miaella

Got two new pups today from MediaHound! Very fast shipping and the pups look great...thanks MediaHound!!

I'll post pics later. MediaHound (or anyone), these will be potted and I am looking for help determining the best mix of soil to use. Any recommendations?

Thanks

BGreen

Congrats!

Here is an info page on the wiki: Banana Soil
I have been using a mixture of Miracle Grow potting mix with a compost/manure mix and some perlite. I has worked ok, but it may be holding a little to much water still, for my watering routine.

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BGreen

MediaHound

That was certainly fast!
Yep the soil page in the wiki should be helpful,
I use as big a container as possible, overburden soil, a mixture of bark, compost, manure, pearlite, and whatever else is laying around!
Damp but not wet and well draining is the key. And chock-full-of nutrients.

Enjoy your new plants!

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miaella

Potted the pups I got from MediaHound. The little guy in the middle is/was a Dwarf Ladyfinger I bought from Logee's that I am trying to revive.

MediaHound

Hate to say this but I'd repot them and put the demarcation line as the soil line.
It's 4-6 inches or so above where you have them now.

Even if you didn't, they'd survive, but they'd be better off if you had them ad the height they're used to. They would hold up to the wind and such better when you finally get them into the ground.

You're really gonna love that Ladyfinger! The Ice Cream too, but that strain of Ladyfinger is such an amazing plant. You'll see

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miaella

OK, got them potted to the correct height. Thanks

kgbenson

I plead ignorant. What is overburden soil? When I google it I get stuff about aquafers.

Keith

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tlturbo

Jarred

Just what variety are you calling Ladyfinger? Or is it just a generic "ladyfinger".

Terry

MediaHound

Overburden is a soil mix that the Bushel Stop carries, it's a great all-around commercial potting mix.
http://thebushelstop.com/thebushelstopsoi.html this is as close as I can get you any info from their website, pretty useless without labels on that photo but its probably the top left or middle left sample.

The Ladyfinger is known as just that, that is the name it has. It's named and that's it's name. Others use the term loosely to describe small sweet fruits... but this banana plant in question is a commercial cultivar known simply as Musa 'Lady Finger'.

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kgbenson

Well there you go - and I get to go to bed a little less ignorant than when I woke up - a good day!

Keith

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MediaHound

Yes the overburden is a mixture of soil, sand, bark, manure, and probably some other ingredients.

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kgbenson

we ahve a similar product round here called Dixie Mix. Mushroom compost, manure, sand, bark fines, and such. Great stuff, if a bit spendy.

Keith

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miaella

I already asked MediaHound about the leaves which were bent on arrival so I knew that they would eventually die. But I forgot to ask about the damage to the top part of the stem (it is on the other side of the bigger plant in the first post so it wasn't visible).

Should I cut off the top part of the stem where it got crushed? Will this prevent new leaves from growing?

Bananaman88

Miaella,

You should definitely cut off the damaged part of the stem. I'd cut it about an inch below where it is crushed and brown. You should see healthy tissue in the middle of the stem after you make the cut. If not, cut a tad lower. Sometimes when the stem is damaged like this the leaf dies back down into the stem a ways. I had this happen to some nice M. ornatas I was planting at work recently. One had apparently gotten damaged when we transported it for planting. I cut it and it was brown in the middle, so I cut it, and again, the same. I eventually had to cut it down from about 30" to about 8". It was already sending up a pup and that pup took off and was the size of the original plant in two weeks! Normally, one cut will fix your problem though. Good luck!

MediaHound

I don't know if its your camera or the actual plant being brown above where it was crushed, but if it is indeed brown now, you can whack it off from that point where it was crushed. The reason is that you want to leave the green so that the plant can still utilize any chlorophyll in the tissues to produce food. When it goes brown, you can whack it off - that'll make it look better and it'll allow the new growth th emerge unobstructed.
Just take a scissor or some drywall knife, fiberglass knife, machete, etc., and make a nice clean cut. A few days later, give or take, and you'll see a new roller come up from where you cut it. That first new leaf might be missing a tip, but all in all the plant will recover just fine and start looking prettier in no time.

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tlturbo

I see that Jarred uses the words WHACK and WHACKED just like I do. Is that a S FL term? HA

Terry

Taylor

Haha! I guess so. I use snip or chop, or just cut.

miaella

Update:

The Ice Cream has sprouted a new pup (10" tall, w/ 1 leaf), however, the rest of the plant has a potentially deadly problem...

The main shoot never grew and is rotting. It is very juicy and very brown--not sure how deep the rot is. Should this be removed from the corm or should I leave it on for the new pup to feed from?

Thanks

Bananaman88

Miaella,

You say that the main shoot never grew and is rotting. That's what I was talking about when I said that sometimes the main shoot turns brown all the way down into the pseudostem. It is likely that the main stem may not regrow depending on how deep the rot goes. If you have a new pup coming off of the main plant, I wouldn't worry about it. Sometimes the main shoot just gets too stressed from the transplanting process, dies back, and sends out a new shoot (which is what it sounds like your is doing). I've seen this several times. If you want to though, you really don't have anything to lose by cutting the main stem back a little at a time to see if you can find healthy tissue in the center. Cut back a bit at a time until you see greenish tissue in the center. If all you keep getting is nasty brown looking mush, and you're down to just a few inches in height it's probably a goner. But, hey, look on the bright side...you do have a nice healthy pup !!!

MediaHound

Try and pull back the tissue and see if you can get to a healthy center. If not, just top it off and the baby pup should take over just fine.
If the plant totally dies I'll replace it for you... but that's a slim chance being that there's a new pup doing well.

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