sddarkman619

Downsizing is good especially if the plants have't done anything and the soil is staying wet.
Smaller containers WILL limit the growth IF you let them get root bound. But remember to unravel the roots of the banana when you plant it into a larger pot.
I've had the same situation in the past with several varieties of plants. Pot too big, it stays wet too long. Plant can't absorb enough of the water to help it dry out. So smaller is better until it get's larger. once you see roots coming from the bottom, then transplant.

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Kanana

This might be good re-potting these, even just to see the progress of the roots growth since a month ago. Should be interesting. Merry Christmas.

sddarkman619

make sure to add more perlite just for drainage sake.
hopefully you see some good growth, if not you know it's too wet.

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cincinnana

I had responded to another post of yours before I had seen this discussion.

Seems like we are all on the same page.


Water? - Bananas.org

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Kanana

SDdarkman, I took your advice and repotted the ones that looked the weakest that were in 3 gallon pots. I dumped out the mix they were in and mixed a new batch with much dryer components of pine bark fines, crushed lava rock, perlite, and small amount of bio char, and a small small amount of compost.

The FL Hill TC plantlets still didn't have much root development and once I knocked off all the old damp soil, the "rootball" (actually more like the formed bullet shape they came to me in plastic from Florida Hill) was still in pretty much the same shape and size as to when I planted them in 1 or 3 gallon pots. I didn't disturb the root area too much but I did try to loosen up some of the damp soil to knock that off before re-potting.

I decided to go with 6" pots which are a little smaller than the 1 gallon pots, but now I will have to be cautious that they don't dry out too much and will be asking folks here, how much is enough/too much water, being there is less margin for error for soil moisture in these smaller pots.

Normally, with any other plant I repot I usually saturate the plant and let the water drain out but this time I just used barely moist soil when I repotted ( using the mix mentioned above) and just misted the leaves. I guess for the next few days I will continue to just mist the leaves unless I hear otherwise.

Also I decided to move them back inside my lanai as this repotting with a drier mixture and smaller pot would most likely be a transplant shock when combined with 80 degree mid day full sun even being under the shade screen, and I don't want to kill them.

Kanana

SDDarkman, since I have 2 Goldfingers I bought from you, I will keep one in the 1 gallon (but I will just re-pot it in the same container but with the drier mix I did the others with) and compare the growth with the one in the 6" pot. Should be interesting if there is any growth rate difference at all as they are both about the same height right now and display about the same amount of health and vigor. Any predictions?

sddarkman619

how did the roots look?

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Kanana

SDdarkman, the roots on yours were all well developed. Actually when I checked the pot sizes I guess I assumed the 8" pot was a 1 gallon, but side by side I see a slight difference. So the GF I had in the 8" pot I just emptied out the old mix and used the drier mix and put it back in the 8" pot. The one I initially potted into a 1 gallon pot I downsized into the 6" pot with the drier mix.

It's too dark to take pics now but I will try to take some tomorrow if nothing more than to keep a log of their progress.

The 2 Blue Javas (fake ones) from FL Hill were the smallest TC plants when I received and are still small and weak looking. Not many roots, but still small roots within the bullet shaped rootball, but they never spread laterally yet, so hopefully with the new drier mix they will grow and spread. They are both in 6" pots now.

1 Sweetheart and 1 Praying Hands (from FL Hill) were in 3 gallon pots and they are the largest banana plants and seem to have grown the most. As a test, I will keep them as-is, as they have both produced new leaves (1 each). I did remove the 1 inch pine bark fines mulch layer on these 2 plants, as they will be better off drying out some and I'll continue to refrain from watering, until it is obvious they need water.

1 Sweetheart was already in a 1 gallon plant and I am keeping that one outside under the 30% shade screen as it is doing well there and it came with a pup growing next to it. Also when I initially made the mix for when I repotted this back in November, there must have been a few tomato seeds as there are 3 small tomato plants which I will continue to let grow in that container as companion plants and also they should help keep the pot from having too much moisture, by absorbing excess moisture as the tomato plants grow and require more water.

1 Basijou went from 3 gallon to 6" pot and it is looking a little better than the Blue Javas but not as good as the Sweethearts or Praying Hands.

The 2 Goldfingers are healthy looking and have the thickest p-stem for their short stature compared to any of the others. Not sure if it is the variety of banana that has this trait, or because they were grown by SDDarkman, who made it clear that he grows his out longer than FL Hill. Only SDDarkman's had truer looking roots compared to the FL Hill plants.