Banana's and flowering

Ste

Re: Banana's and flowering

Post by Ste »

Leigh wrote:For me Basjoo seems to flower after 30 to 40 leaves regardless of size in the ground this one began to flower about November and is a cut down pup from last year and one of my smallest Basjoo's at about 4ft
This is great thanks, just what I wanted to know. So a small plant will flower then.
My basjoo put out between 10-12 leaves during the summer so going off that rate it should take somewhere between 3 and 4 years to flower. I dont know what chance I have though as mine stops in a pot icon_scratch
Ste

Re: Banana's and flowering

Post by Ste »

mushtaq86 wrote:At the end of the day there is no harm in trying to get it to flower in a pot if you can give it a lot of potash and nitrogen,in summer months.You might get lucky
I'm fairly new to trying banana's, last summer was my first year actually so I dont really know what this stuff is they need. What is potash? All I used during the summer was a handfull of chicken pellets a few times and miracle grow about every 2 weeks. If this potash stuff is good for them then I will buy some of that in spring time.
I have a bottle of palmbooster, would this be any good using on the nana's or would I just be wasting it?
Kristen

Re: Banana's and flowering

Post by Kristen »

Ste wrote:What is potash? All I used during the summer was a handfull of chicken pellets a few times and miracle grow about every 2 weeks.
On fertilizer packets there is normally an N:P:K ratio, Nitrogen, Phosphate, Potassium (Potash). Broadly speaking Nitrogen is for green growth and Potassium for Flowering and Fruiting. Fertilizers may also include trace elements.

If the N:P:K ratio is 10:0:0 then the fertilizer only contains Nitrogen - the sort of thing that farmers put on their cereal crops in the Spring, and we use for Lawns.

An N:P:K of 7:7:7 has the same amounts of Nitrogen, Phosphate and Potassium, a "general" fertilizer (often generically referred to as "growmore")

The difference between an N:P:K of 10:0:0 and 20:0:0 is that the second one contains twice as much Nitrogen - so you can use half as much fertilizer for the same benefit.

N:P:K of Chicken Manure is 1.1 : 0.8 : 0.5 and Chicken Pellets 4 : 2.5 : 2.3, so its higher on Nitrogen than Phosphate and Potassium .

Miracle grow is 24:8:16 (although there are different strengths)

For things high in Potassium you can use "Sulphate of Potash" (0:0:50 :shock: ) or a Tomato fertilizer (they tend to be around 5:5:10), or if you want to grow your own then Comfrey makes a good Potash fertilizer (around 8 : 6 : 20.5) [best to grow the sterile Bocking 14 variety otherwise it will spread everywhere!]
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