ewitte

1. I moved it to a larger 20gal container (I put holes at the bottom) so its pretty normal for change of container to cause the leaves to start falling right? Picture 1 is the day I moved it into the new container (it was in a 7.5gal container when I purchased it about a week ago) and picture 2 is 3 days later (today). One leaf is almost completely gone and another is starting to go.

2. I'm concerned about watering. People say banana plants want quite a bit of water in hot climates but other times they say don't over water because it causes to roots to rot pretty quickly. Picture 1 was on a very rainy/windy day. The last 2 days have been around 98F and mostly sunny (I'm in the Houston area). I gave it water about 7:00am this morning and again when the surface soil was dry at 10:30am and left it alone the rest of the day.

3. What is that in picture 3,4? Picture 3 is attached to the plant and 4 was laying in one of the leaves.

Bananaman88

Welcome to the organization, ewitte! I'm in the Houston area too-Pearland. Where are you located exactly? That's a nice 'Raja Puri' you have there. I just got one this year myself.

It has definitely been hot these past two or three days here. I think what you are experiencing with your plant is just a little transplant shock. It is advisable to put a plant in the shade or at least part-shade for a few days after transplanting to let it recover a bit before sticking it back out in the sun.

I can't tell what that is in picture # 3, almost looks like some sort of insect. Pic. # 4 looks sort of like an underdeveloped pecan but I can't really tell for sure.

ewitte

Sugar land. It could be a pecan. There were 20-30ft or so trees right behind the banana plants. The thing that makes me wonder is that thing that looks like an insect is the same thing as in picture 4 just smaller. I poked it for a while and its definately not an insect but its attached to the plant pretty good. BTW I cut off that dead leaf and 2 of the others that were starting to go under. There are still 5 left and one starting. Someone mentioned in another thread about them starting to fold up on you if the root structure is stressed and can't support what it has.

Also I moved it closer to the house. It could be getting too much sun compared to what it was used to sitting under those big trees. I notice the top part of my 2 apple trees have browning leaves as well, thats where the sun first hits about 9am after it comes over the house. They are in the ground so can't do anything about that.

Bananaman88

Oh, yeah...now that I look a little closer, I see that the two photos are of the same thing. I thought I saw some kind of pinchers or mouthparts in that third shot at first.

I think your banana will be fine. Cutting off a couple of the lower leaves was probably a wise choice too.

natedogg1026

Yep, that's a green Pecan. Looks like your plant is doing fine and was transplanted well. Like Brent said, give it shade for a while then ease it in to the sun. It's high 80's here and I water my pots nearly everyday. I doubt over watering will be a problem with those kinda temps. Keep it damp till it cools down then you may need to cut back. Next time you pot one up you might throw a handful or two of leaves in the bottom, it helps hold the moisture near the roots. A cool trick I learned from my 80 year old nana buddy.-Nate

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Banana's are a safe addiction. Right?Maybe I need classes.

ewitte

It hasn't even been that long and already the remaining leaves perked up after cutting those few off!