Yellowing leaves

[Grog]

I'm growing some Ensete ventrisocum plants indoors. They have grown nicely up until now. They are about 3' tall. Now the outer edges of the leaves are starting to yellow. What is this an indication of? To much water? Not enough water? To little sun? To cold?

[banana berserker]

i dont know how much water heat and sun your giving it so i dont know what your doing wrong so ill just tell you this-they NEED over 40 degrees they SHOULD have it beetween 70 and 90 (maybe a little less), i just estamate with watering so i cant give you an accurate amount of water, they should get about 12 hours of sun and im not sure about the min. hours of sun but in the middle of a winter like this id say you need more sun. if you live in zone 9 winter will be over soon and its natural for the plant to get a little brown in winter so i wouldnt worry unless it gets much much worse.

[mskitty38583]

are you feeding it?

[inkcube]

which leaves are yellowing; top, bottom, all? this will indicate if it is a nutrient problem or an aging problem (of the leaf).

[Grog]

It looks like all of the leaves are starting to yellow, more so on the bottom leaves though. It's 65-70F in the house. We put some full spectrum lights in the room today, to give them a little more light. We don't get much sun this time of year in Seattle. I haven't been feeding, so I'll start doing that.

Thanks for the tips

[inkcube]

lower leaves yellowing is typically a sign of N deficiency & aging. the plant will scavenger N from lower leaves as the leaves age thus producing yellow leaves, this also occurs when there is a N deficiency. other deficiences/toxicities also casue yellowing but without photos it is hard to diagnose. you also can't rule out pests, especially spider mites. run a moist paper towel along the underside of the leaves, if it becomes reddish, orangish, or brownish you have mites.

without photos my best guess would be combination of low N, low light, and low humidity. when i winter plants indoors i put a balanced time release fertilizer on the soil, it keeps the plants happy and only releases when you water and when temps are warm enough (most incapsulation materials are temp & pH sensitive), when the plants go outdoors the fert is generally used up (most last about 3 months) and i can begin a more typical fert regime.

[Panaroma]

I agree with Inkcube; it's probably the combination of dry, unventilated air, wich makes it sensitive to mites. The light (fotons) gives the plant its energy. If your Ensete is in low lightconditions, it weakens him even more.
I'dd say, without leaves, keep him dry and cool (5-10*C). With leaves, keep him in an sunny, 'enlightened' position, and mist them daily with roomtemp. rainwater (also the undersides of the leaves!) at 10-15*C.
The airhumidity should also take care of the mites. When the mites still love the plant's atmosphere; the spray them with garlictea (one or two garlicparts, crush them, boil 1 L water, take the garlic, put it in and let cool down. Spray it all over the plant.

One thing though, I shouldn't feed him them that much. For a fact, I wouldn't at all. Leave him aging, the leaves below will yellow, that's natural, like Inkcube said. Also, I wouldn't give it that much water in the pot neither.

Succes

[sandy0225]

Mine in the greenhouse are doing that too, and they usually do this time of the year. I think it's just dark days if nothing else in their routine has changed, the lights should take care of it. Or as soon as the light gets brighter and longer outside. That fixes it too!

[mrbungalow]

It's lack of sun.