browning leaves in winter
 

hi name is justin im new to this site currently growing burmese blue, african red, chinese yellow, royal ruby, royal purple, velutina, dwarf cavendish, sdc, bajoo, awaiting a five foot ae ae, a praying hands and a red iholen. my leaves started to turning brown at the edges and tips and the lower leaves r all brown so i cut them off. all the plants are younger i just got into bananas this summer they are all in the house the house is about 70 degrees and i mist them everyday with luke warm water i live in wisconsin and they have all been in my basement in front of french doors and a large window on the south side of my house since i got them about 5 months ago the bajoo and the dc is about seven feet tall already i water them once every week with mirical grow and water them if soil is dry with tap water, sprinkle epsons salt on soil every monthto seven wks. so they r well taking care of i hope. lol i was wondering if the house is too dry for them so i started misting twice a day my furnace is fuel oil. they started to slow down growth and only get a new leaf like every month to 3 wks exept for the chinese yellow that get like three to four new leaves a wk on a cluster about a foot in diameter i was wondeing should i keep up with this schedule or should i chop the leaves off and quit watering them and store them in in a dark storeage closet i plan on putting them all outside this spring in my land scaping my white bird of paradise and three types of large elephant ears i dug up all the elephant ears and chopped them off and they keep comin back already but none of there leaves open fully and the new ones arent as big any help is apprecated i will post some picks tomarrow if it would help anybody thanks justin

Re: browning leaves in winter
 

Hey there Justin, sounds like you got the banana bug too! Expect some leaf browning as the phytoperiod is reduced in winter months. The plants are adjusting. As long as you have room for them in the house this winter, keep doing what you have been doing. Watch for mites and such, perhaps stop fertilizing and reduce the watering schedule. You will be that much farther ahead this spring when you put them outside. Cutting off the lower leaves that have browned is ok. Check them for spider mites.
Welcome to bananas!!!

Re: browning leaves in winter
 

Hi I found with misting plants inside the house in winter that it does not help only seems to hurt,,reason being that when the water evaporates from the leaf surface it seems to pull moisture out of the leaf with it,,so I do not mist anymore instead I have 2 humidifiers that I have in the house to keep the humidity at about 45-55 percent ,,plus using city water wich has chlorine and alot of other bad stuff in it alot of plants seem to get leave burn from this water from misting thats also another reason i stopped misting,but if you must insist on misting fill water in bucket leave sit over night to let the gases breath out of it and than use that water to mist your plants with. Hope this was of some help!!!! Plus you can avoid haveing to mist all the way around if you spray your plants with wilt stop ,it helps your plant retain moisture in the leaf!!! but yet still allows your plant to breath pretty good!!!

Re: browning leaves in winter
 

i do us distilled water when misting i was thinking about trying a childs vaporisor does it stop the edges and tips of the leaves from browning and also will it speed up the growth like it left off in about the begining of october

Re: browning leaves in winter
 

would the plant look and adjust better to being outside in the spring if i chop off the leaves and stop watering and about how much should i water them if i try to do this or what d u all think?