What's wrong with my banana?
 

I've been away for a month and a half and when I came back I noticed that the banana leaf was dry before it unfurled all the way. Now the new cigar leaf has also some brown spots on it. The pup's leaves look ok. The banana is in a half barrel pot.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Not sure if it's the same thing, but looks kinda similar to what happened to my sikkimesis. When leaves would emerge, they would have a lot of dead tissue.
http://www.bananas.org/f310/calcium-...ncy-20729.html

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Any idea why is this happening? Please help.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

I have a few like that.
Sometime it sorts itself out
Your whole stem is all the previous leaves that have not peeled away yet.
It will not get better soon.
Could be a soil issue.
Are there pups?
If there are pups you might cut your existing main stem in half to promote growth of the pups and main stem.
You could also peel away the old leaves and see what happens next ......you really have nothing to lose.
This happens to my Bordelons and Orinocos.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Thanks for responding Cincinnana. I cleaned the stem of the dead leaves but I do not want to cut in half the main steam hopping that will flower this summer. It is over 2 years old and i am impatiently waiting to see my first banana flower.
It had 3 pups last year. I removed 2 pups and let one attached. The one attached is about 4 ft tall ( see picture #3 ,it is the one closer to the main stem).

Looking closer at the new leaf when i cleaned the main stem I saw some white spots on the cigar leaf. I think that the drying starts at this spots. So it is a deficiency....the question is which one?

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Looks like a deficiency, maybe compare to this document. http://www.haifa-group.com/files/guides/banana.pdf

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Thanks siege 2050 for the link. I looked over a little bit but can nnot figure out what deficiency i am facing.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Whay kind is it? What do happen to feed it?

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

It is an Ice cream and last time(almost 2 mo ago) i fertilized it with organic fertilizer 7-1-2. I do have also organic citrus fertilizer 5-2-6

It is wired that the attached pup's leaves looks normal to me (see the last pic).
These are the few pics i took now





These are the attached pup's leaves

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

Looks like it could use some epsom salts, Fish Emulsion, and Some Pot Sulphate.. On top of what your feeding it..

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

If it's hot, it might be growing faster than it can supply nutrients if they are low.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

How is your soil....Does it look good to you.?
Have you checked your corm and root health in the container.
Do you store these inside during winter?

Pop the plant out of the container and see if you have good root structure along the sides of the pot.
If your roots look unacceptable......freshen up your soil
These plants has been repotted in a fresh soiless mix and is slow showing recovery because root structure and corm health diminished during winter storage.
I generally treat(control) all my plants the same with fertilizer and soil yet I will get a couple that refuse to cooperate like his these .
So think it is a corm/root/soil issue and not a nutrient issue, just my guess.

Are you able to post a pic where you show the stem and soil together?




Notice the surrounding banana leaves all look normal .




Do your roots and soil look good to you.....I popped this out of a container for another post to demonstrate soil consistency and root structure.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

The soil looks fine to me. I mix compost with lava rock ,bark , pine needles and some clay.
I checked for superficial roots around the perimeter and found some. more on the pup side. I broke a few but I think is no problem. Last year i think there were more roots around the sides of the pot than i can see now.
Last winter the banana was outside - too tall to put it in the house - and we had a few freezing nights. I was not home and could not protect it from freezing.

Today i added some epson salt and fish emulsion.

Re: What's wrong with my banana?
 

I assume that recently it ha no leaves, for whatever reason, and now you have 2 new leaves. The new leaves are evidence that you banana is alive. The brown patches are an indication that is has had some severe stress in the recent past, maybe 2 or 3 weeks, maybe longer. Most likely the stress involved a weather issue (too cold,too hot) and/or an insufficient water issue. If it has sufficient water, and some fertilizer going forth, the next leaves will improve in appearance and the plant will get back on track. The fact that they emerged that was means that they were forming and or pushing up through the pseudostem at the time of the stress and were damaged before they emerged. Therefore they are telling you about past events (history) and as more leaves emerge and are fine, they will evidence that the past stress has been corrected.