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Old 05-15-2009, 03:08 PM   #3 (permalink)
Gabe15
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Default Re: More female, Less male flowers?

Never heard of it. Sounds kinda like snake oil to me but if you want to experiment, go for it. One thing to keep in mind would be that bananas develop the flowers way before you see them, so you would need to apply it 3-6months before you are anticipating a bunch. Bananas are not like some plants whose flower sex functionality can be changed quickly, which I think this product is targeted at. Some plants that produce hermaphrodite flowers which are either only functionally male or female can be sprayed with various concoctions to turn on the functionality of the other sex (such as an increase in male flowers which in turn yields an increase in available pollen and thus more pollinated female flowers), but this type of function is not needed in bananas since pollen flow is not an issue. My suggestion for increasing the number of female flowers would be to have the plant in the ground and begin a heavy fertilizing regiment as soon as it starts growing after planting and manage the suckers and keep them to a minimum, if you really want to push them you can remove all the suckers as soon as you see them, this has the potential to create huge bunches but you sacrifice the bunch frequency since you have to wait much longer between bunches each time, but I have heard of it being done.
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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.
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