Steppenwolfe

I received my dwarf banana plant September 25th. Two weeks later I repotted and it looked lovely. 1 leaf popped out and another was on the way. After repotting the cigar leaf which was the 2nd leaf coming took over a month to come out. I attributed this to repotting but others have suggested it could be low sunlight as well.

When repotted there were either these two weeds or pups that I removed ( I couldn't tell stems were so slim, I think they looked like that because of stress from being shipped).

Fast forward over 3 months and my banana plant has shrunk in height. This worries me. Idk what is going on. But at the same time 3 pups have emerged and are pushing out leaves weekly. 1 of the pups is about 1/2 the size of there mother plant. Idk what to do.

I was going to buy a grow light but since the pups are growing exponentially I don't think its the sun. Could be a fertilizer problem? Ive only been fertilizing once a month. Should I be doing it every watering (excluding really cold winter months). ON that note, it has been a pretty warm december in NYC, 70 on Christmas, should i continue to fertilize?

My banana plant is an 8 inch pot and it came in a 6 inch pot. Any advice would be appreciated. Help me save my plant.

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Gabe15

What fertilizer are you using?

I think your problem is too much fertilizer, a small containerized plant like that indoors needs hardly any nutrients, and they very easily build up in the soil and can cause issues just like you are seeing. Also, most tap water has substantial amounts of dissolved minerals which also contribute to this problem.

I would recommend to stop fertilizing, put the pot into your sink or bathtub and water it until water drains out of the pot, do this a few times. There is also no reason you can't repot into a larger pot if your temps in the house are normally above 65 or so, you will see a lot of healthy new growth. When repotting you can mix in a small amount (1-2 tablespoons depending on type) of slow release fertilizer or about 1/3 compost and that should be fine for a while. I normally only fertilize indoor bananas something like every 6-8 months. If they are in a greenhouse or otherwise growing very fast, I would still only do every 3-4 months.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Steppenwolfe

Hi, thanks for your reply. I'm currently using Jobes 4-4-4 slow release fertilizer. During the september and mid october i was fertilizing once a week with a tablespoon while watering. From November to december I have only did twice. As far as watering I have only use distilled water to water it.

Would you recommend splitting some of the pups?? As they are taking nutrients from the mother plant? I currently have 3 pups and they all have more leaves than the mother plant.

Gabe15

You have to remember that the pups aren't really stealing energy from the "mother plant", they are all one plant and the pups are essentially underground branches. When you see a struggling mother shoot and a flush of pups, that is typically a sign there is something wrong with that main shoot which is halting or otherwise compromising it's growth and so the plant naturally allows other shoots to grow and take it's place. I would still rinse the soil and cut back on the fertilizer, but after that I would just let it do it's thing. New healthy growth anywhere is a good sign and you have to just let the plant figure it's stuff out.

If it were my plant: If you are getting strong growth on the pups for another couple weeks or a month or so, I would then cut down the mother shoot to soil level and take out the entire plant and divide it up so that each pup has a portion of the central corm and lot's of roots, and then replant each in it's own new pot. Your plant is relatively tiny, and those small pups aren't really very far behind the mother shoot, but given a new pot of their own they will really grow much bigger faster, and it also gives you a chance to switch out some of the potting medium and get them off to a good start.

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

Steppenwolfe

Kind of a late post but a few days ago I found very small flies at the bottom of the pot on top of the saucer. The flies were very tiny and could not fly. Every morning there were about 5-10 of them for around 4 days. I assumed this may be have left over larvae that turned in fungus gnat or root aphid, not sure. However I haven't watered for 2 weeks up until Saturday and the flies seemed to have disappeared.

Although I may over fertilized, I do believe the gnats contributed to my plant's demise as well. Also I have an 8 inch pot, how much water do you do usually in a watering? I do 2 cups of distilled water, should I up it up. Its in a clay pot so moisture leaves rather fast.

How often do you guys water your container plants and how much when you do?

Kat2

I've told this before but will repeat. This past summer I purchased a DC in a 1 gallon pot that was very healthy; I chose that particularly one because she had a good sized pup so I got 2 for the price of 1. I kept her in the pot outside and watered as I did other plants. Skip ahead a month or so. When I went to water her and her offspring, she fell over at the corm top! Okay, so my bargain wasn't any longer as great but the pup was growing well as were her sisters! I can't recall how many plants I got from the one that rotted off but I've given away 2 and have a pot of at least 4. If fertilizer had been the issue, the other pups would be struggling IMO. If overwatering had been the problem, they would also look miserable. Sometimes the mother just dies for no apparent reason I believe.

OT but I've also had 2 rooted and happy pineapples in pots (I really need to plan my garden) rot; the green part just fell off. Yet beside them are 2 others that are thriving. Explain that if you can; I can't.

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siege2050

Pour some olive oil or sweet oil in caps preferable yellow and sit them by it. I had a severe infestation of Fungus Gnats earlier from plants I brought in, and they are completely gone now. I caught hundreds this way and caught them faster than they could reproduce. The more traps the better.

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