Hi everyone,
What a great list, I'm so glad I found it! I'm growing my first banana, its called a 'Pisang Celon', apparently developed for cool climates, and I'm growing it in Melbourne (which is known to get quite hot on occasion - a 46 degree celcius day last feb).
Six months ago I bought the banana, a foot high, and planted it in my backyard, now its 6 feet high and has had three pups, which I successfully transplanted 3 weeks ago thanks to this site
(this is my first post, btw) and now it's growing another pup!
The main plant is throwing out big leaves, but these are now emerging all chewed up and ratty! Kind of off colour and eaten, with the leaves not whole but torn. I've got the feeling that there are bug larvae living down inside the pseudostem near the corm, eating all the young leaf buds as they develop before they pop out. We have lots of earwigs, and I'm thinking it's them, but I really don't know.
I made up a concoction of rhubarb leaf and soap and poured that in the top, and the next leaf was almost perfect, but then the one following was back to scrappy, so I poured some comercial pyrethrum spray in - watered down - and am yet to see the result. I'm really stumbling around in the dark here - has anyone else had this? Any suggestions would be appreciated.
regards
pisang