abrasivesounds

New to the forum, supppp!

I bought a baby dwarf cavendish back in May of 2014, and everything was going great until the last two weeks. I live in Chicago, and the weather has been getting in the 0-20 degree range, and I have trouble keeping my room above 60.

I separated an 8" pup from the mother, but in doing so exposed the mother and pup to 20 degree weather. A week later, the pup is practically dead. The root system separated from the up, and I'm left with two outer layers of p-stem and a dead leaf in the center. I'm not sure if it's possible to re-root at this point...if so, would it be better to water root or dip in hormone powder?

The other issue is that the mother is starting to get sick as well. I'm not sure if it has root rot, but some of the roots definitely have black tips. I lost two leaves within a two day period, and I'm getting a lot of yellow/brown edges.

Is there any way to identify what might be wrong with the root system? If something is wrong, how can I fix this? I'm putting the DC back in cactus soil, to let it try out. At that point, I don't know if I should fertilize it, or give it some rest.

I would really appreciate any help

Pup root. I cut off the base, put on hormone powder (the white stuff in the picture, not mold), and have alternated water rooting and soil rooting. I'm not sure what to do with this.


Here's the whole pup. Can anything be done with this?


Here's the mother. My concern is the leaves are dying very rapidly, and the new leaves have the brown edges.


Some of the roots look alive/alright:


But, some of the roots are half shriveled / black:


Here are the roots:

Pancrazio

As rule of thumb, I don't touch/separe/prune/repot/anything on any banana during winter. They already have hard time getting accustomed to the indoor environment, with constant (low) temperatures and no temperature swing between night and day, lack of light and so on. Just treat the pup as any other pup at this point.
When it comes about the mother plant, i guess that your best chance are reducing watering (to discourage any rot may be forming) and let it stay in the most stable environment you can provide it. I wouldn't repot at all, unless you are desperate. I don't know how long your plant must have been exposed to 20F but yellowing isn't sign of cold damage: cold damage makes the leave with a "cooked" look. So i guess root rot may be the cause, which makes the suggestion to avoid watering even more needed.

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abrasivesounds

Thanks for the quick response.

I separated the pup because I was concerned that it was taking nutrients from the mother / two smaller ones. I also assumed it was big enough to survive, but I guess not.

At this point, I think root rot might have occurred, so I am trying to figure out what to do next. I moved it out of the soil (though it wasn't very wet) and I have a new bag of cactus soil ready. Not sure if that's what I should be doing though.

Pancrazio

Now I see pictures. The plant seems fine to me. You just did separate a pup which was too small, and in the process you did stress the plant a bit. Ideally you want to separate pups that already have some roots. Pups don't take much energy from the mother plant, bananas actually do like to have some pups.
Since your mother plant is so small, it shouldn't have any big issue surviving the winter. Just keep in a reasonably warm a luminous environment. I have noticed that smaller plant do take better the indoor growing.
But stop performing anything stressfull till spring. Just water and let it grow.

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sal

Pancrazio is correct. Stop messing around with it, cut back on the watering. Just try to keep warm and as much sunlight as possible. I did the same thing you did last winter and I lost all my DC plants (5 of them). I bought more this past spring and they are still in the ground, as a matter fact I need to pot them or winterize them.

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the flying dutchman

You can root that part(pup), ive done that before in the past with DC.
Press it slightly in normal potting soil and keep it upright with a few sticks.
Keep the soil moist but not wet. Don't put it deep in the soil!

Good luck!

abrasivesounds

Thanks!
How should i prep the base? Should i cut clean, then realply hormone powder?

Hammocked Banana

Don't recut unless there is rot