Dwarf Cavendish question

nancyanne_2010

13 years ago

I purchased a Dwarf Cavendish a few months ago and it's outside during the day when it's warm enough and inside during the night. The days it's too cold to go out, it's under grow lights (which are also on for a few hours when it comes in at night and come on in the morning for a few hours before it goes outside) Growth is rapid and except for the older wind torn leaves, it appears very healthy. It is about 3' tall now (it was about 6" when I bought it)

My question is why it has not had pups yet and is there anything I can do (short of cutting it back) to force it to pup? I've seen some other dwarf cavendish that are much smaller / younger that already have pups. It's getting regular all purpose fertilizer plus extra nitrogen fertilizer.

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Comments (6)

threas
13 years ago
I don't know an answer, but wanted to say mine pups like crazy. Pups have pups!LOL Maybe disturb the roots a little?....
jwnesmith
13 years ago
You want fertilizer with a good bit of potassium (K). I use 20-0-30. You might try 15-0-15 or something like that but look for potassium of 4 or 5%. The rapid growth ( they do grow rapidly anyway ) could be due to the extra N. What fertilizer are you using?
nancyanne_2010
Original Author
13 years ago
Currently I'm using Dr. Earth all purpose (5-5-5) with a little ammonia added. I used to use miracle grow for everything years ago (great success with it) then I had a small nursery where I grew organic herb plants for sale so I moved to all organic soil and fertilizers. If I decide to sell plants / produce in the future I would like to keep everything organic - so now I am using Dr. Earth all purpose 5-5-5 and have added a little ammonia to some water for the banana plant. I'm now growing mostly tropicals / sub tropicals so I need to do some research to see what fertilizer will work best. Everything seems healthy and growing very well right now.

I'll add some potassium / reduce the nitrogen and try that. Thanks!
nancyanne_2010
Original Author
13 years ago
I fertilized it and put it outside. It's starting to send up pups now :)
jwnesmith
13 years ago
I have two dwarf cavendish plants that are growing outside. They survived the terrible winter and have been coming back vigorously since March. If we have a milder (normal) winter they won't have to be cut back to the corm like I had to this year.
nancyanne_2010
Original Author
13 years ago
Where are you located?