found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Hello,
I have a backyard garden in Brooklyn and I just "rescued" a plant from the trash pile on the curb. I know nothing about Banana plants but have always admired the look and I have a backyard garden that I am somewhat blissfully, compulsively obsessed with. I thought I could nurse the plant back to help because I have space for it and it has a couple of young shoots (pups?) coming up, despite the larger, older leaves looking burnt and damaged and the pot had some trash and cigarette butts tossed in there. I'm joining this forum in hopes of learning about basic care guidelines, typical diseases and pests that these plants are susceptible to. If I don't kill it immediately, it would be great to be able to identify the plant and deepen my knowledge of these types of plants.
Thanks in advance for your help!
anna

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Thanks sunfish! I want to upload some photos but doesn't look like its possible to do that using my phone. I'm particularly interested to fun out about disease that typically attacks these plants. One of the trunks (?) has some powdery white (mildew?) speckles on it am on the leaves coming from that trunk. Anybody have a guess as to what that is, how to treat it? Is it worth fighting the good fight or am
I foolishly putting my other plants and trees at risk? So far, I have cut off the dead (completely brown) leaves and given the plant some water.

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Hello, Welcome & Good Luck.. :^)
If you log-on to banana's on your phone you can upload photo's to your gallery, which can then get put in this thread.

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Who would throw away a helpless banana??? Poor nana... I'm glad you rescued it and I'm sure with the help of all the super knowledgeable folks here, you'll have a awesome banana plant!

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

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Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Thanks for all the welcome notes! I have posted pictures that show the new shoots as well as the significant flaky white pest or disease that seems to be plaguing this plant. I also included a photo of the dead or damaged leaves I removed from the plant after hauling it off the street. Any help identifying the variety of plant or the type of plague and how to treat will be GREATLY appreciated! I am already very impressed and fascinated by your community here!

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

The fungus among us.. :^)

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

The plant must be a Strelitzia nicolai and the pest is scale. Just rub as much of the scale as you can off the plant,getting in the leaf crevices as well with a tool. Then,use used coffee grounds on the soil of the pot and water in well. This acts systemically i many plants and kills the scale. You can also place a couple of used coffee grounds disks in a bottle,fill it with water,shake and leave it in the sun for some hours. Then,soak with this all the areas where the scale was or still is and you cant reach. The used coffee grounds and that treatment will take care of the scale for good. If you place the plant outside,in a well ventilated spot in the sun and water it correctly,it should come back on its own and be fine from there on :)

Good luck with it!!!

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

I would wash off the mealybug with water pressure

50/50 Rubbing alcohol /water will kill the buggers

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

maybe that's why it was tossed out,carefull if you keep other plants..quarantine for a while

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Thanks for all the responses! I'm proceeding with the coffee grounds and soapy water applications... fingers crossed! Will update you all later with results.

I googled "Strelitzia nicolai" and learned that's a bird-of-paradise plant!? That certainly would be spectacular if it ever flowers! Does anyone in the NYC/LI area (zone 7b I think) know if that is possible in these parts? (Forgive me, I am pretty much banana-ignorant.)

Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Welcome to Bananas!


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Re: found banana on the curb, Brooklyn
 

Hello from PA.:03: