I used to grow bananas on the Gulf coast of Louisiana. They made beautiful plants, but I was never able to actually grow a harvestable banana.
I know a banana grower in Southern California who had great success growing many varieties for retail sales.
Ted
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DoubleDogFarm
- Super Green Thumb
- Posts: 6113
- Joined: Sun Mar 28, 2010 11:43 pm
No Shards In Container Bottom
The practice of placing gravel, pot shards or some other material in the bottom of
the container is commonly recommended to improve drainage; in fact, it has the
opposite effect.
Be your plant an African violet, a geranium or a zinnia, whether its container is
indoors or out, under most circumstances its roots will be less healthy and therefore its
top portion less vigorous if its roots are subjected to poor drainage conditions when
grown in a container.
One of the major differences between growing a plant in a container and growing
it directly in the soil outdoors is the way in which water drains through the growing
medium. Outdoors in the garden the soil provides a continuous column of growing
medium that keeps water draining downward away from a plant’s root zone. In a
container, however, the growing medium forms a very limited column; when water gets
to the bottom of the pot it is stopped.
When gravel or pot shards or other coarse materials are put in the bottom of a
container they in effect raise the level at which water drainage stops. They make the
discontinuous column even shorter and decrease rather than increase container
drainage. This negative effect can be either made worse, or lessened, by the type of
growing medium used and by the depth of the container.
Here is the web site. https://yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/YardCareTechniques/GrowingPlantsInContainers/NoShardsInContainerBottom
The practice of placing gravel, pot shards or some other material in the bottom of
the container is commonly recommended to improve drainage; in fact, it has the
opposite effect.
Be your plant an African violet, a geranium or a zinnia, whether its container is
indoors or out, under most circumstances its roots will be less healthy and therefore its
top portion less vigorous if its roots are subjected to poor drainage conditions when
grown in a container.
One of the major differences between growing a plant in a container and growing
it directly in the soil outdoors is the way in which water drains through the growing
medium. Outdoors in the garden the soil provides a continuous column of growing
medium that keeps water draining downward away from a plant’s root zone. In a
container, however, the growing medium forms a very limited column; when water gets
to the bottom of the pot it is stopped.
When gravel or pot shards or other coarse materials are put in the bottom of a
container they in effect raise the level at which water drainage stops. They make the
discontinuous column even shorter and decrease rather than increase container
drainage. This negative effect can be either made worse, or lessened, by the type of
growing medium used and by the depth of the container.
Here is the web site. https://yardener.com/YardenersPlantHelper/YardCareTechniques/GrowingPlantsInContainers/NoShardsInContainerBottom
Thanks for all the comments on the gravel layer, sounds reasonable to me, so I'll skip putting it in---there's a drainage ditch-ey sort of area where it can go just as well if not better. I'll see if I can loosen things up in the beds a bit with a fork before putting in the soil, though I suspect explosives might be called for. Might come in handy having a husband in the military.
The soil mix is just lovely. My husband says he gets worried about a wife that doesn't get overly excited about jewelry or clothing (other than riding boots), but repeatedly goes outside to chortle over a really big pile of dirt.
As for what to put in <insert blissful smile here>. In between pattering outside to gaze at dirt, I've been looking through all my veggie books and of course, wanting to plant EVERYTHING. Part of the issue is that I'm a bit late for a lot of the long-season warm-weather crops (I know, you folks in the north are just laughing your ass off at me right now), but still a bit early for the cool weather crops, though I can get some of those seeds started inside. It can stay hot here into September and still pretty warm well in October (and frost dates apply here about once every three years). I'm going to be out-of-town for almost three weeks in late October, so don't want to plant anything that will be ripening all at once when I'm not here.
So, just to get something in (because I won't be able to sleep until I do and David says I make him nervous walking around carrying a shovel all the time), here's my immediate plan. I have a few determinate tomato plants that are all either cherry-tomato or other small to medium size fruiting varieties, so hopefully I can get some tomatoes before it starts to get cool---the nursery guy made me a nice deal on some well-grown one gallon plants. It can get pretty blazin' hot here in August, so I actually tend to get better fruit set into September anyway. Same for a few pepper plants and a cuke. I don't know if I'll get much from them, but I should with just a little luck. I have some pole beans that I can put in, as those always seem to start producing incredibly quickly and usually keep going through most of the winter here, anyway.
Long term....open to suggestions. I was thinking about using one 'extra' little bed that's 5' x 5' and maybe putting in a permanant bed of asparagus? Or artichokes as a perennial?
As for bananas <chortle>, I already have them---or at least, my neighbor does, he never trims his trees and darned if those things don't just sag right over his fence into mine. I kept my grubby little paws to myself and just watched them rot the first three years---now, it just seemed a neighborly thing to do to trim back his trees for him, including the bananas.
Is it too hot to put in the asparagus crowns now as soon as the bed is ready? Should I wait?
Thanks for all the help!
Susan
The soil mix is just lovely. My husband says he gets worried about a wife that doesn't get overly excited about jewelry or clothing (other than riding boots), but repeatedly goes outside to chortle over a really big pile of dirt.
As for what to put in <insert blissful smile here>. In between pattering outside to gaze at dirt, I've been looking through all my veggie books and of course, wanting to plant EVERYTHING. Part of the issue is that I'm a bit late for a lot of the long-season warm-weather crops (I know, you folks in the north are just laughing your ass off at me right now), but still a bit early for the cool weather crops, though I can get some of those seeds started inside. It can stay hot here into September and still pretty warm well in October (and frost dates apply here about once every three years). I'm going to be out-of-town for almost three weeks in late October, so don't want to plant anything that will be ripening all at once when I'm not here.
So, just to get something in (because I won't be able to sleep until I do and David says I make him nervous walking around carrying a shovel all the time), here's my immediate plan. I have a few determinate tomato plants that are all either cherry-tomato or other small to medium size fruiting varieties, so hopefully I can get some tomatoes before it starts to get cool---the nursery guy made me a nice deal on some well-grown one gallon plants. It can get pretty blazin' hot here in August, so I actually tend to get better fruit set into September anyway. Same for a few pepper plants and a cuke. I don't know if I'll get much from them, but I should with just a little luck. I have some pole beans that I can put in, as those always seem to start producing incredibly quickly and usually keep going through most of the winter here, anyway.
Long term....open to suggestions. I was thinking about using one 'extra' little bed that's 5' x 5' and maybe putting in a permanant bed of asparagus? Or artichokes as a perennial?
As for bananas <chortle>, I already have them---or at least, my neighbor does, he never trims his trees and darned if those things don't just sag right over his fence into mine. I kept my grubby little paws to myself and just watched them rot the first three years---now, it just seemed a neighborly thing to do to trim back his trees for him, including the bananas.
Is it too hot to put in the asparagus crowns now as soon as the bed is ready? Should I wait?
Thanks for all the help!
Susan
DoubleDog, I agree with you and the link you provided about not using gravel in the bottom of containers to improve drainage. I used it to form a water reservoir in the bottom of my containers. I always grew in fifteen gallon containers which sat in trays with lips about three inches above ground level. I put three inches of gravel or rock in the bottom of the pots with a depression in the middle which extended to the bottom of the pot. Over the rock or gravel I placed black gardening fabric, tucking it in tightly between the gravel and pot around the edge. I then filled the pot with my container soil mix starting by filling the depression in the middle.
I had to use this method because I always used some natural soil in my container mix to achieve the mineral and bacteria benefits from natural soil. Without the permeable cloth between the gravel and soil, the soil simply filled the voids between the gravel or rock. This method seemed to prevent the soil mix at the bottom of the pot from turning sour by the end of the growing season. It also provided good contact between the soil and the moisture in order to wick the water from the tray/reservoir back into the container as needed. Since I typically grew three tomato plants and some cucumbers or herbs or peppers in each container in eight foot cages, the movement of water into and out of the reservoir was sometimes rapid on a hot summer day.
If I had used a sterile, organic, soil free container mix, I would not have used the gravel bed. I tried the organic mix a few times and simply didn't like it. My mix incorporating some natural soil seemed to work better for me.
Ted
I had to use this method because I always used some natural soil in my container mix to achieve the mineral and bacteria benefits from natural soil. Without the permeable cloth between the gravel and soil, the soil simply filled the voids between the gravel or rock. This method seemed to prevent the soil mix at the bottom of the pot from turning sour by the end of the growing season. It also provided good contact between the soil and the moisture in order to wick the water from the tray/reservoir back into the container as needed. Since I typically grew three tomato plants and some cucumbers or herbs or peppers in each container in eight foot cages, the movement of water into and out of the reservoir was sometimes rapid on a hot summer day.
If I had used a sterile, organic, soil free container mix, I would not have used the gravel bed. I tried the organic mix a few times and simply didn't like it. My mix incorporating some natural soil seemed to work better for me.
Ted
We had at least one hard freeze almost every year which took the banana trees back to ground level. I always felt if I could have two or three years without a hard freeze, I would harvest some bananas.lorax wrote:I'm surprised - they should have loved the hot, humid Louisiana weather... Hmmm.
However, you're spot-on about SoCal being perfect for bananas. I've got several friends up there who produce beautiful edibles from a wide range of cultivars.
Ted