Update on my nearly dead banana
 

Hi all,

2 weeks ago I asked for your help because my banana plant seemed to be near death. Now, the plant seems to be even nearer death.

I've repotted it in well-draining cactus soil, I bought a cheap moisture indicator to keep an eye on watering and it's not looking good.

This was 2 weeks ago:



This is today:



This is what's left of the cigar leaf:



I think this is a pup, but it hasn't grown in months and the green tip it had 2 weeks ago seems to be yellowing now:



And finally, the fungus I find when I cut away rotten or dried parts:



I'm considering cutting that tiny pup out of the corm (with a part of the corm) to see if I can propagate this banana... Any thoughts?

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

I would put some more dirt around the corm (It doesn't look fully buried) and give it another month. Bananas don't care much for replanting and even here in Florida in the ground they take 3-4 weeks to start growing again.
Banana growers need to be like old doctors... have lots of patience

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

pinky
Give the musa more time and dont cut the pup from the corn it is not the right time for this.
If you have patience he will start to grow again.

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

I think sputinc7 is right, it does not look like it is planted deep enough. is that pot self watering? your plant almost looks like a gran nain I bought this fall, I got it from ace hardware and they had the pot setting in a dish full of water. it had three pups all looked like yours near dead. when I got it home I pulled it from the pot to put it in a larger one expecting it to be root bound and when I pulled from the pot only the top half of the soil came up. the bottom half was muck and the roots of the plant were all rotted off. in any case your pot looks to small for the plant could be root bound. if you do have a self watering pot I would go get a larger pot with holes in the bottom, fast, and put it in a dish and give it just enough water to make the dish moist when the pot drains.

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

I am going to put my 2 cents in. Your pot is way to small it would like putting you in your bath room and having to live in it. I would re`-pot it and get it away from the door because of draft and cold .when you pot it make sure the corm is all the way under the soil so it can form feeding roots and water it in one time I see you have over water this way to much alot of people kill their plants with Love, the roots should be white and not brown it they are turning black that is root rot cut them off !!! the corm will regrow roots in about 3 to 4 weeks And this is winter the sun is telling your plant this they grow really slow over watering in the winter is the number one cause of death and T/C have a very high rate. I have some corms here that I have had on top of the ground I took them out of my compost pile in July they had no soil in the pile and the only water they get is the rain and still alive here in the heat of Louisiana. PS you may need to put a heat may under your pot for a few weeks to help the roots

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

@Beam & pukpukz

All of this had been point out to the Op in another thread. The banana had been re-potted in a dryer soil (???). Al-tho it looks like he still using a self-watering pot or a pot in a pot and the corm is not deep enough. Little short roots (new ?) are exposed at the top. And, the pot is setting on top of a radiator or HAVC (strong hot (90s F +)or cold air (30s F) is blowing on the plant). Not good.

I'm not sure of his location in the Netherlands, but I think most days are foggy or overcast. So there is not going to be good sunlight in that window. The pstem is going to die back until the corm regrows new roots. The Op is not going to see new leaves until about spring time, ... maybe.

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

:2722: with all this there is something I think it might be time to say. I will try not to be LW. I would like to start by thanking the founders and the people who keep this sight working. and say they have and are doing a wonderful job. thank you. we come to this community looking to get knowledge and help to grow our banana plants and most of us do not know anything about growing bananas or anything about this site much less the people who participate. now membership introductions is the first hurdle we find. and who can impart everything they know and their life work in a few sentences? by participating and reading gives us the chance for this knowledge, not to mention the growing of bananas what most of us came here to do. with that said I come from many many generations of farmers and I all hail from the plains of north Montana and North Dakota. people live in low numbers and many miles apart, I have to think this community is very very much similar. and farmers sometimes have to rely on their neighbors and for help, also similar. now while getting help and advice, there is an unspoken contract for you to do the same for the lack of better words at this time. and I think this also holds true with this community. but this site is also set up for the reading and not responding and I believe this to be good too. I would like to personally thank all of you for the help and advice you have given, directly and indirectly. thank you.

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

@Pinky

As I said before, I have a plant showing the same conditions and fungus as yours. Yesterday I cut away the outer dead leaf sheaf and exposed a health looking green stalk. Today the stalk had turned black and was now soft st the top of the corm. ... I decided there was nothing to lose as the plant was dying anyway.

What I did:

Remove the plant from the pot and cut away all the black roots (they are dead & contaminated) and all black & soft parts of the corm. What was left was less than half of the corm. Actually, I had 3 corms from this pot. The largest piece was less than the size of a golf ball. the smallest being about the size of the top section/knuckle of your little finger.

I then washed the corms in strong bleach water hopefully to kill any remaining fungus and rinsed with water. Then potted into SAND. The sand wasn't course enough to suit me so I mixed in about 50% or more perlite. May be in 2 or 3 weeks I can report new growth and success in saving this plant. Anyway it is a learning experience for me to try. It certainly would be easier to just buy a new plant for $8.

From observation of my plant over the past weeks is the plant always seemed very wet. Even tho I re potted in dry soil mix and added a little water only when the moisture meter indicated the mix was dry. But when meter was pushed under the roots, it indicated 'very wet'. The plant pstem always felt wet to touch. I believe the fungus was pulling water from inside the plant for its (fungus) needs. The same fungus you pictured above. A fungicide is needed or measures that I just described to sterilize the plant and corm to kill the fungus..

Re: Update on my nearly dead banana
 

2 things: pure coarse sand and not on top of a radiator; you're cooking it! A bit deeper in sand wouldn't hurt.