Hey, I will try to answer as thoroughly as possible. I grew 96 plants. 4 types. 24 peas, 24 basil, 24 lettuce and 24 radish. My project is dealing with utilizing the nutrients in sanitized waste. So basically I collected compost and used it in different concentrations with potting soil. 8 trials (2 x 4 types of plants) with 100% compost, 8 with 80% compost, 60%, 40% and 100% potting soil. I then watered some with just tap water (with very low concentration of nitrogen, ammonia 0.06 mg/l and nitrate I sent the soil away to be analysed and before the soil contained 326 mg/l nitrogen and I fertilized with 100 ml of 51 mg/l nitrogen (from the urine) 6 times before harvest. The resulting soil after harvest contained 205 mg/l nitrogen (almost all in nitrate form). What I am curious about is the chemical fertilizer trials. They were planted in a 80-70-160 potting soil and given the fertilizer 51-10-43 watered 6 times with 100 ml each time. The resulting soil test shows 10-13-30. It seems strange for it to be so low. Did the plants really take up that much? The % of dry material from the plants show 2.1-0.33-2.0. Does any of this make sense? There was no urea present because the urine had been stored in air tight containers for 3 months prior to using. The temperature of the greenhouse was a steady 19 degrees C during the day and 15 at night. It was all automated. And albert_135 I didn't really prevent loss to drainage, how would I do that? I will comment in my discussion section about that though, possible sources of error. And no I didn't water pots with no plants, that would have been a good idea. But it is so expensive to have the samples analysed so I was trying to keep costs down. The results didn't give a range, just the plant samples which was +/- 15%.

This is absolutely stunning. Growing bananas in a Chicago summer! You've done the impossible. Hope you get all this well documented. I don't know if anybody in the past has done that before. Perhaps some university extension might have already done that in their greenhouse? I presume this plant has already given off some pups. Are you going to do the same with the them? Thanks for sharing the pics--congrats and a job well done. Look forward to more pics.

This depends on your mix. When was the last time you repotted it. Many soil mixes will settle to bottom of the container not allowing the water to flow feely.

Im glad you got some! I bet tgey will taste good. I had 3 edible plants actually mature bananas this year. I think it must be due to the mild winter we had last year. They just took a brief pause then kept growing instead of being froze back. My pretty pink velutina bananas produce all summer long one after the other but of course, they are too seedy to eat. The birds enjoy them. I was toying w the idea of feeding some to our pigs so they could plant a nanner forest lol. My decorative Zebrina produced fruit for the first time ever..not real impressive but interesting. The Namwah actually has a ripening bunch of decent sized bananas that need picked now but they are up so high. I would have to get a ladder :/ I will have to freeze some if I can get them down.