunch weights, but it's an overall loss of food.
This is the reason why banana breeders are focused on creating synthetic hybrid cultivars that have more hands and fruit. You can only fill a fruit to it's limit, but when you increase the number of fruit you'll also increase the filling capacity of the bunch.
So I would expect in U.S. home gardens where good horticultural practices are in place that there would be little or no increase in bunch weights, but there probably would be an increase in places that have horrible horticultural practices.
With the standard HD growing practices used today, you're claiming that several cases of this "Stimulant" can fertilize about a half of a million plantains, amazing.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
This product was developed for situations where the farmer either didn't have access to or more simply couldn't afford a "standard" nutrient program. It has been successful in a number of applications.
In particular for bananas, a plantation in Honduras bought a several cases of quarts/liters to apply to about 200 acres of plantains. This was applied after initial bud fall instead of the usual application of seaweed extract. The yield over the former was about 1.5. Further, the yield of seaweed extract (essentially unrefined gibberellins) over no treatment at all was about two fold. So I would expect in U.S. home gardens where good horticultural practices are in place that there would be a 50% to 100% increase in yield.
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