What kind of banana are you thinking about? I imagine youll need to grow a dwarf or super dwarf. Honestly youll get so many different opinions that it will make your head spin. I only grow two types right now, musa basjoo and dwarf cavendish. My musa are all in ground and the mother cavendish is in a container of good ole miracle grow. Its been in this for about a year and I plan to re pot soon into Fafard 52.I recently started using Fafard 52 for my citrus, banana, plumeria, because I like how close it is to Al's 5.1.1 mix straight out of the bag. Here in oklahoma the heat is so intense during the summer that I need to have a soil that retains a good amount of water or my plants dry out almost daily but not too much in the winter since I have to bring them in. The thing about banana is during the growing season I have found that you cant water them too much so any good potting soil should be fine. What you have to worry about is what you plan to do this winter. Fafard 3b, 52, nursery mix are all good bagged soils, John Deere landscapes around Seattle should have one of those or any of their "heavy weight" mixes Miracle grow with extra added perlite should be just fine, just please dont use the "moisture control". Al's 5.1.1 would be good if you want to make your own, not sure I would use his gritty mix though Mike Here is a link that might be useful: Fafard

hi, i would make 3 plants in a 8 inches (20cm) pot, with pine bark and maybe i mulching the top with spaghnum. i have some pics from ampullacea and punctatissima and she look very great and compact. i think mother plants are a little bit stretched but the other looking compact.

For what it's worth, I have used MG garden soil for my seeds. It has worked well for geraniums, sage, violas and gaillardia. I also used the peat pellets with some success. I guess it depends on what kind of seeds you are growing. The forum mentioned above sounds like a good idea.

hills Hi, it's not about your English (mine isn't that great either:)!), just a timing - your post dropped down since there were many others at the same time, and ppl didn't notice it. The ingredients you mentioned are all pretty good. I never used pumice, zeolith, basalt chips - but they have been mentioned and are being used. I think that any of them would be a good addition to the gritty mix. Just try to keep all the particles similar in size. I use what I can find easily: perlite, grit (I use chicken grit) and turface, mixed in equal amounts (more or less-I don't measure anymore). Bark is one organic ingredient to be added to the gritty mix. I am not using it now since I have hard time to find it small enough. It is a chore to break large pieces... My comments on your plants: the large plant looks good, despite what I think, is peaty potting soil. Peaty mixes don't drain well, often become either too saturated or too dry, and may also attract some pests, especially indoors. Re-potting into well draining mix gives succulents good drainage and air circulation around the root ball. Jades are quite tolerant and your watering must have been good. It has a nice color too, was it outdoors during the summer? The small plant seems to be in same mix, and I think it is potted too deeply. It also looks quite good to me. The size of the pot is fine, but I would put it into gritty and plant it higher. Many use fertilizers with 3-1-2 ratio of NPK. I use MiracleGro 24-8-16. Dyna-Gro Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 is recommended (I can't find it in Canada...) Where are the plants going to spend winter? They should get as much light as possible. I have to use supplemental lights, otherwise they get very etiolated. Last 2 winters they spent in basement, under lights, little cooler temps (no more than 50*F) and they were not fertilized at all - I don't want to 'encourage' growth if there isn't sufficient light and get them etiolated even more. Rina