venturabananas

Hi all, I'm new to forum and new to bananas. Over the last 4 months I've started planting bananas in my small yard. I'm up to 10 plants of 9 varieties and am running out of space!

I wanted to start a thread about planting bare root banana plants because this is something I've struggled with a bit. All the potted bananas I've bought are doing great and just take off as soon as I put them in the ground; whereas the bareroot plants I've planted seem to struggle. I gather from previous posts, this behavior of bare root plants is not atypical -- it takes them a while to get situated and grow new roots, but I was hoping you experts might weigh in on the best approach for planting bare root.

What I've gleaned from previous posts is the following, but I'm eager to read corrections or other suggestions for success:

1. Don't overwater. Plant in well draining soil and after the initial watering at planting, only keep moist and allow the top couple of inches of soil to dry. After new leaves emerge, water more heavily.

2. Don't plant too deep. Plant the corm at the depth it had been growing.

3. Don't fertilize until new leaves have emerged.

4. Keep warm, but in shade for the first couple of weeks.

Potting initially and then transplanting into the ground can help with controlling overwatering and location (e.g., placement in shady spots).

Thoughts?

Cheers,
Mark

__________________

Abnshrek

I member suggested I use Fish Emulsion to get them going if they are bare root plants that are slow out of the gate, or haven't done anything for weeks. :^)

__________________


I'm a Nannerhead :^)

AV1611Corbin777

1. Sounds great to me.
a little water (daily, at least with these temps) until leafs emerge.
(usually 1-2 weeks)

2. I have not given this any thought, but would guess it does not matter.

I know some members have claimed better cold hardiness for their corms by planting up to a foot deep.
(I will see if I can find the thread)
Here ya go planting basjoo a foot deeper?

3. Yes, I would wait till the plant has a few.

4. I have always heard this, and always ignore it also.
I have had no new transplant die on me either.
I just planted 4 today in full sun.

I had a very small pup I planted out a week or so ago, that I covered with a cat litter box to shade the sun.
I did this because this pup had no roots and only a 4-5'' p-stem.


I'm still new to nanners so lets here from some more folks.

__________________
The first law of thermodynamics, an expression of the principle of conservation of energy, states that energy can be transformed (changed from one form to another), but cannot be created or destroyed.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermod...thermodynamics

Gabe15

They can take a while to get going (if warm, up to 2 months), which can make it seem like they are struggling, but they are usually just establishing a root system. The size of the corm matters, if they have a decent sized, solid, intact corm (baseball-softball sized at least) and a foot or two tall at least of pseudostem, they are fine. I usually dig a hole about 1-2ft deep and about 2ft wide, throw in a few shovel-fulls of compost and mix it with the soil and plant the sucker at least 1ft deep. Planting deep is good, it can help the plant have better access to water and keep the roots cooler initially, even up to 3ft deep (if you have a sucker tall enough) is fine and can result in quicker fruiting, but of course the deeper they are, the more difficult they are to manage the mats for the first few years until the mat rises to the surface. For northern growers, it would be a good experiment to try planting a large sucker extra deep in the spring to hasten fruiting.

I soak the soil the first time just to get everything settled and then leave it to the rain until I have irrigation hooked up, but if it's already in a spot with irrigation it doesn't matter, they always do fine anyways. I also put on a thick layer of mulch (which is always a good idea), and pile on compost from time to time throughout its life.

Bananas are really very tough plants, and if you start with good planting material and give them sun, warmth and water, they are hard to mess up. They are fine to go in full sun from day one, if they already have leaves and the plant wasn't growing in full sun previously, they will burn and look ratty, but the new leaves will be fine.

__________________
Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.