sean

Ok, so what do you all do for fertilizer? According to my instructions from Going Bananas, I was to do a coffee can of fertilizer once a month. So far I have gotten amazing growth from my bananas, just curious what everyone else does.

Jeff

Sean, I try to remember to fertilize every month but some months I forget. Sometimes I buy a granulated fertilizer and other times I use Miracle Grow for Tomatoes (it has higher amounts of potassium). I also top dress with composted cow manure and they really seem to respond to that. Lastly, I throw all my banana peels around the root zone and let them rot into the soil (this usually only takes a couple days in this heat!).

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Jeff in Costa Rica

Southern-Grower

i use 10-4-10 slow release with minors..

spreading out 1lb of fert. (april-july) along with black cow manure topped with mulch..

greenhouse year round, winter cut in half..

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Happy Growing,

SG

Enjoy Life as it's too Short

momoese

While I am new at growing bananas I have been gardening since I was a wee lad thanks to Grandma and her love of tomatoes. I am a very strict organic gardener and so far my bananas have only been fed chicken manure, worm castings, EB Stone vegatable food, and home made compost made from only organic kitchen and yard waste. I also added green sand when planting. They have also had some compost tea added to the soil a few times in the 3 months they have been in the ground. So far they are very healthy except for the curling leaf shoots which I have mostly been able to control so far. I should also add that since moving into this house these bananas are the first thing to planted in this soil and I have no clue what the previous owners were doing to it. It could be a toxic dump for all I know!

MediaHound

My regime is quite similar to Jeff's. Peels go back into the containers (or ground), I use BlackKow manure (it isn't all that bad, looks like soil & dosen't stink, btw), I occasionally use standard Miracle Grow & I also toss some palm fertilizer around the bananas when I'm out fertilizing the palms.
Mostly, lots and lots of water.
When I buy bananas online from Green Earth, they ship each plant with a fertilizer tablet, AgSafe (20-10-5, minors & humus) which I happily add to the container as well.

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JoeReal

I use 6-20-20XB from BEST and ammonium sulfate, the cheapest fertilizer ounce per ounce. It has loads of potassium and loads of minors.

Marc

I use the cheapest I can find. 6-6-6 usually, but lately I've been able to get floor scrappings from Harrell' Fert for $2.00 a bag. Bananas will eat anything once I got them going in the ground in the white sand at my place.

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

tlturbo

I used to use and have great luck with Black Cow Composted CHICKEN Manure but it is getting real hard to find. Like someone mentioned above, plants seem to love it.

I'd love to find a decent fertilizer that I can get at Home Depot fairly cheap and can use on bananas, palms and bamboo. Asking too much ??

Terry

Marc

Terry,
HD usually carries two types of palm and tropical plant fert from Lesco, I believe one is about $11/50lb and the other $14/50lb

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

tlturbo

Thanks,

Will palm fert work well on Bananas especially if augmented with composted manure?

Terry

Marc

I have found anything will work for bananas in Florida as long as they are in the ground. They are very heavy feeders and I don't waste my money on expensive fert.

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

tlturbo

My sentiments exactly.
Where abouts are you near Naples? I lived in Ft Myers from 72 until 3 years ago, now I'm near West Palm but come over to our condo on Pine Island to fish.

Terry

JoeReal

I was the first to mention this in the forum some time ago. The cheapest to use is the horse manure from your friend's ranch, or the compost given away for free by your city from their recycling of yard wastes. If you have none of these, then Composted steer manure from WalMart is the cheapest to use and bananas simply love it. All other plants too. I got mine at about $0.87 per bag (1 cu ft).

Slightly more expensive, but still within $1 per cu ft, is composted steer or horse manure from Home Depot or OSH.

These are organic matter amendments to your soil and bananas simply love high organic matter. It dramatically improves your soil texture also.

From the inorganic types that I use only as supplements, I use 6-20-20XB from BEST and any cheapo ammonium sulfate. This combo gives me the most potassium, nitrogen, and lots of minors or micro nutrients.

Marc

Terry,
My place is east of Naples in Golden Gate Estates off of Pineridge and White. It is much colder than anything west of 1-75. I have moved my collection three times, Bradenton to Naples to Golden Gate Estates.

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east of Naples, FL zone 10a warm humid sub tropical

bananalover

I use a cheap slow release tomato/vegetable fertilizer 9-12-12. I tried rabbit manure last year but the velutinas in pots in the greenhouse rotted away, I think because of the manure. Tried the tomato vegetable fertilizer this year just because it was what I had and my bananas have grown better than EVER this year. Most of my plants are in pots right now except for 2 unknowns in the back yard. All are doing real well. I throw a few handfuls on them(depending on pot size) about every two weeks. It could be just that it has rained so much here that the bananas are loving all the water and that is why they are growing so well, either way I will just keep the cheap fertilizer.

sean

so is once a month enough? not enough? too much?

JoeReal

With inorganic fertilizers, the best is to split the same amount of fertilizer for one month, split evenly in a weekly application, of course if you have time to do so. If the fertilizers are soluble, it is good to distribute them automatically via the drip system if you have the filter and fertilizer reservoir.

tdl462

I have had good luck mixing 10-10-10 with some epson plus 0-0-22 at a 1:1 ratio, I put down 4-5 table spoons on each plant every 2 weeks. Since the end of the season is a couple of months away I will stop fertilizing now.
You can see the growth I got in the gallery from just a couple of months.

bananaman

I use "Chempack" no4 which is 15-15-30. Suits fine.
Also I surround with well rotted cow manure and water through this.
I also use pine bark chippings around the plant to stop fertiliser running away from base of plant.
Miracle grow is fine too.
Home made liquid feed from rainwater and Horse muck.......all great stuff !!!!

MediaHound

I should add that I recently got a jug of liquid kelp and a jug of liquid fish to add to the regime.

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Apologies in advance if I am slow to reply to your PM. I suggest posting in the forums for support if you need something urgent.