Hey topher your right about their needing lots of water. But here's my tip also...put a soaker hose on them and buy a cheap electronic watering timer from Wal-mart. Set the timer at 30 minutes at 6:00PM each day. I already have many that are over ten feet tall...and a couple are blooming and over 14 feet tall!

Topher what A great idea!! Gonna do it in the morning.
Thanks for the tip!!!

The cheapest way to fertilize a large banana patch is by using granular/scatter-type fertilizer. The methods described above won't dissolve this kind of fertilizer evenly and allow it to seep into the soil such that all areas of the mat will receive the same amount.

Invest a little time and relatively small amount of money and install microirrigation. Granted, my banana patch is larger than most have, but with 20GPH spray heads (both 90-degree and 180-degree) I can have about an inch of water standing in the mulch after about an hour. It's attached to 3/4" mainline tubing that controls other zones with manually-operated valves, and is driven by my house well.

With this kind of coverage, I only need to water the bananas every three or four days even in the driest weather. BTW, I get my supplies from DripWorks.

-Bruce C.

This works i gaurantee it plus it doesn't cost you anything but a 5 gallon bucket.
Bruce i do not fertilize this way i only water this way.
I use miracle grow with superthrive to fertilize but
thanks for your advice.

I suppose using a 5-gallon bucket would work with a single trunk, especially if you made a small raised perimeter to avoid runoff. I've got six mats each 6-8 feet across, with 8-12 trunks in each mat. I'd need a lot of buckets! ;-)

I just did the math...in an hour, I put down 440 gallons...

-Bruce

I use drip irrigation too. But the bucket trick would work for some situations.

topher- Did I read this right? Did you say a new leaf every day, or did you mean every week? Where do you drill the hole, in the bottom, or the side, near the bottom?

A new leaf every day? I get a new leaf every 5 days.

Listen guys i'm telling ya every day there's the start of a new leaf . it's amazing ! You drill your hole about 4
inches from the bottom on the side of the bucket Just you watch and see what happens !

I thought a new (54 inch+leaf) was great, in one week. Now, if someone can do this in one day, I would be flabergasted.

Let me explain i think folks are getting the wrong idea.
When you get your first leaf it will probaly take 2 days
for it to open but as soon as it does another one will follow. No i didn't mean a full leaf in 1 day i should have explained this better.

What kind of banana is it Topher?

This time of year bananas grow very quickly, so don't discount that you may see that type of growth no matter what you do.

Now if you had 2 plants side-by-side, and tried the bucket method with one and not the other, and report the results, then that would be impressive.

It is a raja puri it only had a corm on it 2 months ago now it has 7-8 leaves .

Mine just started opening a new leaf after 2-3 weeks lol. Although I tranplant shocked it right out the day after I got it. Its also a raja puri. I'm seeming to get faster growth with the patio light on at night especially if I team that with a small 13w flourescent. Its a 70w HPS thats just a couple feet on top of the banana plant.