I have not posted here in a while but I thought I would jump in here.
I have 1 Musa acuminata 'Sumatrana' (Rojo) Banana in a large clay pot, and 1 Ice Cream Banana in a smaller plastic pot.
First let me start by stating the indoor conditions in which they are placed. They are in my living room which has 1 large east facing, and 2 large south facing windows, and the room gets TONS of light. So bright during the day I never use any kind of artificial light on sunny days. They are both each in front of the south facing windows. The temps are typically around 72-73 degrees during the day, and 66-69 at night. I keep the humidity in my home between 50 and 60% at just about all times. Mind you, I have many other plants, mostly tropicals in my place, mainly in the living room which gets the extreme bright / direct sun almost all day.
Now, about the ice cream:
The Ice Cream was in fact a pup I took of the original back in the late fall of 2008. I potted it up when it was about 8-12" tall, and brought it inside into a south window. It lost all of its leaves, but stayed "healthy" and started to regrow around this time last winter. It put out maybe 4 or 5 new leaves over winter and got to about a foot and 1/2 tall. Although it was in bright sunlight in a s outh window, it still burned when I put it outdoors as I forgot about gradually exposing it to higher light intensities. At any rate, I potted it up into a larger pot, and it grew all summer 2009 outdoors fantasticlly. Its now about 4 and 1/2 feet tall and has its own pup that is about 1 foot tall. I have brought him in for the winter a round the end of october, and it has been doing fine.
The Rojo is much larger, about 5 a nd 1/2 feet and has much larger leaves. I also brought this one in at the same time. This one I purchased back in June at a local HD, and it was 2.99, and was about 8" tall.
Both have grown VIGOROUSLY over the summer outdoors in their pots. Here is what i have noticed since bringing them indoors the same day at the end of october....
The only things I have noticed are slowed growth, and spider mites. have been keeping the mites at bay by misting, and using a mild dish soap and water mix. On warm days I take them both outdoors and hose them off good, and treat them. I also mist them indoors maybe once a week or so. Even so h owever, they still come back, and in a couple weeks are back in almost full force. Is there anything ELSE I can try? I have heard of people using neem oil, as well as using something called Wilt Pruf. Is there any one insecticidal soap that is best? Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
While they have slowed considerably in growth, they have not stopped. The leaves are much closer together now, but not to the point of looking like they are choking. There is yellowing on the oldest leaves on the edges, but the new leaves come out look just fine and dont appear to have anything wrong at all. There is also some visual evidence of mite damage showing up on some of the older leaves, and the older leaves are always the ones that seem to getthe worst infestations. Oddly enough, the mites pretty much stick only to my Bananas, and do not "migrate to any other of my many many plants. For that I am very thankful!
Thanks for reading and any added advice you can give! Happy holidays everyone! Just another week and the days start to get LONGER!!!!
