Corm rot...How to deal with it?
 

Hello,

One of my bananas has corm rot which seems to have at least partly stopped but has rotted a good portion of its corm. The corm is hollowed out on the inside but with a fair amount of the outer ''skin'' alive as well as the top,above ground portion attached to the pseudostem. So,the healthy part of the corm sit on top of a hollow with some live skin being the only thing that connects the live corm and pseudostem/leafs to roots. The banana is growing at a slower pace but it does is continuing to grow but has started leaning now as the dead part of the skin and roots are detaching from the live corm and is no longer supported well. How should i deal with this situation? Should i bareroot,wash away everything dead and rotting and then pot it up again,a little deeper in new,well draining soil? Or should i bareroot and clean and then let everything dry for a day or 2 in open air and then repot? Wouldnt the second kill the live roots as well and wouldnt it be more of a setback? What would you suggest me do?

Btw,the weather has not cooled much as it is around 30C every day(as a max) but bananas seem to be more vulnerable now already unfortunately...

Thank you very much in advance!

Re: Corm rot...How to deal with it?
 

Hi Kostas,

Was looking thru this forum today. I think it's my first time. I have never had any disease problems in 7 years of growing bananas so I never looked. Just bugs now and then.

About corm rot - sometimes when I dig out a really big pup I find that a portion of the corm will have a mushy area. Shake out all loose dirt. I put on laytex gloves and dig out all the mushy flesh. Use a spoon too. Let the pup with corm intact dry out for 2 days in the shade. Then repot it in sterile potting mix with 50% peat moss blended. Before I pot it I cut off all old discolored roots. Then sprinkle Mycorrhizae fungus powder on the wetted new roots. Every one I did this to came back with vigor quickly.

Dan

Re: Corm rot...How to deal with it?
 

Hi Dan!

Thank you very much for your reply!
The banana fell a day after i wrote my above post. It had small portion of live corm attached to the pseudostem which i left dry for a day in a windy day and then potted in peaty soil with 50% sand. I keep it in my basement,under fluorescent lighting and in good growing temperature of 25C and it grew a little a new cigar,probably from stored water and nutrient, and then stopped. Its leafs died back slowly from dehydration but the pseudostem is still alive and well and so is the spear. I think it does have hope to root and start growing again. I really hope so!!!

Re: Corm rot...How to deal with it?
 

hope it hangs in there for you. Good luck

Re: Corm rot...How to deal with it?
 

Thank you very much for your wish Noah!!! :)