Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Has anyone else found Musa tanee slow to grow? i bought a new one in June and in july it still hasn't got a leaf. it's in the same mix as a Musa acuminata Colla Variegata which has been doing brilliantly. so it's not the potting mix, the plant isn't dead either just being so slow! What's you guys experience with Musa tanee?
photos below


thankss

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Photos of both plants would be great.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Sorry they didn’t add for some reason. had to make the images smaller so they would upload

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

not all bananas are the same. looks like over watering on the little one. alot of rot.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

No rot, I checked the corm + it is in a super free draining mix. It has roots it's just being super slow. it's in ideal growing conditions also—a warm sunny polytunnel environment.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Did you take a pic of the roots and if so post a pic?
Were the roots black,brown or white.

White /tan is good.

Your mix might be free draining but is it holding too much moisture.?

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

I didn't take a photo, but i remember the roots being white. The plant is growing, just slowly. the little thing in the middle looks like the end bit of a leaf. When growing my poly gets a good 35 degrees but generally its stays between 15-35. so it should be actively growing. it's in the exact same mix as the other one and it's okay. I've watered them both the same and I haven't watered them for weeks. the mix is 4 parts perlite to 2 parts Melcourt fine bark chip to one part compost.

it may be too much moisture ill have another check of the root in a few days.

thank you!

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

15c is pushing it for a low nightime temp for a plant that needs to establish.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Unfortunately, Autumn has arrived and winter is around the corner. So I can only work with what mother nature gives me. The Tanee is a hardy plant. as soon as temps get to 6 and below ill bring them in. But the soil temperature takes a while to cool down, with it not going below 15 yet!

if the stem starts to deteriorate and die, ill panic but so far, it's growing slowly but the foliage hasn't died back yet. so i won't give up hope! if a new leaf is on the way ill be safer!

thank you!

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

The roots!

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

It's clear that you have strong emotions about the roots because you used an exclamation point in your post, but what's not clear is your opinion of the roots.

Are you trying to say the roots look great or the roots look terrible?

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Sorry, the exclamation mark didn't mean anything. just put it there cause I thought it looked cool. the roots are alright. No strong feeling just poor grammar choice on my behalf

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

You have more information about what you're doing than any of us here because we're only looking at your photos. In my opinion that substrate is not suitable for that plant at it's current state of development. If it was a bare rhizome planted a week ago the root development would be considered good but the fact that it was planted in June makes the root development terrible.

Here's a photo from a 2014 study I did on mitigating rhizome rot in A'ea'e. The rhizomes were grown in an extremely dry substrate while the roots were allowed to grow in an extremely wet substrate. What someone notices about my photos might shed light on what's going on in your situation.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

So change substrate to a more free draining substrate? what can I add or remove to do this? perlite is known for its fantastic aeration properties. I haven't watered for weeks so it not suffering from lots of water
thanks1

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

One of the substrate experts on the forum can probably advise you best. I'm just a commercial grower that uses only one mix for everything and I do grow hundreds of variegated Tani. My mix contains air, water, sand, and grass clippings and the results are fairly amazing.

Where are the old roots?

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

your right your roots look amazing. So the mix is sand and grass clipping? Is the aeration and water just part of the structure of the soil?

I appreciate your advice I'm a beginner and definitely not an expert.

thanks!

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

The roots only look nice if you don't question where the old roots are.


The new roots grew then died and rotted before having the opportunity to become old. Then new roots grew back and the cycle continued.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

It should be obvious that your banana is in an environment that is not suitable. There isn't enough roots plus the old leaf sheaths are rotting, I'm suspecting that there is rhizome rot occurring.

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

Cheers for the help

Re: Musa tanee slow to grow
 

The plants was bough bare root, so it has no roots on arrival. I’ve check the corm thoroughly recently when I repotted it and it had not rot I could visible see. I maybe wrong, but I’ll see how it goes. I’m keeping it dry and got it in a clear pot to see root development. Soil temps are 25-30 and air temp is 20-30 and humidity 60+% so I’m giving it all I got. But I’m keeping it dry. If it dies or grows I’ll update this thread.

Thanks