lucast

I had a very bright and happy banana plant until a week ago, when everything started to go wrong.

I moved to a new place temporarily about 3 weeks ago, and my newly growing plant (i planted the bulb/corm march first) was doing great. The new place does not have as much window light (only about 4 hours), so for the interim, I decided to buy a 90 watt LED lamp, (UFO lamp??). I have it placed about 6 feet above the banana plant and turned it on for 12 hours a day. I think this might be more light than it was getting from the sunny window, but since it is LED, i thought perhaps the full 12 hours would be better.

For the first week, i noticed no difference, so I was happy. I fed my plant for the second time since I've planted it, some distilled water mixed with a 4-1-5 fertilizer. Perhaps I over fed it or 4-1-5 is unacceptable?

Finally, when moving it to the new place, I did crack the old pot, so I had to place it in a new pot. I used the same soil, and put some pebbles at the bottom of the pot to help with draining. I broke some of the roots, which were are hair thin.

I mist the plant every morning with distilled water and water the soil about every 1.25 weeks, with tap water or distilled water, kind of back and forth on that.

I have checked and don't see evidence of any mites, but I don't exactly know what they look like. No webs for sure, there are what looks like tiny water stains that are white, but I don't see how they could be mites?

picture gallery is here: Photo Album - Imgur

So the changes:
1. some roots broken
2. fed for the second time
3. switched light source from sun to led lamp

could i have over fed? over lit? under lit? is this just a reaction to the roots breaking? could i have mites? can anyone help me diagnose? this is my first plant, i've done a ton of reading but i still feel completely in over my head here!

Thank you very much for any assistance, guidance, or really for any feedback whatsoever!

Thanks!

Richard

Is your LED lamp actually 90 Watts, or rated "90 Watt equivalent", or is it a compact fluorescent? To provide energy equivalent to sunshine, what you want is 50-75 actual Watts per square foot. If you have partial sun, then you could cut that in half.

Here is a blurb I wrote for a garden magazine awhile back on potting plants: PTP_2009_03_Pot_Culture. If you're not in the western U.S., you probably won't find the Kellogg's soil, but regionally there are equally good choices.

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lucast

Thank you for the advice and article. I believe that I have done a good job of keeping the soil nice for the plant, using the same methods youmentioned in your blurb/article.

As for the light, it is 90w actual, so it says equivilant to a couple hundred I believe. I'm not sure how to calculate that to match it up with the info you just gave me, but does it sound like I may be over/under lighting my poor plant?

Edit: and I am on the eastern coast actually!

TommyMacLuckie

You are WAY over thinking it.

It's a banana plant. What you are describing sounds of someone that is treating a infected hair for a wart. I've had many bananas survive storm surge, freezes, Eastern lubbers, horrible wind and even herbicide.

You need to lighten up.

First thing - cuss the damn thing out.

Second, put it outside.

Third, water it.

Forget about distilled water or organgic water or whatever kind of water, just water it. Forget about the exact amount of sunlight. Put the thing outside or put it near a window, let it get some heat in some way, water it every three days and see what happens. Broken roots mean nothing.

Stop babying it. It's a banana plant, not a orchid.

Richard

First of all, as long as the corm is alive that plant is far from dead. I believe it is just reacting to the recent changes. Double-check that your soil is not soggy -- this is a common error with indoor banana plants.

It is actual wattage that counts. So if it is 90W actual with a "hood", from a 6 foot height will spread the energy across about a 25 sq.ft. area. So you are grossly underlighting at 3.6 W/sq.ft. Lowering the light so that it only broadcasts on a 4 sq.ft. area -- plus the partial you are getting from the real sun is probably about right.

Be careful when buying plant lights. By law, they are rated in lumens but again it is Watts of actual power delivered that is important. Metaphorically the plants leaves are solar panels and you are trying to charge them up.

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Yug

You funny!!

I don't baby my 'chids at all, they grow, bloom, rest, and then start over again. Most of the time I just ignore them. They continue to live in spite of the neglect.

lucast

I can't put it outside, it is 50 degrees F outside at the warmest point of the day. So if I keep doing what I'm doing I was afraid it would die, and it's my buddy, wouldn't want my little buddy to die. Yes, I do have a tendency to over analyze things.

Thanks for the info on lighting Richard, I just checked the soil and it didn't seem to be soggy. I'll just put the light closer and wait to see what happens.

Thanks everyone!

sidpook

Greta post! LOL....I was actually thinking to cut it back and put it in a warm sunny location at l;east during the day and give it water., It should come around.

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lucast

Well, all the leaves have completely died except for one, which is half dead. I thought maybe I had mites that just weren't visible (is that possible?) since I saw tiny like gray spot things (kind of webish but really tiny) so I started spraying the leaf twice a day, well, ever since I did that it has started getting better, and the grey things have gone away, so I'm hopeful now i guess. even though it is super sad to me that my leaves all died, i almost cried a little bit.

Maybe it just needed more water, i don't know. Hopefully it really is getting better, hard to tell after so short of a time though. It's easy enough to tell that it has stopped dying at such a rapid pace though, at least.

TommyMacLuckie

Ha ha ha ha. Glad y'all enjoyed that post.

I found something out the other day that surprised me - a musella at a property I take care of suddenly looked horrible.

Sun burn. The line that it's in with the sun, it's in shade from a fence from late October through mid April (something like that) so suddenly it's been damaged.

50F or so? That's it? During the day? If you can find or create a space that is protected and in the sun, perhaps with a black rug or something to attract heat, having it out during daylight hours will help it grow. Just bring it in if it's to get below 33F.

steve169

i think my DC may be dying, all the roots are brown, and its not growing, the last leaf is turning brown, and some of the other leaves that have been trimmed are starting to brown going down the pstem