annabanana

My banana tree seems to be slowly dying When I first got it in september it had 6 or 7 healthy looking leaves, now its down to 2 or 3 yellowing leaves.
I've been treating it for spider mites by spraying it with water with a tiny bit of soap. Also, I tried adding coffee grounds to the soil per my dad's suggestion. I don't know if I may be over/under watering it? It has been looking sick for a while, but I left it over thanksgiving (monday to sunday) and it seemed worse when I got back, so I gave it lots of water. The soil seems pretty sad, and when I went to take pictures I realized I could just pull the plant out of the pot with no problem. That's when I discovered the yellow mold(?) and a pretty large grub thing (he was about the size of my little finger nail). I had difficulties photographing them. this mold is actually a pretty bright yellow color, and the bug was just showing up as a spot, so no picture of him. Maybe the bug is normal, but it looked pretty scary to me (haha).
So yeah, this is alot of questions, but on the bright side, a pup sprouted around october and seems to be doing fine. To me, this suggests its not the soil because the pup seems happy, but I really have no idea.


that was a lot of info, so to summarize:
--yellowing, rapidly dying leaves.
--yellow mold on soil.
--spider mites.
possible causes?
--watering difficulties?
--spraying for spider mites?
--that wierd creepy bug?
--nutrients?
--something I have never heard of?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!

annabanana

oops I posted this twice and don't know how to delete one! Sorry!!

CookieCows

Oh boy.... I'd probably be freaking out and taking all the dirt off, rinsing it off, dousing it with some fungicide and putting it in a clean pot with a new mix of good potting soil mixed with perlite.

Good luck!!!

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palmtree

The soil does look a little dry in the pic. I think that you should soak the ENTIRE plant really well and then repot it. Cut off the dead leaves and clean up the trunk a little. A wet paper towel might be a good idea to clean the leaves with, since you dont have a big plant. Definitely take it outside when the warm weather comes back, but start it off in shade or else the leaves will burn from growing indoors.

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Location: New York City, zone 7b