Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard
You did not mention phosphorus. Is it to be avoided on bananas?
In semi-arid San Diego, it rains about 6-8 inches per year. I water the myriad fruits in my home orchard about 30 gallons per week, including rainfall if any. Each tree receives up to 1 lb of N and K per year. Given there is adequate drainage, will this be sufficient for bananas?
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phosphorus requirements for banana are not large (compared to N & K), most soils in Costa Rica and the rest of Central America have adequate levels, not sure the last time we added P to the rows. P is not lost by bananas; very little is used in fruit production, very little goes into the fruit, and it is passed on readily to the ratoon sucker (daughter). most P uptake is in the first 3-9 months after planting and then once flowering/fruiting begins it drops off by 80%. PO4 is a fairly large anion that moves very slowly through soil layers and therefore does not leach easily.
as far as your levels go they seem adequate to me, if you are going for fruit you may want to increase your K maybe by .5 lb, unless you are getting good bunches - inadequate K levels in the plant are the main cause of small bunches. i also assume your musa gets more water than say your citrus? most recommendations are 25-30 mm of water/wk minimum for musa.
to give an idea about the typical mineral loses suffered by a farm: an average yield of 46 ton/ha removes 102 kg of N, 11 kg of P, and 330 kg of P from the soil.