cranemit

I've been growing bananas for about 5 years and have only had occasional problems with trees getting blown over, and that's typically been due to strong wind. This season, I've had several tipping over kind of randomly. A few have been plants growing fruit, and just started to bend below where the fruit was growing out, and for those I was typically able to support them and buy them a few more weeks until they were ready to be harvested.

But recently some of them have started to tip over basically from the roots. I'll add replies in a few minutes with pictures to show a little bit more detail in case it helps. Just trying to figure out what I can do to help limit or prevent this.

One of the mats is Mysore, and I originally planted in that spot about 5 years ago. A few weeks ago, I noticed two of them had completely fallen over, roots and all. There are still a few others growing in that mat and I started to notice them leaning, and when I pushed one, it seemed pretty loose and felt like it would eventually tip over. I figured it's better to just lose that one plant and leave the other smaller ones growing, and thought maybe if it had to do with the overall weight, that might help a little. So I've chopped the taller trees there but it still does feel like the base is a bit loose.

Today I noticed a Sweetheart had tipped over as well. I haven't done anything with it yet, and I didn't notice the others in that mat appearing to be loose or anything. But the roots where it came out felt pretty dry underneath.

I'm in South Florida, in zone 10. This time of year we get pretty sporadic heavy rainfalls, but if there's nothing for 2 or 3 days I'll run the sprinklers. I fertilize every month, put plenty of compost on there, and cut up the trees that have been harvested and scatter them around the base of the others.

I can't tell if this is a matter of it being under- or over-watered, or just something else with the soil. When I cut up the "logs" of the dead trees, I'll leave them in chunks a few feet long and put them over the roots of other banana trees, letting them eventually decompose. I've tried doing this a bit more around the mats where I've seen plants tipping, hoping a little more weight might help keep the roots in place, but maybe it's having the opposite effect.

Would appreciate any advice people have. Overall it's been a very fruitful summer, but I do try to have enough fruit in the pipeline so over the winter when the fruiting slows down, that we still have enough to last us. I'm the type of person who gets sad seeing mango blossoms fall to the ground, knowing that it's one less mango that someone will get to enjoy, so having to cut down a tree, with or without fruit growing on it, is never an easy thing to do!

cranemit

These are pictures of the roots of the Sweetheart that tipped. The others around it seem to be okay, and looks like some additional pups ready to emerge (It's cool to see them like that, since I wouldn't be able to see what's underground under normal circumstances)

cranemit

This is the base of the Mysores that had fallen earlier. The first pic is the hole where they had tipped over a few weeks ago, and there's some new stuff beginning to grow around it.
The second picture shows the one that was leaning and I just cut today. It was probably about 10 feet tall and was leaning about 30 degrees, and hadn't even fruited yet, so with more weight it would have almost surely tipped over. You can kind of see in the picture there's a little gap where it goes into the ground, and I was able to rock it back and forth a bit, and just didn't feel very sturdy.

edwmax

I'm thinking the soil is too soft. Since bananas are shallow rooted it would then be easy for the plant to lean over & tip over. .... So the questions now are: How deep is the compost? .... Are the corms growing in natural soil or the compost above?


You may need to keep the compost/mulch to a few inches thickness & no more for weed control.

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cranemit

Thanks @edwmax
When I originally planted, they went straight into the ground, but I have noticed over time the little mound around this corm has grown a bit. So I should stop putting the stumps of banana trees past onto this mat for a bit? Would it help to put some plain soil on it or would that have the opposite effect too?

smeash

I recently watched a video of a plantation owner explaining some of his growing practices. One of the main thing he said to do was to mulch heavily, but to keep the mulch at least 2 ft away from the pstem. The reasoning he gave is that the banana roots would prefer the light soil of the mulch, and primarily form on the surface rather than seek a deeper path.

cranemit

Okay, I'll give that a try. I have each of the mats about 8-10 feet apart, so I can start putting the mulch in between rather than around the growing plants.

edwmax

Thanks .... you confirmed what I stated. .... Rake the mulch back from the pstem. As for the old dead pstems, I leave those standing (4ft to 5 ft tall) until they fall over. the rest of the stalk, I remove from the mat except the leaves. The leaves I spread around the mat for weed control. They will rot out in a few months.


Adding top soil or sand would certainly help stiffen up the soil. I would rake back as much of the mulch as possible and add the soil/sand to 2 or 3ft around the base of the pstem. .... I'm not sure there is anything else that can be done other than replanting the Nana.

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pitangadiego

Could be a problem caused by a lack of roots, from under-watering, over-watering, critters such as gophers, crowding from to many pseudostems close together, etc. Some varieties tend to be less vigorous when they flower, not keeping their roots and leaves. Planting depth could be an issue. If the plant is not deep enough, there will be less area on the corm to from roots. If you can see the point where the oldest leaves join the pseudostem, it is likely too shallow. Soil texture can also be an issue. High quantity of organics and lack of mineral soil (clays, etc.) can make it easier for roots to pull out of the soil, especially when wet. You need to be a bit holistic and consider all the factors as they interact.

Added: Removing too many pups is another issue to consider in other cases similar to this. Pups are used by the parent plant for addtional anchoring, especially when the parent had fruit hanging.

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Bananagardendreamboy

No way to know for sure but the roots have to be a bit under developed because like you said usually these plants can withstand a good amount of wind and abuse before tipping over. My namwah has withstood some pretty strong gusts. I would probably pull the mulch away and buy some cheap garden soil or top soil. Maybe a yard in my pickup or just buy the bag if you need to and spread it all around. Then stomp it down or tamp it in some spots. Then put the mulch back up. Like someone said earlier the soil may be not compact enough?

Good luck dude either way, rare problem to run into and your watering schedule is exactly like mine in 9b

Backyard Banana Joe

I would say not planted deep enough....... I don't see a problem with leaving the cut trunks at the base as that is what I do with no problem...


Also like some people already said, the roots were damaged (too wet= rot, too dry=root died back) I can't really see the whole base, but I would think that building the soil up would be good, not raking it back. I would use wood chips. One of my namwas is planted on a solid mound of compost, about three feet deep. No problem. Keep us updated!

Backyard Banana Joe

Aha! I zoomed in and see little roots starting to form ABOVE the soil. Definitely needs to have the soil built up!

cranemit

Thanks to all who gave suggestions. My theory at this point is definitely from the roots growing above ground because of the cut up pseudostems that I scatter around. I went through and removed as many of those as I could, and put them in between the mats instead, and I put some top soil around the ones that were having problems. I'll keep an eye on those in the coming months and add more soil if they seem to need it.

smeash

Keep us updated! I think you are on the right track though!