Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Hello,

I just joined, because I was hoping y'all could help me. I have never grown bananas before, but I received my first two in the mail yesterday from Wellspring Gardens. The Dwarf Puerto Rican has brown spots on the leaf, on the stem and on the new leaf that hasn't even opened yet, that just grew out since yesterday. Is this normal shipping stress, or does it just show that it didn't get the care that it wanted and I can nurse it back to health, or could it have one of those dangerous banana diseases?

The other banana plant seems okay, except for browning where a couple of leaves were cut off.

What should I do with this little Dwarf Puerto Rican? I don't want to never be able to keep bananas, because the first order I received had a disease! Should I trash this little guy or is everything okay?

Thanks so much!

Eddie

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Please post pictures of the plants. And where are you located & growing zone?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Sorry about that, I had to learn how to post the pictures. I'm in zone 8 close to Fort Worth, but I will keep the banana plants inside, until winter is over. When spring comes, I plan on keeping them in a container, if this plant doesn't have a disease to sabotage me before I even get to start growing bananas.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

That is not normal. You should have nice green plants. I would contact Wellsprings and show them the pictures. Those spots had to have been on the plant before they were shipped. It's a little early to tell what the spots are; but they look like a possible fungus infection or insect damage (???).

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Should I dispose of the plant before it spreads? The Dwarf Orinoco doesn't have any spots, yet, but it was in the same drip tray when I watered them and they were in the same shipping box. I wonder if I should dispose of the Orinoco, too, before this disease gets in my house to the point I can't get rid of it and can't keep bananas!

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

I also got a lemongrass in that order (it looks just fine), but I already took it out to my plant stand in the garage. If this is a disease, then it looks like it may have had a chance to spread all over my house, just since yesterday.

Maybe I should just not buy any more banana trees; see how the Dwarf Orinoco does, since it appears to be okay and could be resistant to the disease (Orinocos are pretty disease resistant, anyway. Right?); and either dispose of the Dwarf Puerto Rican or try treating it with Neem oil, first, since my house has been exposed, anyway. Does that sound like I have a good plan? What would you suggest, in light of all your experience?

There were no banana diseases here, before I received this order, because I've never had a banana plant and I'm close to Fort Worth, Texas. Now, my house has been exposed, so I'm not sure what to do. I've already contacted Wellspring, this morning, but I have not heard back from them. However, what good is a refund going to do, since my house has already been exposed? How could I ever be reimbursed for that?

Am I freaking out too much? Would I still be able to keep bananas, if I get an extremely disease resistant banana plant? Would a Dwarf Namwa be a good choice or a Raja Puri? I only have eight foot ceilings and I wanted to grow my banana plants in containers.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Contact Wellsprings first. They may want the plants back, but I doubt it. I suspect they will send you new plants. ... Just keep the plants isolated (just so the plants are not in contact), they may grow out of it.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Thanks much for your help. I've messaged Wellspring twice, now. I expect to eventually hear back from them, because I placed the order through eBay.

The Orinoco is now developing the dark spots that came on the Dwarf Puerto Rican.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

This is what Wellspring said, "Hello, This is not a disease. It is happening because at some point the banana stem got wet and stayed wet. If kept dry, new leaves will not have the discoloration and the stem should clear up. Thanks!"

Does this sound like it could be right?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Not really ... but you should start seeing an improvement in a week or 2 with the new leaves. Are the plants constantly wet? How much are you watering? Over watering will promote fungus growth. The plants need to dry out between watering.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Thanks, again. Okay, I will be careful not to overwater them. I've only watered them one time, since I received them in the mail. I just soaked them down with neem, so I'm sure that will help, also. My figs, hot peppers, and dwarf mulberry trees act like it's fertilizer, because they love it. It's sure nice to think that this situation is fixable, because I REALLY want to raise bananas. I've waited a whole year for my little mulberry trees to give me a few ounces of fruit, so several pounds of bananas with the same effort... I like that!

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

If I look at this in general tropical terms and not directly from banana terms. That could be blight from compact roots. That would not be from overwatering. The roots need a loose soil and room to recover. That is common in the tropical plant industry. From my banana experience that looks like a disease I had in a group of plants I got from a nursery in Apopka Florida I found Florida hill seems to have plants with it as well. Me and my neighbor tried for months to try and get them to recover and we had a total loss in all plants we tried to recover. The stems just kept turning to black mush. That was the only time I ever saw such an event and your plants look similar. I have stopped buying from mail order companies in general but still have a few trusted ones that I always get quality from. This may be normal but not in my experience and I now am well over 300 plants.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Thanks so much, Botanical Bryce!

If I work on nursing these two little guys back to health, will that be risking that every banana plant I get from now on could get the same disease?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Keep sick plants isolated from healthy plants and use extra sanitation measures like hand sanitizer. If they recover you may have some nice plants. If you clean up proper you should not have any risk IMO. I have had to do this with plants and reptiles for years to ensure safety so I am used to it. My collection is pretty extensive and I can't replace many of my plants if I tried again, so for me I would not be willing to risk it. If you are in the beginning stages and just get used to things healing or killing some things could be a great learning time. I killed young bananas in the beginning. Just quarantine and be sanitary. See how it works out.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Bryce, you order from Florida Hills? I didn't think anyone did from here anymore.
I get my plants from same place but never had any issues like this.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Send the plants back to Wellsprings for credit. Tell them, this was how they were received and the plants are not healthy. And, there was been no improvements since contacting them by email.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Never noway! Last time I bought something from a company was early last year and that was from greens nursery and that was the last time. Went over with my neighbor and filled my truck up with bananas to bring back and sell at a plant sale and keep a few for myself. My neighbor kept a few and I kept a few. I ended up planting mine in the woods a few miles away to see what they would do because of the black spots. The rest that were not sold I threw in the garbage. My neighbor insisted on keeping his and trying but his did exactly the same as the ones I planted in the woods. His eventually rotted away and so did the ones in the woods. About 6 months ago I got to see some Florida hill stock someone had and that stock was riddled with the same looking mess I had on the plants from greens. Since my trip to greens I have only been getting my plants from the tropical agricultural research station in miami and rare plant collectors and I have a few other trusted dealers. I will never use mail order mass disaster again. Most all of my plants that I got in the beginning were named wrong also. So far my only purchase from early on that was named correct was my tall red and I started with about 20 plants. If the companies can't control disease or name the plants correct I would never suggest using them. If someone is doing fine using them that is great but for me it just does not work out.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Plantains are very cold sensitive so depending on where you are located it probably wasn't a good purchase for this time of the year.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

I got these from sddarkman619 here on the forum. Are these shipping stress or disease? These don't look as healthy as even the cheap $9 plants from Florida Hill that are double or triple the size of these tiny GoldFinger plants.

Here are two pics of the first plant:





The above pic shows it next to a Basijoo I ordered from Florida Hill Nursery 2 weeks ago that was $8.99.

Here are 2 pics of the second plant:

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

I have ordered quite a number of plants from florida hills nursery. what you got from sddarkman is larger than what you normally get from florida hills. if you got a bigger plant count yourself lucky.

now while I have never bought a plant from sddarkman [only because he is selling bananas I already have] he would be the first person I WOULD BUY A BANANA FROM. MAKE NO MISTAKE. I do not owe the darkman nothing and he owes me nothing. he would be the first person I would buy from. I have seen many pics of his plants they are well taken care of and he IS a very respected person on this FORUM.

tc's are very tender. your plants will be fine. NOW can you make them live. I CAN.

NOW edwmax is one of the few forum members who does tc's he is very very knowledgeable with tc's to name a bit of it. he has posted the care for your tc's just recently I would suggest you do what everybody else here does. READ.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Out of that whole post of yours you didn't bother to state what the burnt leaves or brown edges could be from? While I'm not familiar with growing bananas, other plants that display this is usually sunburn scorched leaves or fertilizer burn. Is it normal to expect any kind of plant to be in this condition especially after spending $15 for a 4" pot?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Kanana, I guess you didn't want my opinion? I sent you several messages and I guess you just didn't like what I had to say.

They are not diseased.

Maybe someone elses answer will benefit you better than mine.

Since you are not happy with the plants or my answers please feel free to continue buying from Florida Hills.

Have a good day.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

and I quote

as I said in my private message to YOU, what you think are burnt leaves are What is typically calls wine spots on the mid leaf, they are normal for certain banana plants. the brown edges are either from stress or ME cutting off part of the leaf, and then it dying back a little.

Gosh, I just repeated what I said in my message to you. I guess my answers aren't helpful.

have a great day.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Let me post here what I also said in my PM to you in regards to your dig at my price:

"I'm not really going to talk money or price, if you are not happy you can send them back.

I am sure that FLA hills nursery sent you plants that were NOT potted in soil and pots, and that's where the difference comes in. I pot all my plants with good soil and feed them. He leaves his in the trays they come in and doesn't pot them in new pots with new soil and fertilizer. Then there's the water I pay for when I water the plants.
He doesn't pay for pots, soil and fertilizer for the potted plants like I do.

You also don't know if you are really getting what you paid for with him. At least with me you do, I have a reputation to uphold where as FLa Hills was kicked off here adn people know that sometimes you don't get what you ordered with him. "

As you can see from the root system, my plants have been growing for a while in the pots and are ready to transplant. and grow fruit for you.

again, if you are not happy please by all means send them back. I'm more than happy to send you a refund when I get them back.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Actually, when I said burn spots or torn edges it i not the reddish wine spots I'm talking about. I thought it was obvious I meant the outer edges of the plant. Like I said, Banana plants may be new to me, but I understand plants in general and yellowing or brown spots is never a sign of good health I don't care how you try to spin it.

Bottom line is you shouldn't have sent out the plant in THAT condition PERIOD. For $15 it should have 3 or 4 pure green healthy leaves. If I was a seller and sold this I would be embarrassed to be honest, especially for $15 for each tiny plant.

Sorry man, I'm not feeling any sympathy because you have to pay for water. Are you kidding me? With that twisted logic then the plants at Lowes or Home Depot would be $100 for a 2 foot banana Cavendish considering all the water, soil and fertilizer it needed to get that big.

Honestly, I would have expected if you knew these looked like this you would have warned me like you did about the Manzanos you had listed on eBay. Had I bought them on eBay based on the pics you posted online, and then I get nasty leaves you bet I would want a refund and no I'm not going to have to pay for the return shipping if this was what was sent as a "healthy plant". And as for getting a refund on these you honestly don't expect ME to pay for return shipping considering these were your plants you sold to me in this condition. It's not like I did this as these pictures were taken within minutes after I took them out of the box which I will credit you did a great job with the packaging.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

[[quote]QUOTE] Kanana I'm no expert but the pictures you posted look like very healthy plants to me. I would love to have plants that small that looked as good a little leaf browning on banana plants is normal from my experience anyway. they will settle in and put out new leafs you should really do a little research before attacking the seller after seeing your pictures I would not hesitate to buy from darkman

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

I'm not attacking the seller but rather want to get what I pay for as far as healthy plants. Everyone wants to trash Florida Hill Nursery and I have issues with them as well (mostly customer service being non-existent) but out of the 6 plants I received they were all nice and green and none of these torn / ripped leaves and brown and yellow spots like a disease or fertilizer burn or mineral deficiency. If all 6 of the FL Hill plants had ripped and brown edges I would have contacted paypal pretty quick to get the issue resolved as FL Hill doesn't respond to phone calls or emails.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

the yellow and brown areas your referring to appear to be from hardening the plant. the plants you got from florida hill are not hardened. also the plants from florida hill are probably not what you ordered but wont really know until they fruit. please look at florida hills reputation and then compare it to darkmans reputation. wait a couple weeks then report back as to wich plants look healthier

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Kanana, I understand how frustrating it can be to get less than you paid for, since I just went through all of this with my Wellspring bananas, and they weren't even worth sending back. However, I recently bought a Dwarf Iholena and a Dwarf Namwa from sddarkman619 and they are much healthier and larger than the tissue cultured bananas that I got from Wellsprings. They look similar to your little Goldfinger. I just got them in the mail this past Monday and they are growing strong (the new leaves have grown out about 3" on the Iholena and 4.5" on the Namwa). From what I can tell, all the new growth is looking pretty good. I've never kept bananas before, so from personal experience, I don't know what normal looks like for bananas, but these appear to be looking better every day, and not worse.

On the other hand, my little bananas from Wellspring were looking worse every day and the black spots even turned yellow with gray spots in the center. At that point, I cut them back to stumps, treated them with neem about 4-5 times, as well as with Serenade Garden, pealed off the outer pseudostems, and cut them back to stumps below all traces of diseases. Now, the new leaves are looking like I finally beat the disease and are looking normal, now.

Anyway, after all that, the Wellspring bananas are only a fraction of the size of what I received and the bananas that I got from sddarkman619 are looking pretty exciting. Also, sddarkman619 was recommended to me by another member, who is a proficient grower, and who was happy with an Iholena that he got from him. I might even buy another Iholena from him, if I see that I'm going to have the room for it. I only have so much space, since I'm keeping them in containers and bringing them inside during the winter.

Maybe spray with neem and or Bayer Serenade Garden, if it's not looking better every day, and from what I've read about Goldfinger, it should be a hardy little banana for you. I don't think that you will be disappointed for long.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Well sddarkman said his are hardened off so I will place them outside under my makeshift shade cover in a week and see if they improve. Tomorrow I will repot them in 1 gallon containers to give the roots more room to grow. I hope they grow into healthy trees as I have read the Goldfinger is a good tasting banana.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

You will be happy when you transplant, they will take off. If they die for some odd reason send me photos. I'll take care of you.
I like happy customers, but right now you are not happy so let's let them grow out a little.
ok?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

and PM me if you want to communicate with me. ok?

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

Be careful of how deep you repot the plant. Bananas are not like tomatoes, deeper is not better. ... One of your photos above seems to show the plant has soil up almost to the end of an old leaf stem on the pstem. I'm not sure it was potted deeper or the leaf sheaf has been peeled to almost to the soil.

Anyway banana plants normally have their roots just under the top of the soil. On larger plants, the corm crown will be at or just above the soil and one might see few roots running on top of the ground. .... One does not bury any plant so that its leaves are also buried. The pstem of a banana plant is ALL leaves (100%) & leaf stem.

Your plants from skdarkman looks good. Just give them a little time to grow. Oh, the depth of green will very between different verities of bananas. So comparing the Goldfinger (lighter green) to the darker green Basjo is like comparing the Granny Smith apple to a ripe Macintosh apple.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

I'll have to remember not to send you any plants.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

that's right I did not bother. read.

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

First of all, thanks so much for all the help that you guys have been so generous in giving me. Now, I've got a couple of more question for you all. I kept fig trees this summer, and I learned that just about every fig in my area has some rust. I treated them with neem and I treated them with serenade Garden, but they still eventually get rust, again. From what I learned this summer, and what I read, it appears that you can never really cure rust, but you can suppress it.

Here's my question, is that the case with most banana disease? If I beat the disease that these little banana plants that I got from Wellspring Gardens have, will the disease just be suppressed, and could it spread to my other banana plants or have a relapse when the banana plants get large and much harder to treat?

Also, these Wellspring banana plants are supposed to be a Dwarf Puerto Rican and a Dwarf Orinoco. The Dwarf Puerto Rican had some red on the new leaf that it had (before I cropped the top). Is that normal for a PR?

Thanks, again!

Re: Help! Normal Shipping Stress or Disease?
 

One: You don't have a disease in your new plants. The dead brown edges of the leaf was not from a disease; and you were told that several time above. ... That is the BIG advantage of buying TC plantlet is they were propagated in a sterile environment. ... The rust you refer to is a fungus which is in the soil and the air. Treat it with fungicide. I use copper sufate. It is much cheaper than the off-the-shelf brand mixes.

Two: The red markings is called 'wine stains'. Some banana varieties have this; some don't. It is normal and usually the wine stain fade away as the leaf & plant gets older.