View Full Version : thin stems and only 2 leaf on each plant
jamesdart
06-26-2010, 12:18 PM
ive had these banana plants for a few years, every time i over winter them in the house they get worse and worse, some dont make it through the winter but bet new growth come spring. the stems have gotten much thinner over time, and most only keep 2 leaves at a time. i re potted them this year with a lot of pearlite peat moss and some potting soil, added osmocote. i forget the species but the leaf bottoms are a reddish color. they are very slow growing, if at all, where other species i have are growing rather fast. tallest one is only about 2'. i guess i would need to get some pics.
JuniPerez
06-26-2010, 12:40 PM
Are these Musa sikkimensis? Mine were green with reddish underleaves (Darjeeling)... they overwinter well outdoors in zone 6 with a lot of mulch and keeping them dry... NJ should do even better.
LilRaverBoi
06-26-2010, 02:37 PM
So what is the question? If you're concerned about the thin stems and few leaves over winter, this is very likely the result of insufficient light. Some plants are more sensitive to lower levels of light than others. For those that require high light levels, if they don't receive it, they start dropping leaves and the growth gets really thin and leggy. I had the same thing happen with my Siam Ruby this winter.
jamesdart
06-26-2010, 04:43 PM
well i am wondering what to do, its like they dont really recover. were into july and they really dont look that good.
LilRaverBoi
06-26-2010, 09:23 PM
If you're concerned with them looking overly 'leggy' you could always chop back the pseudostem to half its height and let them grow back from there. That will set them back a bit height-wise, but will make them look more proportionally appealing.
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