Hthrleo

My husband broke the pseudostem bringing my gros michel outside for some warm weather. The stem was about 5 feet and it broke at about 4 and a half. It was very healthy before it came in for the winter at probably 9+ feet with the leaves. (I believe winter and bananas are the true purpose of all of the two story entries to 2000's homes!) I cut it off at the bend and it's back inside the house before our temps dip tonight. I plan on bringing it out again, (without more breakage... I hope!) in a couple of days when our weather gets nice again. The two bananas I brought in for the winter got some powdery mildew on the leaves and stem and got spidermites. I sprayed my dwarf cavendish with neem oil and it defoliated it, but it regrew new leaves. Is there something I can treat the cut with to prevent the mold from infecting the cut pseudostem on the gros michel? Or should I just leave it be, and hope it recovers, when I start to acclimate it to shade outside? To be clear, I had to cut all of the leaves off at the break and one had just unfurled. It was not happy in my house, even with supplemental light, but it lived through a zone 8b San Antonio TX winter, mostly, intact. The gros michel came in right after it hit a little less than 60 degrees. I was not expecting that to be it's cold tolerance level and the weather damaged the leaves that were exposed. I'm really hoping this just slows it down a bit and I get fruit this summer. It's been my winter science experiment!

cincinnana

Arg is right.....

Sorry for your loss.
Broken and cut stems are quite common in storms and hurricanes and shipping.
Many forum members cut their plants in half when they ship them to one another.

I think you did the right thing.
In a day or two your plant will start pushing a new leaf....but it might have a cut look to it.
And in a month your plant will sort itself out.
Good luck.
.
Cut stem
by
Hostafarian,
on Flickr

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Hthrleo

Thanks for replying! I really appreciate it! I'm not a new gardener but bananas seem to be a whole other animal. It is interesting to learn about them especially since I'm outside their growing area. It's been a sort of: "by the seat of your pants" experience. Patience, I think, will definitely help my plant! I'm very grateful for the advice!

cincinnana

Please...let us know how the plant sorts itself out

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