View Full Version : Is it dead or alive
scarll
04-17-2018, 09:31 AM
In the Fall of 2016 I cut back my pot grown Musa banana and stored it in my friend's root cellar for the winter. When it came out in April, it already had a good size sprout on it and grew to over 7 ft on my deck. This past fall I again cut it back but also did some root pruning to fit it into a smaller, more manageable, pot. It went back into the root cellar and came out about three weeks ago. I have watered it and put it in a sunny spot, even moved it outside for a couple of hours when the temp was above 60. So far there is no sign of growth. There was quite a "scab" on the top of the stump, so I trimmed that back. The exposed part was damp and soft, not at all dried out. That was 5 days ago and there is still no sign of growth. Did I kill it by pruning the roots? How long should I wait for growth before giving up on it, or is there something else I can do to help it along? Thanks for any help/suggestions.
pitangadiego
04-17-2018, 11:31 PM
Not time to give up yet. Just leave it alone. But temps in the 80s and 90s would be helpful. 60F is not enough to excite a banana plant into growing.
scarll
04-18-2018, 06:14 AM
Thanks. It may be a very long time before it gets that warm here! We are still having snow. Last weekend we had two days above 70, and then back to this very unusual weather. I will keep hoping.
scarll
05-03-2018, 06:04 AM
Wanted to give an update on my banana. I finally gave up on it and decided to take it out of the pot and see if I could figure out what had happened. When I removed it I noticed that the stem felt a little soft. While removing the dirt from the roots I found hundreds of very small white bugs, almost looked like tiny white ants. They were all over the base of the stem and had burrowed into it. The stem just shredded in my hands because of all of the small "tunnels". I have no idea what kind of bugs they were, or where they came from. Any thoughts?
edwmax
05-03-2018, 06:48 AM
Termites ... The nana is dead ... and kill the bugs before they spread! Time to get a new plant.
You could trim/pare the corm by cutting off all the roots and skin the corm to all white. Then treat with bleach water or boiling water (5 or 8 minutes; Repot in sand. It may still be possible to get a couple of new pups after several weeks if the corm doesn't rot. ... But these may still have some of the bugs from deep in the old corm.
edwmax
05-03-2018, 09:20 AM
Oh, your friend needs to check his cellar for termites and treat if needed. Likely the termites were in the cellar, but they could have got in the pot after placing on the deck during a spring swarm.
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