CraigSS

Anyone use horse manure with wood chips as soil additive for banana trees?
Do not have availability for cow manure; but have plenty of horse poop to go around.

Thanks,
Craig

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Jose263

I use mini-pony manure - not with wood chips. Also sheep or chicken manure
when I can find it - manure improves the organics in the soil - but neither provides the ratio that I feed my nanas = 5-1-6
Wood ashes will boost the K.
I have applied fresh/raw manure to the mats without plant damage - but composting removes the smell.
Manure N P K
Poultry 1.8 2.7 1.5
Dairy cattle 0.5 0.2 0.4
Beef cattle 0.5 0.3 0.5
Swine 0.3 0.4 0.2
Sheep 1.1 0.4 1.0
Horse 0.6 0.2 0.4

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Growing: Orinoco, Rajapuri, Dwarf Cav, SDC, TT, Dwarf Red, Dwarf Namwah, Tall Namwah (aka Ice Cream), Dwarf Brazilian, Veinte Cohol, California Gold, Double Mohai, NOT-Goldfinger, Gran Nain, Velutina

crazy banana

Yes. And they love it.
I alternate with "Fruit Fuel" , compost, chicken manure and such, add Potassium if used exclusively.

Todd

Not yet i havent...in growing indoors...
Is it safe. To use manure?

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Todd. Zone 6b

Soil type... Red clay!

crazy banana

What are your concerns?
I do have a banana mat planted next to my horses stall. That mat exclusively gets horse manure straight out of his stall as a fertilizer without any problems. The mother plant grew from corm piece to inflorescence / first fruit bunch in less than a year. Only other supplement was potassium. Secondary benefit of using horse manure is that it attracts lots of red worms which in return make wonderful castings.

Kat2

When I lived in MD, I used to grow plants inside (not bananas but plants that grow like weeds outside here) and I never used manure. I didn't even use compost unless I baked it first. Why? You run the risk of bringing in a lot of unfriendly insects and soil issues otherwise: summer year round for them. So I used chemical fertilizers in potting soil. YMMV.

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crazy banana

Oops, thanks Kat. I missed the indoor part of his post.
I still think it is safe, no unwanted insects in my horses manure, but yes, I would not use manure on my plants in the house just because of fear of odors.

Todd

Yes my main concern is bacteria. Fungis

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Todd. Zone 6b

Soil type... Red clay!

Kat2

If you make compost with the manure, let it age, sift it then bake it (it really doesn't smell much) for a couple of hours at 250, it should be safe. I did that with compost for starting seeds which did quite well. My reason for using it was to avoid potentially over fertilizing or not fertilizing at the right time. I didn't do that for my houseplants because my EX objected to my getting the oven dirty. Sheesh!

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Todd

Lol yeah they say the same thing with a load of deer jerky in there.

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Todd. Zone 6b

Soil type... Red clay!

Gabe15

Pretty much any manure is fine to use as a top dressing for bananas, but if you were to mix it into a potting mix or into a planting hole, unless it is fully and properly composted, I would avoid adding anything with lots of woodchips/shavings as you can have a much delayed nitrogen release to the plant due to the "nitrogen robbing" effect. This is not a concern for top dressing however.

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