greytlady

Hello everyone,

I am new to this board and also to growing bananas. When I bought my house 11 yrs ago, I also gained a banana plant. It produced fruit about 6 yrs ago, but in all honestly I wasn't trying or caring for it as I should. A few months ago I began fertilizing, watering, mulching, and tending to it. I've spent hours researching how to care for bananas, but the problem is that I don't know what type it is, and I found conflicting information. I am also finding out that growing bananas is like learning a new language, and that it's certainly not for beginners, so I have questions on "what now?".

If you can see my picture, it looks like the mother is dying, but the rest of the new growth (daughter and granddaughter?) look vibrant and healthy to me. The purple flower has been unopened for a while. I live in southeast Florida and it just got plenty of rain due to the remnants of hurricane/tropical storm Erika. I'm standing on a slope, but it is pretty much my height and the tallest it's ever been, 5' 6".

My questions are, what type of banana is this? Should I fertilize? Do I need to cut anything? I know there is an identity board, but I had these extra questions.

Let me know if you need any other info. Your advice is much appreciated!

Hammocked Banana

Hard to say, but maybe a dwarf Orinoco. Feed and water it regularly and you bunches will greatly improve.

crazy banana

Amend your soil with compost and manure, fertilize with a 2-1-3 N-P-K fertilizer like Fruit Fuel, mulch your plant, water regularly and you will see some major improvement.
It is hard to say by your photo what variety you have there. Could well be an Orinoco.
Banana plants will only produce one bunch and then die off. Therefore they produce pups which will grow and produce the second generation crop.
With good care your follower plant will look lot better than what you have growing there now.

geosulcata

Can you describe what happened to the leaves on the mother plant? I would remove the mother plant and care for the pups as recommended above.

Lau

Is this a recent picture? Did the Bananas fill? You should remove the bananas once the bananas fill and at least one turns yellow. After you remove the bananas cut the Mother plant down as close to the ground as you can. Don't dig the mother plant up because that's where the replacement plants come from.

You can attach your photos just copy and paste from your photo gallery.

geosulcata

Without any leaves, I do not think those bananas will mature.

greytlady

You guys are all awesome, thank you very much for the fast reply!

Yes, the photo with me is recent, taken over the weekend. I've hopefully included a closer picture in this post showing the bunch, and the one and only yellow leaf remaining hiding behind it. The leaves on the mother simply stopped growing, the stem looks browner, and the purple flower hasn't opened up. The closeup photo is of the other two offspring that are growing with a vengeance.

I peeled back a piece of the bark and saw a grub. This weekend I will clean it up a bit and get some more soil and mulch. I thought it was getting enough water because it's rained here everyday for the last couple months torrentially for about a half hour, but maybe it needs more.

Last but not least: the fertilizer. This has been challenge for me. Could you please educate me or point me in a direction to understand the numbers. I bought the Tropical Fruit Kit you see in this picture and it's probably the perfect thing for the plant but I have no idea how to use it. There are no instructions enclosed and the website (or YouTube) didn't offer any either. Is there a method to how I need to add those ingredients? Do I just add all those ingredients at once?

Your help is very much appreciated!

siege2050

I would say the problem with the stalled bloom is because of the missing leaves, but the rest of the bloom is going to be all male flowers now, the female ones have already turned into bananas. It looks sort of like Dwarf Orinoco, look at the petiole (Leaf stem that connects the leaf to the plant) and see if the canal on it is opened up, or closed, or post a pic of it, Orinoco will be closed. Also have there ever been any purple spots on the leaves of the pups when small, or are they always solid green? Orinoco will not have any markings.

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greytlady

There is a canal on the petiole, it looks open to me, but not sure. It has always been solid green. Hopefully this picture, unlike my others, is visible to the naked eye (I'm getting the hang of posting pics).

Would anyone recognize or recommend this fertilizer? If so would someone be so kind as to tell me how it is used.

Thank you very very much. :-)

Sekhmet

Just posting a link to what exactly is in the Care Kit because I'm curious about all the bits and pieces myself. I think the soil amendment may be water holding crystals, and I don't think you would want that....if that is what it is.

Edit: Nope. I was wrong. " Derived from naturally occurring active carbon peat humus RETAIN is intended to be applied at the transplant stage, or in topdress applications. RETAIN provides carbon to feed soil biology, help hold nutrients in the root zone and increases cation exchange capacity."


Tropical Fruit Care Kit

siege2050

The petioles look a little too open to be Dwarf Orinoco, and the fruit does not seem quite right either, and usually has longer finger stem length, but I could be wrong. Hopefully they will finish ripening, ripe Orinoco fruit has a distinctive angular shape, and color. Not sure what the fertilizer is, but it does look pretty complicated to me.

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siege2050

Cation would have to do with mineral uptake............I think? lol

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Richard

Looking at the webpage for this product:
https://shop.growscripts.com/GrowScr...-Kit_p_96.html.
The formulation 18-5-10 will have a density of approximately 0.5 Lbs/cup. This means you get about 4 pounds of fertilizer for $20 + shipping. In my experiences that's over-priced.

Further, the 18-5-10 formulation is backwards for bananas and most plants that produce significant size fruit. Here's a guide I wrote awhile back with some explanation of fertilizer choices for bananas: Banana Cultivation In Non-Tropical Climates

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greytlady

Thanks for the information on the fertilizer. It actually makes me feel a little better that it isn't just me who thinks the one I picked up (at my local Home Depot) is complicated. I will pick up a new kind this weekend.

I have a new respect for people like you guys for growing bananas.

I was researching popular banana plants for south FL and came across the Dwarf Cavendish. Hmm not sure. I know there's a separate forum for that so I should probably post there now. If anyone has any other suggestions on anything else I can do to help this plant out, please let me know.

Thank you all for your time and input! Much appreciated.

redswe

If I remember right that kit is primarily for citrus but should be ok for bananas , You have to remember she is in FL and typically our soil has an abundance of P so you should be ok . The green stuff is just time released fert . Surprisingly the kit also contains humic acid definitely good for all soils especially if you use roundup. An oil for foliar spraying dont remember what it was and a nutrient spray which is helpful for citrus not necessary for bananas.

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Richard

That's incorrect. The formula is ok for ornamentals. Otherwise as I wrote earlier:

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