garek007

Hello,

My trees have thrived in the past, but lately they are looking quite sad. You can see one blooming here, but the bloom is small compared to others and the other trees are not putting out leaves like they used to. They looked pathetic all summer and now it's winter. I don't know if it's because it's getting colder, or something else since they have looked like this for a while. I haven't fertilized them in a while, probably 6+ months. The ground near them was covered with fake turf because bermuda grass has been trying to come up and I was trying to stop it, not sure if that could have affected them... I'm worried I'm going to lose the entire crop. What should I do?

pitangadiego

If those are the height when fruiting, I doubt they are Ice Cream. Plants are definitely stressed, probably from lack of water and fertilizer. Do not fertilize now, as they are going dormant, which is slowdown in metabolism. You will have to be careful to not over water during dormancy, which will rot roots. What color is the fruit?

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garek007

Hi thanks for responding. The height on this one when fruiting is smaller than what I've seen in the past. Usually they are about 10-12 feet when fruiting.

Fruit starts pretty green, somewhat blue maybe, but it wasn't blue enough and I've always suspected maybe this wasn't blue java. When the fruit is ripe it's pretty standard yellow, but the banana inside is definitely different than cavendish, it's very dense.

I had suspected maybe I was underwatering. I just added some coffee grounds around the plants for some organic mild fertilizer. Otherwise, I haven't fertilzied much this year.

At this point, I just don't want the whole lot to die, I want to make the mat will create new pups so I can recover in the future. There is one pup coming out now...

Janelle525

This was happening to my bananas when I wasn't using mulch, they were planted in native soil that was really sandy and drained really fast. Bananas come from the rainforest which is very fertile. So I attempted to mimick that by piling up mulch around the base- anything, grass clippings, leaves, spent banana leaves and stalks, vegetable and fruit waste even wood chips. Then my bananas have always looked good ever since. I also collect my urine in the summer months to feed them as I don't like dumping a lot of synthetic fertilizer as it makes it's way out to the ocean where it feeds toxic algae.

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garek007

This is great to hear. at first I definitely mulched and used store bought soil, at least as an amendment. I was using grass as mulch, not sure that was helping. In any case, this might be it. The soil looks like the water runs mostly off and doesn't get down into the soil We haven't had a good rain here in a while that has really soaked the ground.

sirdoofus

For what it's worth, I would agree with the previous diagnosis that your issue is a lack of water....and possibly nutrients. Those plants looks classically dried out to me.

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garek007

Thanks, I do appreciate it. That's two who say it's lack of water and since I'm not as familiar, it's good to hear multiple viewpoints.

rfelsch

Make that 3 votes for lack of water.

garek007

Thanks. I have been watering more and that seems to have helped. I also chopped down a bunch of the trees that were not doing well and the whole batch seems to be doing better now. I've got all kinds of new pups popping up, which I'll keep groomed.