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Canadian banana overclocking

Alwaysrun

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
790
Location
Qualicum Beach BC
With the weather getting warmer I thought I'd continue last years thread on west-coast banana plants http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/off-topic/11831-palms-n-bananas-westcoast-nov.html really I was suprised how many people managed to grow huge tropical plants and trees in our temperate climate. We had several west coasters proudly showing off their results and I'm hoping some eastern Canadians chime in this year as well.

We had a pretty harsh winter this year and I know that rjbarker and I both had our bananas turned to mush dispite our efforts to shelter them over the long cold winter. I wasn't worried as I've had this happen a few times in the 7 years I've been growing this small banana grove. Sure enough all three grew back and a 4th baby sprouted up which was great.

Last year I challenged rj to a banana overclocking competition and I think I've got a good overclocking gameplan. Coffee grounds, seaweed, high nitrogen fetalizer spikes, banana peels and other clean compost round out my initial soil treatment and also a secret ingredient that I gleamed off the net.:ph34r:

Anywho...Here's some shots.

May 19th, before I added my soil treatment.
May 19th.jpg

Just over 2 weeks and the tallest plant is 32 inches high now.
June 5th.jpg

Let the games begin! :bananafunky:
 

SKYMTL

HardwareCanuck Review Editor
Staff member
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Feb 26, 2007
Messages
12,840
Location
Montreal
Not going to happen anywhere east of....well...BC. Our winters are insane.
 

BrainEater

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Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
2,867
Location
Calgary
If you are interested , we should have a 'biology 201' discussion.I can tell you about polyploidism , plant steroids , 'eternal flowers'....

:ph34r:
 

Alwaysrun

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 3, 2008
Messages
790
Location
Qualicum Beach BC
Heh Brain thanks man any advice would be great but I'll try to curtail my effort to a more mundane everyday approach. Living in Surrey for 25 years taught me alot about super growing plants *cough. But I think I'll stop short of introducing a regime of force feeding it CO2 or installing nitrogen emitters into the soil. Consider this my "air cooling" attempt at plant overclocking. Maybe next year I'll step up to the L2N league and make a real beast of a banana rig. lol

I have been thinking of removing two of the bananas and transplanting them somewhere else in the garden so to give the remaining two more room for sunlight and nutrients that they don't have to share. That approach seems to have helped my giant Atlantic pumpkin to really grow huge as all the resorces go to just one fruit and last year I got one up to 102 lbs but it was a rather poor summer really so this year I'm striving to ge one over the 200lb mark. What I really need is a soil testing kit to keep an eye on the acid levels because from what I've read you really have to keep an eye on that with tropicals. I'm still learning though so any advice would be most welcome.
 

BrainEater

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 19, 2007
Messages
2,867
Location
Calgary
Well my first advice would be this : for banana's you need to extend it's growing season....you probably want to start 3-4 mos earlier , indoors.

Ph balance is very important , yes.

----

Polyploidism is actual genetic manipulation of the plant to provide a stronger , healthier plant.You start with many 'seedling' size plants , and subject them to Colchicine poisoning.Anything that survives is cloned , and voila , better plants.(duploids/tetraploids)

There are steroids (giberellic acid ?) that will increase the number of flower nodes......How these affect fruit bearing plants will vary....

Unless you are interested in full on greenhouse (year round) banana's I'll keep the eternal flower thing under my hat.It'll be a PM either way.

:thumb:
 

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