sofl-broward

Thank you for any help/advice you may have.

1. I got a pup of this plant from a friend 2 yrs ago. It grows to about max 8 feet. I don't know the variety.

2. It looks healthy when growing, and put up a lot of Pups. I kept 3 max pseudo stem. on the mat, and move the others to another area of the yard.

3. now this is the 4rd time it flowered over the last year from the 2 locations.

4. I am located in south east Florida.

The issue.

The leaves die before the fruit is ready. I did remove the flower after it stopped making more hands each time. Maybe that was wrong?

So the question:

What can I do? Is this just a bad banana variety and will keep doing this? Or do you think I am not taking care of it correctly?

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AaronTT

Do you know the reason why you have such few leaves when it starts flowering? Did you experience a mild freeze that burned the other leaves, or did you just notice that the crown would only hold a few leaves, while the older ones yellowed and died? What has been your observation? How did you plant it, and what fertilizers do you use? When I ask how did you plant it, I mean did you just dig a small hole and plant it, or did you add in other soil, and perhaps dig a large size hole? How often do you water it?

sofl-broward

It maybe had 3 or 4 leaves on it when the flag came up, and started to flower. No freezing here. I will have to track leaves on next pseudo stem to see if the leave count is higher or not. 2 yrs ago when i planted it it was maybe 1 foot deep and I likely put in some potting soil with the existing sand here in south Florida and top dress fertilizer 2 times a year maybe.

I guess my main question is are there some banana varieties that do this and will just not ever have enough leaves make it to fruit maturity? If so i guess i would have to find out what plant this is, so i can avoid it / or verify if that is my problem.

Secondly, I would like to confirm that a pseudo stem needs leaves to get the fruit to mature any more. If that is true, i should cut it down now and let the others pseudo stems have a better go at being healthy.

Third, How many leaves would it be health enough to support fruit? Same issue, if mine is low on leaves I should just cut it out and let the others have the corm's energy.

I am new to this, but have had another banana variety (also unknown) give 2 harvest of bananas so far this last yr. And they were so tasty.

pitangadiego

Some varieties "think" they are done when the flower emerges, while others have leaves and male flowers for months after the fruit ripens. You have the advantage of warm weather, so let them be and maybe they will ripen. You have nothing to lose at this point.

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AaronTT

You might need certain minerals such as calcium and magnesium, and or iron. If the plant has everything it needs, it should have a full crown of leaves. If those are low, it will cycle those minerals out of the lower leaves, to give to the new ones. One sign of a possible mineral(s) deficiency, is a crown with few leaves, with the older leaves yellowing too soon. A lack of water can do the same, as well as ph levels being way off.

Akula

Agree with Aaron. I've seen this in my patch with an odd leaf getting a bit yellow from lack of potassium when the bud is close to pushing out. Or at least that's what I think. I mix K with water and drench and no more yellow going forward.