RandyGHO

Curious question. My ice cream had a leaf that want fall back. It just stands more or less straight-up with the leaf bend being backwards from regular leaves before, and since this one came out.

Is this a common occurrence?

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Gabe15

These kinds of minor abnormalities will happen from time to time and are of no worry. Generally they do not persist and the next leaves will be normal, and they will have no impact on fruit production.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

RandyGHO

Thank you Gabe for the reply. I kept thinking it would flop over. Glad to know it is just one of those things.

Randy

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bananimal

I've had leaves take on irregular shapes while still in the cigar stage. All loopy. Was told that it was the result of overferting. They called it spaghetti -ing. The wind and growth will fix it.

My big Ae Ae just did this and a bit of wind came thru and snapped it open. Top of the cigar leaf looked like a question mark.

venturabananas

Mine get that from boron deficiency. Those symptoms show up when I fertilize heavily. The very light color of the newly emerged leaf on the plant behind it in the photo suggests that you have something like that going on.

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RandyGHO

They do come out very light in color. I have the soil sample bags. I need to get the sample to the extension office.

Randy

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bananimal

Forgot about the lighter color. It's like the leaf is growing too fast to green up and harden up as it emerges. It's over ferting for sure.

Randy - what are you using, how much and how often? And list minors. That, along with the soil analysis, will tell the story.

When spaghetti leaves appear I just cut back on fert or skip a monthly application.

venturabananas

Yep, that'll fix it. Of course, then you risk not feeding enough of the macronutrients and slowing down growth of the plant. I've done that, too. It's a good approach, but I'm too impatient to use it. I want my bananas to grow and produce for me as fast as possible!

The other approach is to identify the limiting micronutrient and supply enough of it. The challenge I've found is to supply it at the right frequency or quantity, and so I still get wonky leaves sometimes, especially on the more sensitive varieties. The challenge is that some of the micronutrients are taken up more slowly than N, P, and K, so fertilizing with a complete fert that includes them can still cause the "spaghetti" leaves because they can't transport the micronutrients into the leaves as fast as they are growing. I think I'm getting close to a fert and micronutrient regimen that works -- eventually I'll get there, I hope!

The good news is that even if you were to do nothing, the problem you're having probably isn't severe enough to cause anything other than esthetic problems. I've seen plants with symptoms like yours that produce, big, healthy, tasty bunches of bananas.

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RandyGHO

10-2-22(What the Aussies use) is what I started using at the rate of one pound per month. I will look on the bag for the micros. I am not adding any beyond what is in the bag already. I could have some left over slow release fertilizer still kicking in but it is now 10 weeks old

The leaf roll comes out kinda of stiff and stands up for the most part. It is green but a pale green call it a mint or pistachio ice cream green. When it unrolls, it turns green.

I am a bit of a pusher on the fertilizer. I want to get every foot of height I can before first frost.

Thanks guys for looking over these pictures.

Always interesting.

Randy

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Thinking outside the peel always.