Inducing Flowering SDC
 

Hello. I got this Super Dwarf Cavendish almost a year ago. It is now over 5 feet tall, but hasn't started flowering, yet. It's growing indoors, in a 25 gal Geopot filled with about half rockwool cubes and half Hydroton clay pellets. I've been feeding it Technaflora's Bloom nutrients for several weeks, now. I drench it twice a day; any less does permanent damage. The light is a broad spectrum Hortilux Blue 1000W bulb on an 18/6 cycle.

It has been infected with spider mites a few times, but spraying and feeding with Azamax has always seemed to clear that up. Over the last few days, I've noticed leaves peeling away from the central cluster (please see photos). I don't know what that's about.

Any suggestions to induce flowering would be appreciated, because I'm running out of vertical space. Thanks!

Re: Inducing Flowering SDC
 

That's normal. My Cavendish does the same thing. Its out growing the old "shell". I usually pull them out and compost them.

Re: Inducing Flowering SDC
 

Hi Nathan, lovely little setup I see there in those photos :)

Your banana looks like it's doing pretty well for being grown inside/in a container, and not to give false hope but the top leaves look like they're coming out spaced closer to each other than the older bottom ones, which when a banana is tall and old enough as other fruiting members of its variety usually means its getting closer to fruiting.

That being said it still looks on the younger side to me in terms of how "mature" it appears, but honestly I think that's because I don't have much experience growing Super Dwarf Cavendish, just seeing how tall Dwarf Cavendish usually are when flowering (about 6') so chances are my brain's just used to that "variety" (albeit a taller one) fruiting when a little taller. Might be ready to pop, hope someone more experienced can confirm.

Either way congratulations, beautifully growing SDC and looks very healthy :)