mearly

I have a 7ft Musa Basjoo in its 2nd season. Last year's best sword pup grew to around 4ft tall with a 2.5-3ft p-stem so far this year. I decided to separate it.

I started with a metal trowel and mallet, then popped it off cleanly with a spade. Of course only half of the baby corm has roots.

It was doing fine until late this afternoon, when the leaves (8 total, the biggest being approximately 2 ft long and 8 inches wide) started to droop significantly. I became worried when the new leaf that hadn't fully opened started to lean. It was completely upright as normal. Now, the midrib is curved to the point where the tip is pointing towards the ground.

I watered it in nicely yesterday, so I was concerned about over watering. I checked the soil and it was damp and spongy, not dripping. I also popped the pup out of the new hole to raise it a few inches and added pea gravel and coco coir (the original soil mixture was mostly humus, some clay, peat moss and bark soil conditioner with some manure and milorganite).

Does anyone know if this drooping is normal, or should I be worried?

sunfish

Is it in sun or shade ?

mearly

Tony,

It's in a part sunny location approximately 15-20ft from the WNW corner of the house, with woods shielding it on the West. It was growing on the WSW in the same sort of location, except with more overhead shade (from mom and from taller trees).

The old location got direct sunlight until around 12:30 when the sun becomes dappled to medium shade. The new location does run a bit more into the hotter part of the afternoon, but only receives full sun until around 13:30 - 14:30, then dappled sun to light shade.

Too much sun too fast for little pup?

sunfish

It depends on how much of a root system it had when you separated it. With a good root system they can be put in full sun .If it only has a few roots I would put it in a shaded area and cut off some of the older leaves. Once it perks up and starts growing then move it to a sunnier location

If it is planted in ground a little shade cloth will help and remove some of the leaves.

mearly

The pup came away with one full side of roots. I circled approximately 8-10" away from it, though a few of the larger roots near the bottom of the corm were damaged on lifting. The opposite half is completely rootless, dusted with rooting hormone.

I removed 4 of the bottom leaves yesterday. The remaining 4 have perked up a bit, but the top leaf is still bent over (midrib curved laterally, not the normal bend you would see as it emerges). It does look to be in better shape after a night's rest, but there's 5 more hours of sun.

If I don't move it to more shade, what are the risks? Slower recovery? How quickly should I see a "perk"?

I'm trying to be gentle with the watering and mainly foliar watering while keeping the soil moist.