coolrobby2003

Here is the situation! My Praying Hands banana plant has had a new shoot growing out of the top leaf for about 10 days now and is still only a few inches tall! Why? Please go to my site at coolrobby2003 and look at pics 38-41 and give me your dianosis on the over-all condition of my plant!
Thanx-a-banana
Robby

miracle_grower

hmm, my guess would be some kind of bug, aphids? maybe spider mites??? I am leaning more on mites as the cause.
Mites live underside the leaves,{soil} in dry conditions, they start on the outer edges and suck the juices, causing cell damage as well. The animals are so small, they are not usually detected until you see the damage you are seeing now.

They eat{suck juices} from the outer edges because eating the inner part would in fact destroy their home, so being smart creatures they eat from the edges, and then head to the center of the leaf{or soil} to mate and grow.

Carefully inspect with a very bright light and a magnifying glass under the leaves,and look for tiny dots moving about. If you see them, then, you must either change the soil, spray entire plant with water, replenish with fresh soil.
Spray under the leaves, keep well drained while spraying.
There are safe products you can use, however, I always try the water approach first, since it is indoors for the winter.
If its to cold outside, then head to the bathtub, and use luke warm water and gently wash the leaves with the shower.

I will provide a picture of a banana that looks similar to yours that had mite damage, keep in mind that this banana is outside, survived hurricane Ike,
Be sure to check out the pic and compare.

Praying Hands usually gets one of two disease, Panama Disease, and Black Sigatoka, and by looking you have neither.
The plant exhibits umbrella look, drooping leaves,deforming,wrinkled, slow growth, typical insect damage.
Wild Guess!!

Let me see if I can find that picture. Good luck!!

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Tropical Fog

Bob

Robby, please keep us posted with your progress. I have about 20 plants in a small space indoors and 1(E. Maurellii) has spider mites. Since its small in a 1 gallon pot I've been taking it to the shower and spraying it off every day. Will see if this works, if not I might try insecticidal soap first but, have no experience using it on bananas.

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ursula

i usually spray 'neem' on the plants and put them in a large pastic bag for a few days
ursula

stumpy4700

I've been using the insecticidal soap on my Siam ruby and zebrina for spider mites and so far its working with no damage to the plants.