Zacarias

Hey all,

I come here because you guys rock! Anyway, the picture below is a unknown small nanner that had some yellowish leaves a few weeks ago and now a lot of them have turn crisp brown on the edges, even the new leaf. The surface looks dry in the pic, but trust me, it gets plenty of water...if not too much?
The scoop is, I water it in it's pot about everyother day. I did fertilize it like every two weeks 10-10-10, but I'm concerned that I may have been overfertilizing it, given that it's in a container. I also discovered it has bad spider mites or aphids (couldn't see webbing) and so I first sprayed it with pyrethrin, and then like a few days later, I sprayed soapy water.
I'm trying to get a handle on weather the spider mites caused all this damage or if the chemicals I sprayed had something to do with it. The mist it now UNDER the leaves too (that part is very important I found out), and I have a large plate with water and pebbles underneath now. Hopefully this will help keep away the mites in our dry Phoenix weather.
Even the pups look sad now. I don't know if anyone can notice anything wrong right away from the pic or if I should keep trying to keep away the mites and see if the banana gets over it with new leaves? Thanks guys.

Zach




A rose that bloomed yesterday here.

High_Brix

Im not sure what the problem is, but here's what I would do...I would bring that plant in the house and make a humid banana hospital out of a small room in your house. Keep it out of the sun and Have a humidifier running with low lighting. Whenever I have a young naner getting away from me, I take it to my hopital room and it seems to recover.

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Zacarias

Now that banana plant I stripped of some leaves and the pseudostem is progressively growing black. I mean it's not a big banana but it's been around a while and was growing before....don't why now it would suddenly rot!!! I did kill all the mites I THINK though...I just wish I wasn't such a novice.

Zach

mskitty38583

at one time all of us didnt know what to do with a nana tree. ive only been growing them since october of last year. it is a learning experience. my first banana tree died. i was devestated. but i got another one and hey that one is still living. here at the org we have an archive. scroll down to the bottom of the page it is on the right hand side at the bottom. click on it.there is a lot of info in there for newbies like us. thats what i did when i first joined. and i asked alot of questions. if something is going on with your nanas that dosent look right, if you can post a picture it can help someone tell you whats going on. we are all here to help you. and if one of us cant there is another person who can. dont give up. we like you here.

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Dean W.

Maybe, to much fertilizer?

Dean

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D_&_T

How wet is the soil almost sounds like root rot from over watering.

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chong

From the picture, it looks to me, like the soil is dry. Also, from the looks of the leaves, the brown spots would indicate to me that at one time the plant experienced drought. Thereafter, it may have been watered regularly, but in my experience, after the soil dries out in a pot, the water just runs through the pockets of wet soil to the basin, by-passing dry pockets of soil. When I discover a pot has dried out, I usually immerse the whole pot in a basin of water halfway up the pot, for about an hour, or until the the water has soaked through to the top of the soil by capillary action. This is the only way you can be assured that there will be no pockets of dry soil in the pot. When the top 1/2 inch of the soil gets dry, then start watering again regularly.

STEELVIPER

I agree with chong. Looks dry. Bananas need lots of water.

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Zacarias

I'd love to believe that it just got too dry..but in reality, I don't think it is that. I'm a novice but I tend to overwater and have lost bananas to rot, so I'm wondering if that is what happened or if it's dry like you said. Goodness I hate banana care! ;-)

chong

I still think it's dry. Squeeze the base of the P-stem gently. If it's firm, it's not rotting from the outside. If it's rotting from the inside, the new emerging leaf in the middle will be coming out black and soft, like long boiled vegetable.

Since the picture shows the soil dry, how long ago was it, since watered the plant when you took the picture? The moisture should be even if you are watering it regularly. The picture shows none but dry surface.

Zacarias

um, that pic was about two weeks. Chong, in Phoenix, AZ...the superficial layer of dirt turns dry within an hour. So soil may look dry, but isn't.

I'm trying to remember if I waited too long to water and one point and if the plant did suffer from that. I don't think so but who knows. I have watered evenly since and I know that all the dirt is soaked when I water. So hopefully, it will come back. Thanks again!

Zach

shopgirl2

I believe the hanging container is inadecuate and they do dry up a lot being that it is hangingm and it looses moisture that way.

Try another pot and do not hang it. It looks awfully dry to me.

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