Help my plants have the crud!
 

I posted this thread last week. My problems are continuing. Now my AeAe appears to have the crud. The stalk of the plant gets weak and then turns brown to black. The stalk then feels mushy like something (a fungus?) is eating away at the cells. Then the plant droops forward. I have sprayed a fungicide. I don't think I am under or over watering (other small bananas not near the sick ones are doing fine). Before I loose my AeAe I did the following -- The affected mushy brownish stalk was peeled way from the plant. Under it is pretty and green. I then sprayed the good looking stalk with fungicide. Did I hurt the plant by peeling off a layer of stalk? On the four plants I may have lost I did not remove the stalk and they rotted away. Any suggestions would really be appreciated. My first thread and pictures are below. I did not post pictures of the AeAe.

Thank you!!!

Andrew

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

How much do you water?:confused:

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Thanks for the reply! I water every few days as the top of the soil starts to get dry. My large plants are in the ground on drip irrigation and are fine. I recently purchased many new tc plants from out of state. They were on a heat mat in the house with a grow bulb on a timer. I also used a moisture meter to make sure they were not sitting in water or to dry. I watered all of them the same and many are doing great but my Ice cream, Double Mahoi, Hawaiian red Iholena have no more leaves just a stalk. I cut below the black on the stalk. My big issue is the AeAe! I stripped a black mushy layer of the stalk off and can see green happy looking skin. Did I hurt the plant by doing that? I have also applied a fungicide.

Thanks,

Andrew

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Andrew,

I'm still somewhat of a newbie. So I don't know how good I would be answering your questions. All I can do right now is follow your progress and wish you luck. I haven't had that problem your describing before. :twonanners:

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Andrew,
Kinda strange how they just rotted in the middle like that. I've had a lot of problems with rot this year but nothing like that. Best suggestion I can give is chop em below the rot and get a fresh start. I know you don't want to loose the main plant but if you do you should get pups from the corms. I had two moms die on me over the winter and they've both put out several pups since. As far as the Ae Ae. Peeling it back should not have hurt it. It probably helped if there was rot. What kind of soil are you using and how much water? I might suggest re potting in smaller pots. I have found that under potting bananas can help when you when you get a rot problem. They run a lil more on the dry side and it seems to clear up the rot. Hope this helps. Nate:08:

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Thank you Nate. I was out all day preparing for a car show I am in tomorrow. I am using organic soil that drains very well. I did cut three of the small tc plants below the rot. My AeAe drooped over today and I will probably loose the last two leaves. My tc plants are all in one gallon pots. The AeAe is in a 3 gallon and it was four feet tall. I would hate to loose it. I think the plants were over-crowded on the heat mat and added to my problem. I put all my young pups outside away from the sick ones. How are you watering small one gallon plants? What is the frequency?

Thanks again,

Andrew

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Hard to say. I hate to give a certain amount or certain frequency because our growing conditions could be very different. I watch the plant and not the soil. Meaning, observe the condition of the plant, it will tell you what it needs. It will droop a bit when it gets thirsty and will bounce back from under watering much faster than over watering. Ya ever shop for plants at Wally World? You know when you chance it and buy one of there bone dry droopy one's. Take it home, water it, and it perks back up. But if you buy the same plant in early spring when the temps are cool and they've been drenching them everyday they croak. I saw em kill at least 4 pallets of Majesty Palms this year! It's kinda hard to get the hang of but when you do, the difference is amazing. Do be careful with organic mix, It holds moisture so far down in the pot. But when it's hot it will pay off. So take all that as you will, every gardener is different. Just my 2 cents.-Nate:09:

Re: Help my plants have the crud!
 

Thanks again. The plants that I put outside look way happier then the ones inside. I will stop being paranoid about watering and just do what I have always done(use common sense). My tropical outdoor plants (well over 100) do just fine. I thought the tc plants were small and probably in a green house where they came from (Florida). The weather here is very temperate. High sixties to low seventies all year round. We don't have air conditioning as it rarely gets up to 80. Now the last few days have been in the 90's. Today we were in a car show downtown and it was a blazer on the payment.

Thanks again for your input. I apprecaite it!

Andrew