cincinnana

Hey Zb dave.

I think your issue is environmental. Compounded with lack of water that could offset the slow roast.
Like all the previous posts have said.

I think your landscape cloth is toasting your plants and roots.

I can say this because I am a lover of dyed black mulch in a few of my plantings......the stuff looks good, but add some sun to it and it cooks your plants.

For giggles....put a thermometer under the landscape cloth around your plants in question at mid day and take a reading, my guess is 138-+ degrees.

Do it again at dusk....my guess 131-+

And in the morning my guess is 92-+

.

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Zombie Dave

I'm going to just yank it up and put more mulch down. I'm betting you're correct and I'm not wanting to take the chance add leaving it. It's nice to have a place where a person can come and get knowledgeable information and advice. I really appreciate it and really enjoy these banana plants too.

Tytaylor77

Close to 90% of a bananas roots is within 1 foot of the pstem. Any roots over a foot out will dive deeper to avoid the heat! Cut about a 2' circle around the plant it see if it helps. Weed barrier is expensive and helps weeds! Just kinda sucks to rip more out than what's effecting the plant.

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edwmax

You don't really need to rip up the weed barrier since it is already there. Just cover it with 6" or 8" of good mulch. NOT the colored white wood stuff. This will keep the sun off the weed barrier, hold moisture in stopping the heat problems. Weed barriers work by stopping the weeds from growing up thru the mulch and not be used to replace or instead of mulch.

I don't use weed barriers because it gets in the way later (next year) when replanting the bed. The barrier is difficult to remove after roots grow thru the material.

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Zombie Dave

All good points. I'm wanting to eventually add more plants to this little area but probably not until next spring.