Last month i was helping a friend get a food forest started on 2.5 acres in southern Florida. We planted two banana circles. One with six banana plants and the other with seven.
First we dug two big holes, putting the dirt from the hole into a mound around the perimeter.
Then we started filling them with mulch. Lots of leaves, logs, branches...whatever we could find.
LOTS of mulch!
We bought a truckload to compost to mix in with the very sandy soil. Then we bought some bananas: saba, mysore, dwarf cavendish, apple, orinoco, and two plantains!
We trimmed the leaves since the roots were trimmed to transplant. We used some bamboo stakes to support the bananas until they can regrow some roots and hold themselves up. We used the leaves to temporarily keep the hot sun off the ground until we could get some more mulch.
The month before, we had found a vacant lot in the city with some abandoned banana plants growing on it. It was apparent they had been growing there for several generations. They were very overgrown and we had to use a machete just to get to them. But it proved bananas could grow and fruit in this climate with absolutely no care. The ones growing next to our mulch pits should do even better. We didn't know what variety it was, but it was obvious they would do well. We picked six good size plants that would barely fit in our work van and transplanted them to their new home.
One of the circles ended up with seven bananas and the other with six.
Some of the corms we planted already had shoots forming ready to grow. These 13 bananas will multiply. They could even be fruiting by the end of the year, but by next year for sure.
I can't wait!
First we dug two big holes, putting the dirt from the hole into a mound around the perimeter.
We trimmed the leaves since the roots were trimmed to transplant. We used some bamboo stakes to support the bananas until they can regrow some roots and hold themselves up. We used the leaves to temporarily keep the hot sun off the ground until we could get some more mulch.
The month before, we had found a vacant lot in the city with some abandoned banana plants growing on it. It was apparent they had been growing there for several generations. They were very overgrown and we had to use a machete just to get to them. But it proved bananas could grow and fruit in this climate with absolutely no care. The ones growing next to our mulch pits should do even better. We didn't know what variety it was, but it was obvious they would do well. We picked six good size plants that would barely fit in our work van and transplanted them to their new home.
One of the circles ended up with seven bananas and the other with six.
Some of the corms we planted already had shoots forming ready to grow. These 13 bananas will multiply. They could even be fruiting by the end of the year, but by next year for sure.
I can't wait!
