Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

I planted two bananas about 1 1/2-2 months ago. I have been giving them lots of water and fertilized at planting and then every two weeks with 10-10-10 granular. They have put out new leaves but are growing slowly and now the leaves are getting brown edges. Does this look like a disease, or something cultural? Too much fertilizer?

I hope you can find the photo. I put it in my gallery but cannot figure out how to attach to this post.

We have had some temperature extremes here in Western Washington so I wonder if that could be it....

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

How often do you water? I would cut back on water and see if they start looking better. Depending on your location with that much mulch the spring rains is usually enough here where I live. Hot summer is a totally different story.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

Cold weather will do it. If that's what you mean by "temperature extremes."

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

TyTaylor... Looks like you are not in a frost free zone. How do you manage to tend to so many varieties, many of which are not frost tolerant, such as Gros Michel? I live in east central Florida, and worry about it and the Cavendish next winter... and we are way safer here... Anyone else growing and fruiting nanners in the northern areas, please chime in as well.
I used to grow em in central Illinois, but had no hopes of ever seeing fruit. I dug them up and put them in buckets in the basement during our long winters.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

No I have a winter for sure. I cover some. Some die and come back. And some make it untouched. My GM is still very small. My gran Nain hate the cold. So do my Veinte cohol.

Last year I had the following uncovered and they only lost leaves:
Goldfinger. Manzano. Orinoco. Basjoo. Namwa.

The coldest it got last year here was 30. And under 32 a total of 3-4 times. Was a very mild winter.

I also live on the lake. Toledo Bend wraps around my north and east sides. I think that helps a lot. The lake is about 5-6 miles wide where I am it's about 70 miles long if I remember right. It's the largest lake in TX, the south, and 5th largest in the US.

I have 4 fruiting now. Lots more on the way. I'm starting to focus more on dwarfs and short cycle varieties. Dwarfs are so much easier to cover.

All I do is after the leaves are burnt off by the first major frost. (This year it was into January). I put 3 poles in the ground. Wood. Metal. PVC. Whatever I can find. Then I wrap the PS with Christmas lights. The small tiny kind. Then I stick a black trash bag on top and wrap with pallet wrap. About 3 layers thick. It takes seriously 10 minutes per tree and is easy. Shorter the plant easier it is.

I just love growing bananas. So far I have been pretty successful. Not compared to the tropics but for zone 8b.

I also have Meyer lemon trees that are 15+ years old. Never froze to the ground. Also have huge Hamlin orange trees. 4 different varieties of manderin. Kumquat. 2 types of Mexican avocado. Several figs. My Texas everberring is 20'+ tall. No protection after the first couple years on any citrus etc.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

Have you tried Braziilians? We had a couple frosts here last winter, but it didn't get below freezing that I know of. I didn't even have leaf damage and it had a bunch on with no damage, uncovered. Something to think about, I guess. Mine flowered in 9 months here, so they flower quick, but they took 5 months to ripen, downside.

I wondered basically for ideas for my cold haters here in case of colder weather. We all seemed to have a mild winter last year, but it can get down to mid to upper 20's here occasionally.

Good to know Namwah don't mind a chill as I am pretty sure I have two of them. As I remember, they are fast fruiters too.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

Dwarf Brazillian is on my want list. Or 3640. I love my Namwa. They are really tall. I wanna get dwarf Namwa also. I'm trying to get everything I can then expand on what I like best and cut back on what doesn't do great here.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

By temperature extremes I meant from mid-50s to over 100 within a week. I was watering a lot when the temps started to rise.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

Mine flower at about 9 feet, so not sure if that is dwarf or not, but if I had a pup ready, I would send it today. The only pup I have big enough is attached to the flowering one.

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

Did you spray the leaves with water?

Re: Help! Musa Basjoo not doing well
 

That's sunburn my friend. They'll grow out of it. I might go a little lighter on the ferts til it starts growing faster again.