raymond673

Hello all,

I live in Texas and new to bananas. Just ordered some seeds and want to germinate them. Got enough that if I mess up, I should get a couple plants.

Anyways, my soil is pure "d" clay. I do live on a cattle ranch and have plenty of aged manure.

Here is what I am thinking...

I have some raised beds in my garden because the crab grass is totally invasive. I would like to plant a tree in each of my boxes which are 10x10 (1) and 10x12 (2) My reasoning is that they will help shade my other smaller plants from the texas sun and also benefit from watering daily and such.

Is my thinking wrong? will the bananas rob all the nutrients?

I am also thinking of planting just outside my boxes for the same reason, shade the smaller plants. I thought of this idea the last time we were in Jamacia. Down there they plant bananas to shade the coffee bushes.

How do bananas do in clay? what will I need to do? the clay seems to really suck the water up and drainage seems to be pretty good.

I am not a pro-gardener, just someone who likes to dabble

Here is a pict of my garden a few years ago...



Last year it was to stinking hot and we had over 100 for over 80+ days. Killed everything.

I would like to hear any advise, ideas, ect.

Thanks and looking to grow some nanners.

Ray
Tx Hill Country

Yug

My understanding is that manure as it breaks down will also take hard clay and break it down into smaller clumps, too. The fiber will also help loam-ify the soil over time. Probably wouldn't hurt to add some sand, too.

Nicolas Naranja

Add liberal amounts of manure and that will allow the soil to get a more granular structure which will improve surface drainage and limit soil crusting. Gypsum also helps.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

kentiopsis

Long ago, I read that, as Nicholas Naranja suggests, the addition of lime to clay soil promotes aggregation of the fine particles that compose it and improves the texture. The aged manure's going to help, too, and by the way, could you send a couple yards of that over here to Honolulu? You're a lucky man to have that.

oakshadows

Aged or composted manure is great for any soil. Another thing you might consider is to add perlite to the soil. It is a permenant soil conditioner and will bring some smiles to your face with the benifits it does. We also have a good amount of composted manure and use it as a potting soil mixed with perlite. If you have access to a farm supply store they usually have it and at a much lesser cost than some of the garden centers. If you keep adding these to the soil in a very short time your soil will cooperate with the plants and bring forth a good harvest. We have nothing but sand here so have been adding compost and perlite on a regular basis and after 3 years the garden is doing great, also the weeds, but they are good also as they bring up the nutrients to the surface where they are harvested and then composted and returned to the soil. Good luck.

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Nicolas Naranja

Adding the organic matter also decreases the bulk density of the soil which will make it easier to work. To get a soil to 10% organic matter you would need to add about 450 lbs/compost per 100 square feet. If I was in your situation I would loosen as much soil as possible and incorporate compost and then plant. Good roots make good shoots.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

Chance1945

Raymond, your post made me smile. I've said it all my life but I guess I've never seen it written: "Pure D" as
in Pure "D" clay. Where do you suppose this came from and what do we mean by it?

bananimal

When I lived in NC my garden was all red clay. Kept tilling in manure compost. Had a guy with a tractor till it in for me. Had great results. He also told me that the red clay is pretty fertile by itself but needs to be loosened up so roots can propagate freely.

I protect my vegtables during the hottest months by planting them between the banana mats which are set 8 ft apart. The naners get big enough to protect when it starts to get hot hot. The other trick is emitter irrigation on a programable timer.

raymond673

How deep should I dig up? I will be planting individual holes. How wide should they be also?

Thanks for all the good advice so far.

Yug

I figured you'd be using a tiller to work it in to the dirt. If all you do is dig holes, toss in some manure, and plant 'em; that would be pretty much like just planting in large pots since the roots will probably not grow outside the hole.

raymond673

So bigger and deeper the hole the better?

bananimal

Here in Fla I plant by the hole too --- limited space. Dig out a 3 foot diameter hole and 1ft deep. Toss everything you dug out. All composted manure fill. The naners will take off big time.

sunfish

Bananas will grow fine in clay but they will do better if it is amended.

The Hollyberry Lady

Yug

About a foot and a half deep should be good, but the wider the area you can do, the better. Here in Hawaii we also have clay soil that needs amended for most of the things people like to grow. If the soil is hard packed clay, the roots have a hard time penetrating. Like I said, if all you do is amend the hole, the roots will generally stay just in that area. Try it out with a plant you aren't that worried about, and see if it doesn't do just what I said.

Nicolas Naranja

If you can get the plant on a mound it will probably do better as long as you can irrigate it regularly. The main issues with clay are compaction and drainage. The better you address those issues the better off you will be. The risk in just digging a hole and filling it with compost is that it may act like a pot with no drain holes. Bananas don't really like to sit in water.

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Some people go bananas, I went plantains.

cheson74

Like others stated, add a lot of compost to the soil. As it breaks down, it'll loosen the clay. Over the next few years, the soil will get better and better as long as you continue to add compost.

Like others above, I live in Hawaii too and deal with all clay. I cleared an area roughly 60x60 and utilized approximately 60 wheel barrels of compost to amend the soil.

Here is a picture of a very large clump of Brazilians. The clump grew in compacted clay and it took a lot of water and sweat to dig out the matt. The area has since been amended with lots of compost and 2 Williams Hybrids are now planted in the spot.

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bengtang

Bananas are hardy and will grow in pure clay. I have some growing in orange laterite clay.

But they will be happier with some manure as mulch.

sandy0225

well there's two ways to do it. One is to just dig a hole and plunk them in. they won't grow as fast in pure clay, but they will grow.make sure you put the root ball just a little below grade and cover it with some of the soil so it doesn't dry out so fast. If you're not totally redoing your beds, that's the easiest. Then mulch them well with something like leaves or manure that will eventually break down and become part of the soil.
If you're totally redoing your beds, then the best thing you can do is get a tiller, and till the crap out of that spot until you've got it all loosened up, and till everything you can find into it. composted manure, shredded leaves, old hay, perlite, used potting soil, peat moss, broken down wood chip mulch that's real old (check your local place that grinds up pallets/etc into mulch, they might have a really old pile they will give you or very cheap-it's $10 a pickup load here), or compost, or old shredded newspapers, or anything pretty much is better than nothing. I'm not a big fan of sand unless you get that really coarse kind, because it seems like it makes the problem worse.
You probably won't do anything until spring anyway, so if you're going to till it, start collecting stuff now. Then you'll be ready. There are lots of free leaves available , etc in the fall.

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bengtang

Careful not to suffocate them. Clay is good at shutting out oxygen, may be good to leave the top of the corm a bit exposed rather than burying it. Clay retains water well though, and bananas like water.