Best way to plant bananas?

Aloha fellow tiki lovers!!
I am currently tiki-fiing my backyard and need some help. What is the best way to plant banana trees? I have heard planting them on top of gravel. I have black clay soil. This soil is not known for its positive draining properties.
Mahalo

Down here, you plant 'em in the right spot...they take over. Sounds good to me.

Just like you're thinkin', create a bit o' drainage for 'em with gravel and maybe a bit o' sand. Cheers and Happy Bananas...Mr. Ooga

All bananas love full to partial sun and generous amounts of water and fertile soil. ..essential to have good drainage... soil should be slightly moist not soggy. Careful monitoring of water is a must in the rooting stage to avoid rotting....

http://heliconia-rostrata.bananagarden.com

and while yer goin' bananas:
http://www.bananamuseum.com (source of the jpeg above)

[ Edited by: Mr. Ooga on 2004-02-18 21:51 ]

For hard soil, try mixing saw dust into it.

If you add sawdust, you'll have to add nitrogen in fertilizer form - the breakdown of sawdust and wood chips robs nitrogen from the soil. A quick peek on the web sez that newly-planted bananas need a bit extra nitrogen, rather than less.

Peat moss, peat moss, peat moss! Coming from up north, tropicals are not my specialty (yet!), and I haven't taken the time to actually look up what would be best for your bananas, but using peat moss to amend your soil is pretty much always the way to go. Its natural formation, when blended with your soil, provides ideal aeration and water retention/drainage. When you purchase a bale of peat moss for use in the garden, it's been pH balanced (peat moss is naturaly acidic, about 4.5, they bring it up closer to 7), and has had a wetting agent added (when it ges dry, it's naturally hydrophobic & oleophilic -- it's actually used for oil spill cleanup). The bales are usually sold in compressed form, and will have printed information on the bale for how much it will expand. To use it, empty some out into a wheelbarrow, spray down with water and mix it around, then mix it into your soil as best you can using a pitchfork. Make sure you go down deep enough for appropriate drainage -- this will depend on how deep the banana's roots will grow, which I don't know off the top of my head.

By far, the best & easiest thing to do is talk to your local garden center -- those guys live to help gardeners and are almost always extremely helpful & knowledgeable (especially at the mom & pop places). They'll understand things about the microclimate in your neighborhood, which can make a big difference, and they'll be able to help you select other soil amendments & fertilizers, and help you give appropriate year-round care. They can also help you select a good book on tropicals -- so many of the books out there are just fluffy crap. Again, tropicals aren't my arena, so I don't know what a good tropicals book would be. My favorite general books are the American Horticulture Society's A-Z of Plants, and its companion, the Enclopedia of Gardening. Dirr's Trees & Shrubs is another bible, it looks like there's a version for warm climates that would be good.

Good luck!

p.s. -- another option is to used a raised bed, which allows you to easily provide the very best soil. Bananas tend to not do very well in wind, so if the added height would expose them to more wind in your yard, that may not be a swell idea. Raised beds of course also get a bit colder, so if bananas are a borderline thing in your neighborhood, again, it may not be the way to go.

The best tiki bar is the one that's within stumbling distance of your bed
The Humuhumu Room

[ Edited by: Humuhumu on 2004-02-19 19:19 ]

'bout peat moss...

For many years, gardeners worked peat moss into their gardens to fill this requirement, usually to supplement compost, which is more dear than gold to gardeners. Recently, though, soils experts have advised against using peat moss in heavy soil, especially clay, because if the peat dries out it will not absorb water readily.

http://www.growise.com/Articles/sprhtm/bestsoilamendments.htm

Confused enuf yet? actually, I think the best idea is to talk with yer local nursery-folk - maybe that's where you're getting your bananas anyway?

Yep, there you go, that's why you've got to talk to the local nursery people. Peat moss drying out was never a concern in Seattle!

Seriously, I think the wetting agent counteracts that a bit -- my understanding is that the peat moss has to get really, really dry before it reverts to its natural hydrophobic state. But it could happen!

Sawdust works for me. Must be the Bamboo! Breaks up the clay and makes the soil nice and loose. As for nutrients, we go once a year to our "local volcano" (aka Pisgah Crater just east of Barstow) to get big rock and place em' in the garden. For some reason, the plants grow real well when the lava rocks are near them. Our Bananas produce so many that we end up giving them away all summer. Mother nature likes us.