Its amazing how different soil and climate effect bananas. I guess that's one reason why mine never seem to thrive, I have clay soil that has rocks in it. Here its called "gumbo" With my banana bed, I always add lots of compost but the soil still hardens to a brick. I like the soaker hose idea at night. I also have one of those little sprinklers that hook to the hose, maybe I could put that on a low setting and let it slowly soak the area around my bananas? I didn't know I had it until I cleaned out one of my sheds last week lol. The feed store sells 40 lb bags of lava sand. I used that last year on my plumeria seedlings and they seemed to grow better. Tarev that's terrible that less homes have bananas.
I've seen a couple of large groves of bananas in my area, I don't think the people put much care into them but they still seem to grow gigantic by the end of the year. Jonna your banana pit is so beautiful, it reminds me a tropical island or a jungle. I hope this year mine look as healthy as yours. This week we have a few nighttime lows in the 40s, which is highly unusual for May. So mine will probably be at a standstill until it warms up this weekend. The Orinoco that I planted still looks bad. Its been drooping for the past two weeks and I've been giving it lots of liquid seaweed. The high winds don't help the situation either.
but, you can't kill bermuda grass and you can't pull it and you can't hoe it - the stuff is impervious to everything. There's something to be happy about, I haven't seen any bermuda grass since I left Calif. I am so used to just not seeing it, I really didn't see it in the picture. That was my solution to the stuff, I trained my eyes not to see it.
LOL that's a good solution Jonna. I hate dealing with bermuda and nutgrass. I have an infestation of nutgrass all over the place, and nothing is more maddening than pulling only the leaves and not the root
Name: Glen Ingram Macleay Is, Qld, Australia (Zone 12a) (Lee Reinke X Rose F Kennedy) X Unk
Some yummy bananas for you. The stall and farm were near Garradunga, North Queensland. They were selling for about $1.50/kilo. After each of the cyclones over the last 10 year the price could reach $15-20/kilo in the cities. The northern farms got wiped out while southern farmers became very rich.
I am not sure the variety. I think they are most likely Williams and not Cavendish.
The problem is that when you are young your life it is ruined by your parents. When you are older it is ruined by your children.
Beautiful countryside from what I can see, really lush. Good looking bananas too. They do the same thing here, bag the bunch. I guess it is to keep the bats and birds and bugs away.
Name: Glen Ingram Macleay Is, Qld, Australia (Zone 12a) (Lee Reinke X Rose F Kennedy) X Unk
Jonna, gloriously green; rainforest everywhere. The Babinda area averages about 160" (4210mm) of rainfall per year. They had about 19" for the ten days I was there.
Yes, I think you are right, protection from flying-foxes and fruit eating birds.
The problem is that when you are young your life it is ruined by your parents. When you are older it is ruined by your children.
I love the look of the wet tropics but I don't think I'd like living there so much. Nothing would ever dry out and you don't get a lot of sunshine. We have gotten more rain this year in our dry season than normal, they are saying that this could be the look of the future here, more of a wet tropics rather than a wet/dry. It would be nice for the flora and ok with me as long as it continues to mainly rain in the evenings leaving the days sunny.
I would love to live in a rainy, tropical area. Its been incredibly humid with a little rain for the past few days and my bananas are finally starting to pick up speed.
A couple of years ago the pstem grew to 5 ft but I wasn't giving it enough water and fertilizer and then last year I had cannas and gingers competing with it so it only grew a couple of ft. Hopefully this year it will grow a lot better since I'm giving it water everyday and fertilizer twice a week. I might be getting another Rajapuri since my other one died in the freeze.
Just beautiful banana pups. They are looking good!!
Looks great.
I am so used to just not seeing it, I really didn't see it in the picture. That was my solution to the stuff, I trained my eyes not to see it. 
