Hydroponic banana growers sound off
 

If you have grown or currently grow bananas hydroponically, please say hello on this thread. This way other people who are just getting started will know who they can ask questions or for help.

Re: Hydroponic banana growers sound off
 

hello. i am growing them hydroponically indoors using rockwool and hydroton as the grow media potted in autopots under 1000W of grow lights. Impressed? peace.

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Yea... :)
Got some pics?

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Yeah, we need some pics!

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ok, here are some pics. its the best i could do for now.

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Looks great, healthy looking!

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Which cultivar is this? Dwarf Cavendish? Looks good!

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thanks. it is a dwarf red. they seem to be growing well in the small pot. i will see if they will flower using this autopot system

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I think only super dwarf desert bananas because of size considerations are suitable for hydroponics otherwise you end up with root cram.

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any plant can be grown hydroponically

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agreed but not all plants are suitable for hydroponics.

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i think the point of this thread is to share info and ask questions about growing hydroponically. i am not clear on why you are posting on this thread.

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To provide useful information to those interested in growing bananas hydroponically. Not everyone is aware of the differences in cultivars..so why am I ? As you stated to share information!

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It's been a while since I've posted so I thought I'd update my fellow hydro nerds on my plant. I had about 10 ensete ventricosums in a hydroponic system, a basjoo, and a super dwarf cavendish. All were doing excellent and growing very fast. I decided to transplant all the EV's and the basjoo to soil due to us moving to a new house and kept the SDC in its bubble bucket. The basjoo didnt do to well being transplanted and only 2 of the 10 EV's survived the switch. The SDC is still doing great in its bubble bucket I'm proud of the little guy.

This was my last hydroponic post with pics of what I had:
http://www.bananas.org/f311/hydopron...anas-8738.html

Now its just the SDC:


Fred posing with the SDC when it first came in the mail before converting to hydroponics



Fred again with the same plant almost a year later but now the plant can eat Fred.



Sent up one nice looking pup.



Root system

I took alot of good advice from some members on here to include Fergus (good call on keeping PH between 5.5 and 6.0) which I'm glad to see his hydros are looking good. My next step is to get this thing to bloom the only problem is I dont know the life cycle of an SDC if this thing is even big enough.

Re: Hydroponic banana growers sound off
 

wow what nice roots on the SDC! its too bad that you lost so many plants.

from what i have read, it is difficult to transition a plant from a hydroponic system to soil and vice versa. i have tried to transition younger banana plants from soil to a top feed drip bucket with zero success (but i see yours went pretty good). i ended up trying these Autopots and it seems to be working well.

keep that SDC growing hydro cause he's looking good.

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Thanks Fergus. The roots really have taken off but I read that bubble pots promote allot of root growth. I really want this thing bloom bad. I'm going to play around with nutes and us a formula that promotes blooming. Then I'll separate the pup and start all over. What kind of nutes are you using on your guys?

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house and garden aquaflakes 6ml per gallon. i havent measured the EC at this strength but it is very low (guessing maybe 1 to 1.5). i have kinda just left it at this concentration cause they are growing good and i havent had too much time to fuss with them lately. ive got them under 1000 watts of grow lights.

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Wow, that root system is amazing. Longer than the actual above ground parts of the plant.
I wonder how many bananas will it bear, once it sets fruit.

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I am matt18e's mom and I am waiting for him to profect the hydroponic thing then I will give it a try. He got me started growing Basjoo outside (I now have 13 not including pups).
Good job Matt the plants look great maybe next year I will go for it.

:drum:

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kewl!