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View Full Version : My thriving five year old stopped thriving


Shmu
12-20-2015, 08:24 AM
Hi all,
I live in Cedarhurst NY and we have a 5 yr old plant that we raised indoors from a pup In its heyday, as it matured it would unfold a big beautiful leaf on average every 10 to 20 days. Some time midsummer I decided to re pot it from a large pot to an obscenely large pot because it had stopped growing and the I waited for some result to my effort. It didn't resume growing , buy as far as I can tell it wasn't dying either. A short time after that I noticed the first pup sprouting up near the main plant . When it was 14 inches tall I detached it from the rootball, planted it in its own pot & it's been growing nicely but still no growth from the main plant . A month ago the main plant yielded 2 more pups which I have since detached and planted . In the past two weeks the main plant began to deteriorate. The leave wilted and turned brown. I removed all the brown leaves and peeled back the stem until I got down to a green layer and left it alone with 3 large wilting leaves remaining, and I've been waiting for its next move. This morning I noticed yet another pup popping up out of the soil so I know that there is still life there .
What should I be doing now to save the mother plant ?
Thanks, Shmu

Snarkie
12-20-2015, 02:00 PM
Hi Shmu-

Welcome to the Banana Express! :nanerwaveytrain:

Someone will chime in and correct me if I am wrong, but it sounds like the natural life and death cycle of the plant. At some point, the mother will die back, which is why she produces the pups.

Shmu
12-20-2015, 05:13 PM
If so should I be cutting down the main stem?

scottu
12-20-2015, 06:25 PM
pic would help but, after 5 years it's likely done. If it puts out another pup just let it take over.

siege2050
12-20-2015, 09:43 PM
Pretty sure that mother stem has decided to stop for some reason, pupping is an indicator. My Musa Sikkimensis is cranky and will stop growing sometimes for no apparent reason, and then will start pupping. I cut the pstem down to ground level to see if it will restart, but never does and starts to decline.