Stem Rot?
 

Hi,

This is one of my first plants. It is a musa basjoo. It is starting to turn black on the stem. I don't know if it is beginning to rot. I am not sure what to do. It shouldn't be seeing cold temps as I am in Southern California. I water it every 3 days or so. It is in cactus and citrus mix that I got from Home Depot. Every week I give it a tiny bit of banana fuel that is shared between my other 4 plants.

Any thoughts on what could be wrong or to do? I really don't want to lose it.



Thanks!:08:

Re: Stem Rot?
 

feel it. is it soft and mushy? if it is, it is rot. IF it turns out to be rot, keep scraping it away until you get to firm flesh. I got it on my banana after the winter, and it hasn't hurt my banana tree. It doesn't look like rot, though. my banana's rot looked darker. Maybe someone can pitch in?

Re: Stem Rot?
 

Not mushy. So should I not worry? Should I cut down on watering or water more? Maybe peel it off?

Re: Stem Rot?
 

ifit's not mushy, its probrably not rot. leave it, see if it hurts the plant. i would advise against peeling off layers. nature decided to try that out on m banana with a couple of storms and the banana isn't that strong anymore. lets see if someone with more experience can pitch in...

Re: Stem Rot?
 

Yeah nothing wrong if it's not mushy. Basjoos get black on the stem at times.

Re: Stem Rot?
 

I have seen that before on my bananas and it usually ends up with the plant breaking at that weak point that is being created. The affected tissue is hard but brittle. I would advise getting it out where there is plenty of air circulation,sun and wind and let it get over it. It may break but if its strong enough,its gonna just continue growth from there again,otherwise it can be very dead soon unfortunately,without proper air circulation. Is it in a greenhouse? Mine have only gotten it when i kept them in warm and humid conditions with bad air circulation,indoors. It seems that,whatever this is,it clogs the xylem/phloem and prevents it from functioning properly. If it reaches the corm,its usually serious or deadly.

Re: Stem Rot?
 

This has happened on my blue java banana and all 3 of my dwarf cavendish and I have no idea why. They'll do good for about a year, then summer comes and the stems get mushy and it falls over. I live in AZ and I've been looking for an answer but nothing lines up well enough please help me diagnose this.

Re: Stem Rot?
 

Could it be possible that the plants are being overwatered over the winter?

Re: Stem Rot?
 

No because it all happened over the summer in AZ. I think I've discovered that some tomatoes I grew then had fusarium wilt which spread to my bananas and passion fruit by me walking on the soil causing all of then to catch it. It quite literally destroyed my tropics area but it's just a theory, lmk if it's viable in any way.