rmdelete

so I am not 100% new to plant keeping, but I am new to banana keeping, I have found several sites referencing back to Bananas.org for various topics so I figured I would ask here.

About 2-3 months ago I purchased a banana stump "rhizome" from a lady on Craigslist. There was no banana but she told me that a new banana would shoot out soon, I have no idea if maybe this was something the banana came with or if maybe (likely) it's my fault.

About 2 weeks after purchasing the pot with rhizome in it, I saw a sprout, it grew and grew and then another pup came up and that one grew and grew and seemed fine... that is until this past 2 weeks that I noticed that the new leaves were forming deformed. some curled more than usual and then ridges forming and then weird odd looking leafs. I figured maybe Calcium or Boron deficiency from looking briefly online BUUUT the kicker is that I decided to look at the mother bumb or rhizome and noticed it was really dark I poked at it and then noticed the top layer easily peeled off and revealed a nasty gunky inner area... not sure if bananas are supposed to do this so I took pictures, uploaded to imgur (which were immediately downvoted bc I had no idea how to make them private so random ppl were looking at my pics) here is a link to my Gallery containing my possibly sick banana:

Sick banana? - Album on Imgur

now.. I live in Southern California, Escondido (san diego county) and it gets really warm here, so I have been watering almost every day. I used fertilizer spikes near the rhizome about a month ago. Can someone tell me if I did something wrong, if it's a disease, or if it's a deficiency I can fix? I appreciate your help!

overlook of the plant in pot (14" pot)
[IMG=640x400]http://i.imgur.com/ex3D5nG.jpg[/IMG]

closeup of deformed leaves
[IMG=50%]http://i.imgur.com/0e0o8SL.jpg[/IMG]


I removed a lot of the the scab on top of the rhizome
[IMG=50%]http://i.imgur.com/5TYhYQY.jpg[/IMG]

exposed more of the bark of the rhizome
[IMG=50%]http://i.imgur.com/MjCHXV4.jpg[/IMG]

and me pinching some of it off again since it is so soft, look at how slimy it is
[IMG=50%]http://i.imgur.com/bONcHxt.jpg[/IMG]

so slimy is it salvagable?
[IMG=50%]http://i.imgur.com/SWlJRAc.jpg[/IMG]

edit: I have no idea how to size imaged down for the forum T^T

sputinc7

I only saw one pic and a bunch of other stuff... My guess would be overwatering if you water every day. Considering your location, put it in the ground with lots of sand mixed in and water 2x a week.

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

edwmax

The spot where you show the rot is an old growing point. It is dead and the old stem is rotting back to the corm. This is normal, but try to clean the rot off to the white corm to prevent infection into the corm.

Now, how often are you watering the pot? The soil needs to be dry between watering or root rot will set in. This does not cause the problem of the deformed or curled leaves. That is from too much or too little fertilizer.

I can't tell much about the soil in the pot from the photos. The soil needs to have about 1/3 to 1/2 perlite mixed in to make the pot drain fast and be airy. Banana roots need air. ... Since you have two large pups, separate one (or both) from the mother corm and repot in a fast draining slightly damp mix with about 15 g of fertilizer (10-10-10 ?) ... Re-pot the mother corm for other pups or new pstem. ... Oh, get rid of the 'white wood' mulch.

Is this a Dwarf Cavendish or Truly Tiny plant?

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rmdelete

Thanks guys, I'm not 100% sure what variety it is, but the lady that sold me the stump told me it was a regular Cavendish soooo... I think maybe I should go buy another larger pot. There's a spot in my yard that's full of very fertile soil maybe I should place it there, do gophers like to eat banana??? Maybe I should first fashion a cage for the banana. I'll also check if my soil is dry since I admit I haven't been doing that since it's been so hot where I live and I just assumed it was.

edwmax

Your photos shows a close spacing of the leaf petiole. So the plant appears to be a short cavendish of some type, likely a dwarf cavendish. The "regular" cavendish would have a spacing of 8" to 10" ( more as it gets bigger) at the pstem. ... Planted in-the-ground outside the plant will grow faster. Make sure the soil is well draining.

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rmdelete

thanks for your awesome expertise! I knew I should have joined this forum ages ago I guess it took a banana emergency to do that! We just bought a home where our neighbor owns horses, he had been spreading horse manure over a corner of the lot for quite some time so that area is softer and full of well rotted manure. I was thinking it might be a nice spot for my bananas maybe? Or is planting in deep old composted manure bad?

Juicy Bananas

Manure is great. If its broken down that's even better. Couple weeks ago I went and got a truck load from my friend(she also uses organic wormer). I didn't even let it set before mulching my plot. A week later all the nanners looked great. Most were planted at the same time and one of the Iholenas is already pupping.

sputinc7

I can tell you that horse manure needs to be well rotted / composted or it will cause problems.

__________________

If you lose your head and give up, you neither live nor win.

https://sputinc7.wixsite.com/covwc

Varieties I supposedly bought: Manzano, Cavendish, Blue Java, Sweetheart, and Gros Michel.
What it seems I actually have: Brazilian, Cavendish, Namwah, Dwarf Red, Gros Michel, Pisang Ceylon, Veinte Cohol and SH 3640, and American Goldfinger. FHIA 1, Paggi and FHIA 17... Always room for one more.

Juicy Bananas

Possibly. Her horses are treated well. We also get way more rain than you do. I put large rings around everything in the plot. I would say everything looks very green, nothing abnormal.

crazy banana

First of all, welcome to bananas.org, "neighbor". I am a little further south of you near Mission Bay.
Plant in the ground and your banana plant will be happy. It is possible that you might have overfertilized a bit, but it will grow out of it.
Banana plants do like horse manure and I use it fresh from my horses stall for years and never had a problem.

crazy banana

True if applied to other plants, but bananas love it. Never had a problem using fresh horse manure.

rmdelete

oh! HI!! It's much hotter in my neck of the woods I think XD but I am happy to see another San Diegan! yay! hope there are more out there I am browsing this site and my banana education is expanding! I will have to post more pictures of all my Bananas once I have taken more, I think everyone told me I had dwarf cavendish but I really have no idea... this one that looks sickly was the only different I thought I had, it has some interesting stripes on the leaves that look pretty sooo maybe my other naners are different.

rmdelete

a little update here, I cut back the watering and seems the banana is recovering better new leaves look less striped/damaged thanks everyone!