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View Full Version : what's wrong with my bananas?


Engleman
07-27-2009, 08:22 AM
Hi All,
I'm a new member living in SW Fl. I was hoping to give a cheery intro to myself and instead am asking for help? I have about a dozen different types mostly put in within the last year or so and am noticing this leaf distortion and die back on three or four. The worst case is on a FHIA 18 but it has also shown on a raji puri and an "apple". I'm enclosing some photos in the photo gallery (under 'engleman') and hope someone can identify the problem and help me deal with it.
Hopefully a 'cheery' intro to follow...

Bob
07-27-2009, 04:32 PM
I hope someone with more expertise sees this and checks your gallery. The regular pattern of blackening on the ribs of the leaves look like it could be sigatoka which I believe may be in your area. Check some posts on this and look at the wiki for more info, copper sulfate should help control it. Good luck.

lorax
07-27-2009, 04:36 PM
Looks like Sig to me. Copper sulfate to the rescue!

Nicolas Naranja
07-27-2009, 09:17 PM
That doesn't look like a typical case of sigatoka to me, and from my own experience I have almost never seen sigatoka on the candela (new closed) leaves. However I have seen this problem on my own plants, and I think it may be nutritional or have something to do with the water status of the plants because it occurred right after I planted in the field. The plants all grew out of it and are now OK.

pitangadiego
07-27-2009, 11:37 PM
I vote water deficiency in the past. Banana leaves show what happened a week or two ago, in many cases. You are looking at something that happened before the leaf emerged. So it does not represent current conditions, rather past conditions. Water deficiency is the result of under-watering, or overwatering to the point that the roots are rotting, which lessens water absorption, or any other reason for diminished root quantity (digging, pup removal, neighbors dog burying a bone, etc.)

With good consistent culture, it should grow out of it. Help the damaged leave unfurl, if necessary.

stumpy4700
07-27-2009, 11:39 PM
Mine had a lack of calcium and looked similar to that. I switched Fertilizers and it was corrected.

Engleman
07-28-2009, 06:18 AM
Thanks for everybody's input. I spoke to the local county extension agent yesterday and he sort of agrees with a couple of the later posts, that it is not 'SIG" and that it is a water/fertilization/salts issue. It maybe possible salts in the bottom of a bag of fertilizer that I used a week or two prior to the leaves showing symptoms had concentrated themselves into the finer granules at the bottom of a bucket which got used on those last two plants. All my other plants are fine and showing good growth and healthy characteristics. I'll update this thread in a couple of weeks when the next set of leaves emerge.

Eric
07-28-2009, 06:48 AM
If they were mine, I'd spray for Sigatoka just the same. It doesn't hurt the plants & sometimes pays to be on the safe-side. Remember, county extension agents are human, too, and can make mistakes.

Nicolas Naranja
07-28-2009, 08:21 AM
If they were mine, I'd spray for Sigatoka just the same. It doesn't hurt the plants & sometimes pays to be on the safe-side. Remember, county extension agents are human, too, and can make mistakes.

If he was having issues with Cavendish bananas I would agree, however FHIA-18 is pretty resistant to sigatoka if my memory serves me correctly.

Richard
07-28-2009, 09:31 AM
Thanks for everybody's input. I spoke to the local county extension agent yesterday and he sort of agrees with a couple of the later posts, that it is not 'SIG" and that it is a water/fertilization/salts issue...

Contacting the county extension office was a great idea!

Eric
07-28-2009, 12:12 PM
Contacting the county extension office was a great idea!

I totally agree. I just tend to be Overly cautious, myself.

birdman
07-28-2009, 02:40 PM
I think you have a calcium problem. I have even added crushed oyster shells to my plants and they showed an improvement in leaf quality.