Clare_CA

I'm not sure of what went wrong here. I ordered five bananas from Greenearth. Three are doing fine, but two keeled over one day after being planted and two days after arriving. When I wrote to Greenearth, Ted said that the roots were being deprived of air and that my soil was not good for bananas. My soil is very sandy, but I amended it. Somehow, I don't think the soil is the problem. Maybe it got too hot and they were too dry, or maybe they started to decline in the post office box after a few hot days. Whatever the case, I get a feeling that Ted isn't going to replace them. I don't think I'm going to buy any more bananas by mail order. If anyone knows of a good local place near Camarillo to buy bananas, please let me know.

Pictures of new bananas and hillside:

bencelest

You've been had with those sickly looking bananas. They don't look normal at all. They look too thin and they look nutrient starved. I would not buy anymore bananas to that dealer f I were you.

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Banana Nut

sunfish

The bananas from Greenearth are tc's grown in a greenhouse. I have had no problems with Ted's plants as long as I potted them and and gave them filtered sun. After a month or so when they have grown some and been slowly put into full sun they do fine.

bencelest

Tony:
Take a look at the picture again. Does that look normal to you?
I've ordered TC's before and none of them look like them. If that's mine I would have toss them over to the dumpsters.
Well I guess to each its own. If you think you are getting your money's worth and happy with those kind of bananas, so be it. I rest my case.

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Banana Nut

sbl

I've had good luck with plants I have gotten from Greenearth, but the 2 that collapsed look very thin as Benny said. I think I would have staked them because of the thin stalks. I also have always put them in pots and started them in partial shade. I will try to get a new picture of the 3 I got a couple months. Here is the original:

LilRaverBoi

Looks like it maybe got to dried out. I would have kept it in a pot in shade/partial sun for a while till it got past the stress of shipment. Planting an already stressed plant outdoors at this time of year isn't always the best decision. Anyway, it does look pretty spindly, huh?

The good news is, just because the top looks 'dead' doesn't mean the entire plant is done. Keep watering it as usual and it might come back like a phoenix!

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BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

conejov

Clare in the future just plant the nanners in a pot for a few months until they get a little bigger. I agree that the plants look too thin, that should have the sign to put it in a pot.

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sandy0225

Go ahead and stake them, since you've already planted them, put something between them and the sun to make a little shade for them. A big trash can, etc, something that will give them some relief from the sun. Water them well until they're well established, but if you give them any fertilizer at all, do it weakly, like half strength miracle grow (1/2 t in a gallon of water). See if they don't perk back up. Increase your watering on all your plants. They all look very dry in the pictures.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


specializing in bananas, heirloom tomatoes and water gardening plants~
check out our new online store at our website!

djmb74

we ordered 2 TC's from there as well a few months ago. An IC and Apple that seemed pretty thin when I got them. But they took off like crazy and are getting really big in only a few months, almost 3ft now and putting out a new leaf almost every week. But I potted them as well in partial shade...

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*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU SAID.
*PEOPLE WILL FORGET WHAT YOU DID.
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coast crab

Clare,

I think your biggest mistake was to take what are obviously greenhouse grown TC's and plant them directly in the ground. I got some from Jimmmy at plantucopia that advertises in the classifieds here and I planted them in pots so I could move them around and even throw them into a greenhouse for this first winter. I'll be that much ahead of the game next spring when it is safe to plant them out. Probably just too much shock for them considering the easy greenhouse life they had before.

I think LRB is right, it will take some time but they'll be ok. Just my 2 cents.

Russell

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Clare_CA

Thank you all for your comments and instructions. I appreciate them.

I think you all are right about the very thin p-stems. I didn't know that they were TC and greenhoused, or I would have acclimated them slowly. I guess I should have known. I had purchased some small ones from Logee's earlier this summer that went straight in the ground, and they did so well so I just assumed that I could do the same.

These bananas came with two fertilizer spikes each so I planted the spikes as well. I've been watering with the soaker hose about every other day. My soil dries out incredibly fast even though I've amended the soil with compost and soil amendment before I started planting.

I think everyone is right that the hot dry conditions just made the two keel over. They were Mysore and Apple. I'll be glad if they recover, but if not, I'll take it as a learning lesson, and I won't be buying from the same vendor again. I just checked his rating over at Dave's Garden Watchdog, and it is pretty bad: The scoop on 'Greenearth Publishing Inc. (bananaplants.net)'

LilRaverBoi

By the way, how do you manage to keep your soil so weed-free? Around here there are weeds coming up in cracks in the sidewalk! Even the smallest area of open soil is inhabited densely with opportunistic weeds within a few days.

__________________
BANANA RAVE!
Feel the beat from start to stop, dancin' and movin' from bottom to top!
lilraverboi@genxglow.com
RIP Tog Tan. We love you and will always remember you!
I'm Bryan with a Y! There is no 'I' in BRYAN!

Clare_CA

Hi LilRaverBoi,

Weeds are terrible here too. They were everywhere intially. I dug the whole area out by hand and pulled up the crab grass by the roots, which is essentially the only way to get rid of it completely. Then I planted all the plants and the groundcover, and I covered the area with Preen, which is a pretty good weed supressant. It will not kill existing weeds, but it prevents germination of weed seeds (and any other seeds for that matter). If you want to plant seeds of some kind, you have to sow them in a container and transfer them to the ground after they germinate. The Preen is good for three months and will suppress most but not all the weeds. I still have to pull some by hand on a regular basis. If you keep up the Preen year-round, it makes your life a whole lot easier. If you forget to use it after three months, you know it when a vast amount of weeds come in (been there; done that). There are other weed suppressants as well like MiracleGro's Weed and Feed or something like that. I got my Preen at Costco, but they sell it at Home Depot also. It comes in a big yellow container.