stbay17

Hi All - new to the banana forums. My girlfriend bought me a Musa basjoo for christmas last year, I've been keeping it indoors (London UK) and its been doing OK for the last 6 months (some leaves browning and dying but new leaves replacing them at the same rate) but recently in the last 1-2 months the leave yellowing/browning has accelerated and now the new leaves are also dying.

Initially I thought I was overwatering so pulled back on that and kept spraying to keep the humidity up in summer but no luck. In the last month or so 4-5 healthy looking pups have emerged as the main plant is declining - see photos.

Any ideas?

beam2050

ever take it outside for some fresh air?

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

Abnshrek

You don't have enuf carbon dioxide in your place the Banana' ate it all up.. lol Take outside so it can have more before its cooped up for the winter.. The lower leaves don't matter they going to die anyways.. but the more leaves it can maintain its a stronger plant.. You need strength to get thru being cooped up in the winter..

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I'm a Nannerhead :^)

stbay17

Hi - thanks for the responses, the plant is indoors but next to a full height sliding door which is open most the day (+ fan blowing new air in) so it should be getting lots of fresh air (actually started to deteriorate once we starting opening it as weather warmed up).

Some other suggestions (on the photo thread) was to repot with a zero soil mix so I'll give this a go (I could only find "Growth Technology Cactus & Succulent Focus Repotting Mix" online) and post how it goes....

beam2050

actually i was being cute. for some sun. lol. use a 3 gallon pot when you repot. i tend to over water easy with anything smaller.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

stbay17

Hi All - I've finally got round to repotting the into a slightly larger pot (~25L, 6.5 gal) and replaced the soil with a free draining cactus mix (+ added a pebble drainage layer at the base).

The root ball showed no signs of rot or excess moisture so I just brushed off as much of the old soil I could with my fingers without damaging the roots too much.



I had to cut the main stem quite low as it was completely rotted and hard to cut back to any green part of the plant. After 3 days now its dried out a bit but still no green showing so I'm wondering if I should cut it back more? I've seen some youtube videos that keep going back until you find a solid green area but I might run out of plant to do this!

When I cut off the pups, I tried to extract some roots with them but they were not that deep and I could only get a few roots on one of them (See pictures). These 2 Pups transfered to seperate smaller pots (one with the catcus mix, one with regular potting mix as ran out) and watered in with a light houseplant fertiliser. Its been 3 days now and they are starting to droop slightly.

Any further suggestions?

cincinnana

Just give the plant time to sort itself out.
It will take a few months.

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