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bjorkid
05-11-2009, 07:58 AM
This winter when my double mahoi got frostbitten I cut the stem too low and the only growth was all white with a pinkish flush and the leaves were insubstantial and narrow. After several weeks of this I got fed up and hacked it to the ground so it could start over, but a new sucker just came up and is... also white. Any suggestions?

Bob
05-11-2009, 09:15 AM
Sounds very interesting. You should post some pictures.

LilRaverBoi
05-11-2009, 12:46 PM
Hmmm...white leaves like that can be indicative of sunburn (from what I've heard, at least). I'm not really sure where your plants are, but this might be your problem. Definitely post some pics if you can.

bjorkid
05-11-2009, 06:37 PM
Darn! I thought I had a picture on me but i guess not. The plant is at my moms so it will be a few days, but in the meantime I should day that it is situated in good sun but is also surrounded by plenty of healthy banana plants. Since I have a bunch of pups coming from another corm I'm not desperate to save it, but I think its an interesting problem I have not seen before. Thanks for helping me on this one... anyone else have an idea?

Michael_Andrew
05-11-2009, 06:56 PM
http://www.bananas.org/f2/ae-ae-albino-1268.html

chong
05-11-2009, 08:06 PM
All white leaf is just due to lack of photosynthesis as Xavier suggested. There is no reason to get upset with the plant, particularly, if it has been stored in a low light location. Even my TX Star which is in the greenhouse, and the particular area that it was in has a 40 watt MH light beaming on to it all winter, and the first couple of leaves that emerged were very light green, or maybe even white when they just came out. But I didn't notice it the first couple of weeks because I thought that plant had died.
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=16975&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=16975&ppuser=567)

Just took the picture below a few minutes ago. Wish I could have taken one when it just pushed out - it was mostly all light yellow-green, just like the lower part of that third leaf.
http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=17225&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=17225&ppuser=567)

I think the light or white leaf buds after a long storage is just from the prolonged low temperatures and lack of light.

bjorkid
05-11-2009, 08:15 PM
Thanks for that great link! The newest pictures match up exactly to how mine looked before i cut it down! There was a mention of how dog urine can cause this to happen, and that would make sense because that was my dogs favorite place to go. If I dig it up and try it on my north facing balcony or indoors I might have a shot... The only thing i'm still wondering about is the fact that mine is a double mahoi and those are ae ae's. Maybe because they are both from hawaii?

bjorkid
05-11-2009, 08:23 PM
sorry chong, didn't see your post til after I posted mine. My plant is was actually in full sun and put out white leaves for 1-2 months so I dunno. Also, it is actually all whhite and pink with no trace of yellow or green. :(

chong
05-11-2009, 08:41 PM
Thanks for that great link! The newest pictures match up exactly to how mine looked before i cut it down! There was a mention of how dog urine can cause this to happen, and that would make sense because that was my dogs favorite place to go. If I dig it up and try it on my north facing balcony or indoors I might have a shot... The only thing i'm still wondering about is the fact that mine is a double mahoi and those are ae ae's. Maybe because they are both from hawaii?

I'm assuming that these plants are in the ground outside. If it were "over fertilized by dog pee", the plant would rot. If the pee were diluted by rainwater, then it should not harm it, though if the "fertilizer" were still high in concentration, the result would be a deeper yellowing, I would think, than a light yellow green color.

The TX Star is allegedly from TX, as the name implies, and not from HI. It really doesn't matter where the plant is from. If it has gone through a dormant phase, depending on the conditions at the time the leaves start to emerge, you can get a wide range of coloration from off-white to light yellow-green, to light green. You mentioned Ae'-Ae, my two plants spent the last 7 months under the skylight in the hall next to our kitchen, and they've just now pushed out a new leaf each, with the smaller of the two pushing another. The colors are the normal Ae'-Ae variegated colors. The temperature in this area doesn't get below 65°F and seldom goes over 70°F.

bjorkid
05-12-2009, 08:56 AM
sorry, i was referring to michael andrews post! Whoops.

Sailfish
05-12-2009, 11:36 AM
a couple of mine got hit by the frost this year, same thing happened.

First leaf was white, second was kind of white, 3 rd was mostly green, plant is now growing normal.
Looked pretty neat when it was partially white and partially green