bstevens

Hi,
I just joined I have been raising banana plants in phoenix for several years now and they flower nicely but never continue to fill out. they just stay finger size and eventually dry up. i was reading that i need to fertilize them alot. so have started given then about a cup of 16-16-16 fertilizer every 2 weeks before we get flood irrigation (comes from lake water). After about a month my banana's new leaf is folding in half as it comes out. Did i fertilize to much or is it just our hot 116 degree weather combo with fertilizing? any one have any advice?
Great to meet you all.
brad

smeash

Not sure what you mean by folding in half.. like a taco. or breaking midway down the midrib or something like that? Deformity of new cigar leaves is usually a sign of overfertilizing, but they tend to either come out hooked, or ripped etc.. what i think you are describing is leaf wilt from the heat. Do you notice the condition all the time or just in the heat of the day?

bstevens

Yes it is the "cigar leaf" coming out and breaks over about halfway. I was guessing it was fertilizer as this happened a week or two after i fertilized them. So, other than not fertilizing for awhile and cutting down the amount used, anything else i should do? i assume they will recover given time? Thanks for your response.

edwmax

Pictures would help. .... With 116 deg F temps, ALL of the leaves will fold or droop in half. The plant has stop uptake of water. .... there are 2 reasons for this folding/drooping: Lack of water & high radiant heat (>100 deg).



A cup of 16-16-16 fertilizer every 2 weeks is not too much. But you didn't state what type of fertilizer it was (slow release or fast release water soluble) or how much water the plant gets and when. So water soluble fertilizer could be dissolving all at once and shocking the plant. Use field grade slow release granular fertilizer.

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bstevens

Not having any luck attaching a picture, it wants to take me to a url, so don't know how to attach a file on this tool. I'm not referring to the mature leaves drooping in half. This is the new leaf that hasn't uncurled yet. it is folding in half before it has a chance to open. The fertilizer for nitrogen in ~ 50/50. 11.1% Ammoniacal (ie slow release) and 9.9% Nitrate (fast relief)

Akula

I have had something similar happen to one of my plants from time to time. In my case it was due to over fertilization which led to rapid growth and weak cigar leaves. This occurs only on one type of plant I have (Unknown type) but I fertilize heavy with 5 oz of urea applied per month with peak summer temps about 97-98F and my area gets a lot of heavy rain. I skip a fertilizer application until normal leaves appear and then dial back the amount when I resume.

I don’t have temps like yours so no comment other than 115F is crazy hot!!

smeash

Crazy hot and crazy DRY! When I lived in NM i used to slather on baby oil every shower to keep my skin form cracking off! That banana is probably in need of some shade and misting during the day!