Greetings:
First time in this forum. Pleasure to be here.
A neighbor has volunteered to give me a small banana tree from her yard. I have yet to go over there and get it, but once I do, how do I identify it, and most importantly, how do I determine the best place in my yard for it?
Do I create a 'mound' for it and then bury it, or just make it grade? where do i go to find the predators of this gorgeous banana tree? and how do i find out if I can propagate a new one from it?
thanks.
Best way to transplant tropical banana tree
im jealous you can just plant out bananas down in WPB.. here in utah i overwinter mine ..most are bareroot..then pot up in late winter
and haul out in spring on warm days before i plant them out for summer..
bananas need a ton of sun,good drainage,lots of fertilizer..more nitrogen and potash..not as much phosphate..
in S.florida you have the warm weather..and humidity.. the humidity (depending on the variety of banana) isnt always a plus..
here in utah i dont have the humidity problem..
where to plant.. id check out how large your neighbours mature banana plants are..and plant accordingly.. give plenty of space if it
can be a big plant.. like sabas, or ensetes..
i dont mulch my bananas..but i see over on bananas.org (great place to get info on bananas..btw) that USA southerners mulch theirs alot
but keep them at level ground grade..
down where youre at too.. id keep an eye on the plant crown (new leaf growth) with your humidity..you can get rot/molds..etc
identifying the banana.. id go go bananas.org.. check out the pics posted..and see what looks most like yours..
good luck with your new..and best of all FREE.. addition...
thanks for the links, TN777 - pardon my ignorance, though - what's the plant crown? that where it comes up out of the ground?
TN777 has great advice for you. But to be honest, I've had no problems with any crown rot on my bananas here in Florida. Yes the crown is the growing tip of the plant. New pups come up out of the ground like little pointy spears, and if they get lots of tlc they grow very fast.
Biggest thing over here on the West Coast of FL is we have very porous sandy soil, so bananas really like lots of organic soil amendments like compost to make the soil retain moisture and nutrients. Don't know what your soil is like over there on the 'dark side'.
Before planting get yourself a load of compost, and mix it in with the soil in your planting site. Depending on how big the plant will be when it matures ( look at your neighbor's) you might want to amend a big area - up to 4 feet across and a foot deep. Plant the banana on grade, somewhere it will get full sun and lots of water - near a downspout off your roof is a great place so it will get lots of rainwater. You must water the new transplant deeply every day if you're planting at this time of year, unless it rains. May is the hottest, driest month of the year usually.
You really can't over water or overfertilize bananas here, because in warm weather they grow so fast. Except you should stop fertilizing and hardly water in winter if it's cold.
Bananas have a big root mass that supports the main plant and puts up new baby plants known as 'pups'. So to get a division of your neighbor's plant, you will need a good, sharp shovel to literally cut out a pup or two with some root mass attached.
Be really careful of damaging the stem of your transplant and the parent plant - bananas are not really 'trees' in that the stem is soft and watery, not strong and woody. You can cut through the stem of even a big banana plant with a serrated bread knife.
Not too many pest problems, until you have ripening fruit of course! Then you will have to stand guard over your bananas against raiding raccoons.
It is a very good idea to mulch over the root area of your bananas to retain moisture, keep down weeds and prevent soil erosion from heavy rain. You also should add more thick mulch if we have cold weather again this winter. The tops will turn to mush and collapse, but as long as you don't let the root mass get too cold, they will jump back up from the roots when the weather warms up.
Once you have a maturing stem you will hopefully see new pups next spring. You should let at least one new pup grow each year, so that when your mature stem bears fruit, you can cut it out and have another coming along each year. Each stem only blooms and bears fruit one time. If you get 3 or 4 pups, you should take a couple out, as they will steal too much nutrient from the mature stem and it won't bloom.
. . . sorry, I really got on a roll there.
lol dyzzy..:) great stuff.. you guys down there have it so good.. sigh.. tropicals all yr long sigh..LOL
my biggest nanners.. 2 ensetes maurelli..and a glaucum.. i am so worried.. that they might flower this yr..
and with nanners.. the mother plant dies..
if a flag does show up..im planning to cut it off.. i hope this will fool the plants and keep going for a couple more yrs..
? going to give it a try at least..
this yr.. my biggest ensete..which i hauled out this afternoon (for sun) is 11ft tall.. thats in a pot.. so.. im hoping
HOPING..lol.. it might get over 18 ft.. of course this fall..ive got to cut it down and haul it in.. oh my aching back..
lol
great to see others posting on nanners here !!!!!!
good luck to ya soflo commercial !!!
Hey, tn777 - we moved here from Salt Lake in 2002, and our kids still live there. Have you had a look at a wonderful nursery up in SLC called 'Cactus and Tropicals'?
They have a huge greenhouse, and lots of wonderful stuff, although not cheap. Mind you, for what you must be paying for shipping heavy plants like bananas you might benefit from a drive up to Salt Lake.
I don't know if cutting off the flag will keep the plant going or not. We've always been glad to see bananas flowering, but of course it's different when you have them in a pot. Maybe they'll throw up pups for you this year, though. Good luck!
Commercially bananas are grown on heavier soils with some slope. Although, we're short on slopes here but they still do well on the flat. They need lots of water and nutrients, soils that retain those are best.
Suckers/pups can rob the parent plant of nutrients and affect fruit output. That's why usually only the main plant, one mid size plant and one sucker are left. Extra suckers are cut off. If you're growing a fruiting variety for the fruit it's good to cut off the male flowers at the bottom of the bunch so that the plant can divert it's energy to the fruit itself. They don't need pollination. In Asia they use the male flowers in cooking.
If you cut off the emerging bunch (is that what you mean by "flag"?) the plant will die. The main plant is the tuberous root underground. The trunk is just the leaf sheafs. Once the flower (bunch) starts to make it's way up through the leaves there won't be any more leaves produced. That part of the plant will die and new suckers will emerge from the underground tuberous part. If the "trunk" is cut off before the flower starts then new leaves will continue to push up. But that tends to starve the tuber and retard growth. The tuber has to expend stored energy just to produce new leaves for photosynthesis.