adrift

Your corm is lovely. Remember: bananas are not birch trees!

Plants with corms, bulbs, tuberous roots, etc. are often shipped that way. Think of what you get when you buy tulips, daffodils, crocus, gladiolus, elephant ears, "seed" potatoes, etc. -- if you get one of them with some shaggy, dried old roots left on it, they don't come back, new roots will be grown.

Damaged roots are a site for infection to enter the plant. Just as well to remove them as they (roots) often die from the damage anyway. Plant your corm where you want it to grow, or in a pot that you will leave undisturbed. Lightly water and leave it alone.

If you put the corm in water before planting, get it into soil before new roots start out. You will likely damage the tender new roots in planting and you have set the plant back by that much.

__________________
I've got to stop asking people, "How stupid can you be." People are taking it as a challenge.