zfallon84

When I first joined, I had what has turned out to be a spider mite problem (Tiny Black spots on Leaves, and pseudostem. Help?). I've recently moved all of my bananas to an open space, on a raised platform, and have been treating regularly with an "organic" Neem oil spray. Everything is going fine with all of my plants, except this new Manzano pup that I got from someone in south Florida. When I received the banana bulb I soaked it in a bucket of bleach water, rinsed it, dried it, and then planted it - keeping it separated from the other bananas until it put out a few leaves (my personal protocol for bulbs purchased). The first two leaves looked fine until the third came up - then symptoms arose.

The way I care for my plants has not changed since the post linked above, execpt I changed the soil to what most people here have recommended - 1/3 compost, 1/3 sand, 1/3 perlite.

The reasons I believe it has Black Sigatoka:
1) Newest cigar leaf had necrotic damage, despite being regularly sprayed with neem oil mix (contained "organic" pesticide)
2) The two developed leaves had up to stage 5 symptoms listed here: Black leaf streak | ProMusa - the banana knowledge platform
3) Black Sigatoka is in south Florida.

Here are some pics of the removed leaves (some glare unfortunately). The leaves are in order from newest to oldest:
https://imgur.com/4QKObIh

https://imgur.com/6IHlzzZ

https://imgur.com/rnwBBHL

Thanks for any input since I am still learning. It helps me out as a nanner head. I really want to figure this out because all of my neighbors have bananas. I really don't want to bring in a disease and ruin their landscaping.

Gabe15

That is not Black Sigatoka. It looks very superficial to me, just let the plant grow sort itself out. Sometime when transplanting a new sucker the first few are a bit odd as they can be damaged and stressed during the process as they are already starting to grow inside the plant. Let it grow 5-6 leaves at least and then see if the symptoms continue, then it could be some other issue that be more clear as the plant develops more.

__________________
Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

zfallon84

I'll move it from the backyard to the front yard so that it is far away from the other bananas. Then, in a month, I will try to update the thread.

Another thought that I had was sun exposure. Will excess sun do damage like this? I seem to have issues finding examples on the web so that I can learn to identify leaf damage to bananas.

zfallon84

I just wanted to give a mid-term update so that anyone who does a forum search in the future might have some examples.

What I have noticed, in my area, while taking the dogs on a walk, is that the high rainfall and humidity promotes fungal growth on leaves. I noticed a Sweetgum tree with the same black spots, surrounded by a chlorotic halo. I also have noticed that my figs also have this (fig rust), and a few of my Paw Paws (Asimina Triloba?) have black fungus on their leaves. I've also noticed that some of my other bananas have what some folks call "swamp spot", which is another fungus that affects plants. I'm still treating every few days with the Neem oil. I've also noticed that the rain has washed the micronutrients out of my planters- I have magnesium, and manganese deficiencies in different plants.

Another problem that was discovered is that our rental property has a fungus gnat problem. The larvae were reeking havoc on my garden vegetables. And I can only assume that they were also affecting my bananas' roots. I did have to handle that with a pesticide treatment. We couldn't go outside with have flurries of flies all over us. For further treatment, if anyone has any organic methods to solve this problem, please let me know.

I will post some pics in a few weeks. The newest leaves on my Manzano are coming up really healthy. I think things should be good.

Juicy Bananas

I use neem pellets that are 5-1-2 that help against that sort of thing. My main trouble are corm weevils(and pigs). It doesn't seem to completely keep them away. I hate to drench the soil and kill beneficial critters but I sometimes use pyrethrum or Spinosad. Gabe may have a better product to use.

zfallon84

Yeah. It's a real bummer. But, growth for my two three-feet-tall Dwarf Namwahs has been stunned. I haven't seen any new leaf growth in about three weeks. I used to get about one leaf per week.

Juicy Bananas

Are you sure that is the issue at hand? Can you see healthy roots beneath the soil? We have a really bad infestation of fungus gnats due to large quantities of mulch present and they don't seem to bother the nanners. Could be a corm weevil issue if there is that much stunting.

zfallon84

All I can think of is the fungus gnat larvae. Mostly because of the damage to my garden vegetables. I Sevin dusted all of my nanners. So, everything should be dead once they hit the soil. Are Corm Weevils even in North Florida?

Botanical_Bryce

Palm weevils are all over Florida and will get corms sometimes. I have seen smaller black ones in the banana pots at USF Tampa so I at least know those are in the state but not sure how far up.

zfallon84

Well, I have only seen spiders, spidermites, and fungus gnats on my bananas. The fungus gnat larvae were discovered while I was weeding in one of my garden beds. Plus, I see no holes in the pseudostems at this moment.