Bananasue

I recently moved my 3 dwarf bananas indoors for the winter months - live in 6a. They are in approximately 22-25 gallon containers in a potting mix with approximately 40-50% perlite. I have not fertilized them although the potting mix likely has some fertilizer in it and the plants were repotted about 1 month ago as they were outgrowing their prior containers. I have been trying not to over water it and maybe water it once to twice a week with 1500-2000 mL but perhaps that is too much? I noticed that a couple of the leaves on my dwarf namwa is starting to get these "ruffled" and curled edges instead of the straight edges that I normally see growing out of the top. Has anyone ever encountered this and are there any suggestions as to whether it means something bad is going on with the plant? You can see that the other leaves in the picture have straight edges. It may be perfectly normal but I'm not sure as I'm a newbie with banana plants.

Thanks in advance!

Richard

They are either (a) parched, or (b) short on sun-spectrum light, or (c) a moderate amount of both.

BTW, your soil mix sounds about right.

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edwmax

You didn't say what type of banana these were other than dwarf. They look like they may be Truly Tinys because of the small size leaves. ... Likely the plants are just getting use to the new environment.



1) The humidity inside the house is very low due to HVAC for human comfort. The plants need and will benefit from misting a couple of times a day.


2) The smaller plants use & need much less water then larger banana plants; And the large pots will hold a lot more water in the soil than smaller pots. ... Cut back on the amount of water you are giving; about half every 10 to 14 days. Get and use a moisture meter to check the soil at several locations around the pot before watering. ... Dry potting soil, but wet at the corm could be a problem with at/with the corm.


3) Tinys can tolerate subdued sun lighting better than other potted bananas but give them as bright indirect sun as possible. Be careful of the plant being too close to a window when it is cold outside.

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aruzinsky

When you water, it should be enough water so that water runs out of the bottom of the pot, so that dry spots don't develop in the potting mix. 2 liters (half gallon) of water in 25 gallons of potting mix may not be enough. Allow the mix to dry out slightly between waterings.

The deformations in your new leaf look like a symptom of a calcium deficiency but it seems unlikely to me that that would happen during slow growth. Still, as a precaution, it wouldn't hurt water with 1 tsp./gal. of calcium nitrate about once a month. You can buy it cheaply at:

https://hydro-gardens.com/product/ca...s-box-cano3x5/

cincinnana

Once banana plant is indoors the game changes.
A plant will show many "looks" once it is indoors..

Most of the looks are not positive......such as yours..

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Bananasue

Thanks for all the advice - it is probably lacking on some sun as we don't have a south facing window that has enough room for a banana plant. I was quite shocked at how large the plants are as I was hoping that the dwarf plants would be smaller - the ruffled leaf pictures are that of the dwarf namwa which is sitting in a 2 story foyer for the winter. I initially had all the banana plants in our family room that has a 12 foot ceiling but the leaves were touching the ceiling so I had to move them.

I have a dwarf cavendish and a dwarf green in addition to the dwarf namwa. The dwarf green is the shortest and probably has a 3 foot pseudostem. The dwarf namwa and dwarf cavendish probably have 5 foot pseudostems and the 2 bananas take up almost our entire foyer. Please tell me that they don't grow much bigger than this because I don't think I have room for them!

I'll try improving the watering/misting, add some calcium, and hopefully boost the lighting situation.

Thanks again for all the advice! BTW, bananas make good guard dogs - no one is coming in through our front door!