Best day

This is a good discussion. It could be just a difference in growing conditions. The leaves on my banana plants are much more straight and rigid looking. It is hard to describe. I fertilize my bananas regularly and I give them lots of organic fertilizers. The nice thing about organic fertilizers is that it is nearly impossible to hurt the plant by giving it too much. Please let us know how the plants look in a couple of months. It will be interesting to see if they respond to the amendments you added.

Bill

Dartolution

Thanks Bill.
The newest leaf has unfolded as of this morning and appears intact with another shoot emerging about 4 inches currently.

Do namwahs not normally pup this heavily? What may cause this?

beam2050

for me the namwas has been a heavy pupper.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Janelle525

Yeah Namwa pups a lot. I have a mat that is two yrs old it has put out 15 pups so far.

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

Dartolution

15 within a 2 year period? Or so far this season?

Janelle525

I counted again, it was 16! In that 2 yr period. I should also mention this is the tall namwah that I have been heavily feeding with compost, but even before I was feeding it a lot it was pupping a lot. My dwarf namwah hasn't done much in over 2.5 yrs, but I think it's just been overall stunted because it got knocked over the first yr from a tropical storm.

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

beam2050

yes, when happy namwa reach a p-stem height of 6 ft. kerblam.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Janelle525

Counted again because a few more popped up, 19!! This thing just won't stop!

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Super Dwarf Cavendish, Tall Namwah, Goldfinger, Praying Hands, Raja Pisang, Manzano.

Dartolution

Heres an update from today. I was forced to size control how many pups were being created and have removed several. There are still 3 more below that need to be removed. Currently this is the parent plant and 5 surrounding plants. I've also had to remove several lower leaves since I got tired of them slapping me in the face.

Dartolution

A few days ago I noticed a flag leaf, and today we have a flower forming.
Unfortunately this came at the wrong time of year, and I don't expect bananas from it. Would have been nice however. It does look like it would have been a good sized rack!





The good news, is next year there will be several flowers from this mat.

cincinnana

That is amazing.
That plant has certainly grown from the first post and start of the thread .
I have had late season flowers also and it is so disappointing not seeing the whole process through.
Like you said next year is the year.

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Best day

That is a beautiful healthy looking plant. Good job.

Bill

Dartolution

Next year definitely will be. I have left 5 large daughter plants around the original mother. they are approaching her size now but do not appear quite ready to flower. The trunk is nice sized, but not swollen. I believe next year at LEAST 3/5 will flower. Banana soup anyone? haha

Dartolution

About a week and a half ago, we had a record setting frost take place (earliest I can remember) where temperatures were between 27-35 throughout the state.

The local stations in my area, including mine registered between 28.8-32.5 for that Wednesday and Thursday.

As a result of course anything above around 6ft off the ground got nipped/burned including the bananas.

Below are some images.

Still yet - the Namwah is continuing to push out the flower, and as of today appears to have begun opening.

The next 10 days look are forecasted to be in the upper 70s to low 80s during the day and 50s-60s at night.

I do not expect it to have time to mature this season, but the flower size is impressive none-the-less.

Much larger than I expected and the pictures don't do it justice really.







and the Basjoo's for reference:

subsonicdrone

thats worse frost than i have had so far this fall up here in toronto canada!
how did that cold air get all the way down there

Dartolution

I have absolutely no idea, but please keep that mess up north next time! LOL We aren't built for that! hahaha

momoese

Make sure to trim anything brown as will rot pretty quickly. We had a serious frost in 2007 so I saw first hand how quickly they start rotting when temps come back up. I use a single ege razor blade to trim any rot or brown areas.

Dartolution

Would have been nice...
Counted 18 on that hand alone.