Preparing new bed :)
 

Advice needed!
Im going to prepare new banana bad for next spring. So dimensions are 2x3m (6x9ft I think) and I would like to plant Ice creams and maybe Orionicos in it but I dont know what is max number of plants for this area. 2? 4? more? less?
Bed is well shaltered from winds so I hope these will grow there fast.
:woohoonaner::woohoonaner:

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

LOL...I think you mean 'bed' not 'bad' but I understood what you meant. Well, I'd say no more than 2 plants for that given size of area. Especially with full sized plants like IC and orinoco. You might be able to cram 3 dwarfs in there, but full sized plants have a pretty good spread to their leaves (2 m or more across) so I wouldn't go beyond 2 for that given size of area. Hope that helps! Are you planning on building raised beds or just ground level plantings?

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

Thank U Boi :). U R right, I ll try to correct that. I will plant that on ground level.:woohoonaner:

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

I defied all of the rules in my "bad". (bed)lol.
I have at least 10 bananas of different sizes some large some small on top of my head here they are- 3 dwarf Brazilian, 3 SDC, 2 DC, 1 lacatan, 2 Caif gold, viente cohol and one senorita , 1 guava 3 ft tall, 2 cherimoya, flowers, 1 calamondin, 1 babaco, 2 Thai peppers, 1 Meyer lemon. I plant anything for any space available and all of them are growing nicely. See my plants in my California Gold post, ones that are planted next to the fence. here's a close up. But they will not be permanent. I will retransplant when needed.

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

front center bababco
behind babaco is bicol calamondin
On the right are my dwarf Brazilian

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

front center viente cohol the unnoticed small banana leaves behind viente cohol are SDC and DC
behind is a guava tree
behind the guava is a Calif gold
left side it is cherimoya
right side are 2 thailand peppers

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

If your soil is very well amended and fertile I would plant 5. 4 towards the corners and one in the middle. They will be overcrowded by the end of the season( as mine are here now!) but that will inspire you to till a bigger area next year:ha:

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

Seriously Ante - with monsters like that - I would plant 2 - one of each, at either end of the bed. They both pup very well and will need the light and space. You can always grow small non-banana plants that don't mind shade in between - either salad crops or begonias, fuschias etc.

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

Bob: If I remember Makarska well, it was rock and sand with only very thin humus layers veeeeeeeery deep (I dug there, when I was a kid, building a sand-rock castle, those soils are more desert-like (Russian deserts look like that), hot soils and I mean really damn hot!) with scarce vegatation (no real wild grass and very limited vegatation of any kind).
Their beaches (Croatian) are large rocks in the north, smaller rocks in the central region and rock-sand in the southernmost parts (also the soil changes respectively, the more south you go, the worse horticultural conditions there are and the better microclimate there is).
Ideal for palms but "thanks" to the annual drought, most of the soil (excluding cultivation areas, gardens...) can not be well utilized for extensive horticulture (I believe that any sophisticated horticultural areas (corn, wheat, tomatoes, paprikas, ...) are located close to the Serbian and Hungarian borders (much north from Ante) and in the influence of continental climate).
To improve the soil you would have to introduce it with microculture (otherwise present in continental soils, but not in the coastal area) and loooooots of humus to achieve the best yields.
Source: Our geography books and several holidays in this South-Slavic palm paradise called Baška Voda, Makarska, Vodice, Šibenik...

Ante:
As to the bed Ante, first thing to do, if I were you that is, would be to clean the place up! That means you have to dig deep (your 2x3 area), about 75 to 100cm to check the soil (which will be mostly greyish brown). Then it would probably be important to fill the bottom of this "hole" with compost, humus or other important microcultural element that is very limited in coastal areas.
Then I would take some store bought dark black soil and mix it with that original soil you removed from the hole.

After doing this make sure that the place is irrigated at least once a week to keep it "alive" and make it through the winter like this.

I guess you were asking about the spacing. One thing that I've learnt with bananas is that they actually have to be limited rather than anything else. They have this weird tendency to move beyond the borders, so if you have a lawn somewhere there it would be wise to put some textile around this bed of yours and make it thus inpeneterable by pups (trust me, they will go anywhere they can).

Also, spherical and circular beds are much more easthetic than triangles or squares.
As Cassie said, just plant it on 2 different ends of the bed and soon they will be together.

So far my observations, good luck. :D :bananas_b:nanadrink:

P.S: While you are at digging, you can also build a pool to make another microclimate for your naners. :D

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

Curious, I did change the thread name in thread functions to "bed" instead of "bad", but it keeps being bad without any change. D A M *.

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

Thank U all for replays and suggestions.
Great jungle Benny :).
Most of things that Jack wroted are thrue but this was cultivated area. My grandmother was growing there oranges and veggies so I dont expects any extra problems with soil and only problem that area is sorrounded on two sides with walls so roots cannot form free (hope U understant what I mean).
There is one more part of free garden there but for now I cannot prepare it for naners. That one is more like 5x5m but it has less sun. There are also two smaller jardins aprox 0.5x4m which I plan for ornamental plants.
:woohoonaner:

Re: Preparing new bad :)
 

A pic of the garden maybe? ;)
You won't regret recultivating the area. ;)
I've been there so many times Ante that I now consider it my second home. :D

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

URD MEEEN Đek!
:woohoonaner:

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

I would revise that soil idea Ante, there were studies in our country (and we naturally grow even vegatables that are way beyond our climate) and with the proper soil, amendments, conditioners and fertilizers, you can harvest from 4 to 15x more a m2. This was proven by farmers with corn, tomatoes, paprikas, wheat...
Humus, sand and soil. The best combination. ;)

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

U mean like this:




Last rain these babyes gets was in mid June and still looking good
:woohoonaner:

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

Ha ha Ante, you can't compare drought loving Phoenix palms with tropical wet climate loving banans. :D
Nice palms though. I promis you, that in 100 years there will be so tall palms in here. Jubaea and Butias. :D

Re: Preparing new bed :)
 

About to build a 6x5 or so raised bed for an Ice Cream. I keep the pups down though so should be fine.