Re: Musa/clay

My perspective, Noreen, is not very helpful. I've had only mixed success with bananas, the edible type. In the last 6 years, I've had only three crops--two Cuban reds and one dwarf cavendish. They are planted in shade, part shade, and full sun. They are planted in Florida black sand with enough irrigation to keep them from drying out. I don't fertilize them; likely should. They've never been harmed by cold.

Mostly, I've ignored them.

I have two suspicions--one, I need to fertilize them, maybe heavily; and, two, I may need to up their irrigation schedule, especially for those in full sun.

On Sep 5, 2005, at 1:20 PM, David Franzman wrote:

Hi Noreen

All of the information on culture for musas that I have found has suggested sandy loam for the soil medium. I will confess that my interest lies with hardy or semi hardy bananas and so I have only looked at about a half dozen varieties. However it seems that for the many folks I have talked with who have had stunted and under-developed bananas, the root (pardon the pun) cause has been heavy soils. Here's a site that gives some care instructions including the suggestions of sandy loamy soil.

http://members.fortunecity.com/coldhardyplants/hardiness/ musa_basjoo.htm

David
http://www.atouchofthetropics.net
----- Original Message ----- From: <TeichFlora@aol.com>
To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Saturday, September 03, 2005 7:38 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] Musa/clay


Perhaps different species of Musa make a difference. I have an edible
banana, planted in the worst clay soil, goes through flooding at times, and does
wonderfully, producing clusters of the best tasting bananas every year. Most
of the bananas here in this area seem to be planted in areas where not much
else will grow, much like cannas, or such. Perhaps other climate conditions
dictate how well they do in clay....how quickly it dries out, humidity, or
such. I dont' know, I can just say what my experience has been. Jim might have
more perspective on this.
Noreen
zone 9
Texas Gulf Coast

In a message dated 9/2/2005 11:02:35 PM Central Standard Time,
gardenchat-owner@hort.net writes:

I've seen 'gardening in pure clay' in some of your questions/responses.
Do your M. basjoo grow in this 'pure clay', or to you have to amend it
with something(s) ? I have the same curse.
David: What say you about this growing question ?

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Island Jim
Southwest Florida
27.0 N, 82.4 W
Hardiness Zone 10
Heat Zone 10
Minimum 30 F [-1 C]
Maximum 100 F [38 C]

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