Post #67844 by Kava Dan on Mon, Jan 5, 2004 10:23 PM

christiki,

Thanks! Your Red banana's should do better then mine in So Cal. One of the things I learned from years of growing tropicals and sub tropicals is that soil is critical. Put yourself in the environment of the tropical plant. Be the plant! :wink:

In the tropics, the soil is very fast draining, moist, loamy and rich in nutrients since it's mainly composed of decomposing plant matter and rich volcanic soil. I started having much more success when I started planting in raised beds and borders, I use rock since it's more natural and I like working with it. For soil, I use 50% redwood compost or super soil from home depot, 25% rich top soil (the darker the color the better) and for the last 25% I use equal parts sand, manure and local soil. I also add some milorganite & 10-10-10 fertilizer into the mix. In my case my local soil is mostly clay, clay and tropical do not go together! Try and keep the soil moist, but not wet.

Back to the Bananas, I use a standard 20-20-20 fertilizer once a week, every other week, I use the hose end sprayer with Miracle Gro mix. I do the entire garden with this mix. For the Bananas, Cannas and elephant ears, about every 4-6 weeks I till in straight nitrogen mix followed by a heavy watering.

My red bananas shoot a new leaf about once a week once summer is here and temps are in the 80's and above. I usually have 10-12 leaves that are 10' long on the older mature ones, 3-5 years old. In the top pic, there is a young red banana in the center/right of the pic I had panted in march, the pic was taken in June. It had already grown about a foot by then and by the end of summer it was two feet over the fence or about 7' tall. By next year it should be over 10 feet tall and by the third year full maturity at 15+ feet tall. The other tall ones are 3-5 years old. In the center pic, there is another red banana in the back, it's 2 years old from a 2' tall 1 gal pot.

I prune nearly everyday in the summer, but it's not so bad. I just sit out back with a Mai Tai and when something starts bugging me I go cut it off! :D By the time it's dark enough to light the tiki torches and a few mai tai's latter, I'm done with the pruning, staggering with sharp objects isn't safe!!! :P

I also run a patio type misting system on a timer for the heat of the day, but the red banana's like the heat, it mainly for the other plants that don't like heat or need the humidity.

It's a lot of work, but the Mai Tai's make the time just fly by!

BTW: If you hit the misters or sprinklers around sundown, it also smells just like the tropics!!! :D

[ Edited by: Kava Dan on 2004-01-05 22:25 ]