Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

hey y'all

had my Ae'Ae our in a pot all winter long, it was averaging about a leaf per month. We had a false warming the last two weeks of February so i ended up putting it in the ground on March first or so. It has yet to unfurl a new leaf since then...its last new leaf unfurled Feb 23rd. the p stem still seems firm and healthy and our temps have been consistently in the high 70s to mid 80s the past few weeks.

Just having a moment of paranoia and hoping y'all can help put my mind at ease that it'll snap out of it

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

The plant has gone into shock. Your night temps have been a little too cool since you planted it. Maybe put a clear piece of plastic over the ground to warm the soil up some. If you build a clear plastic TEE PEE like tent to cover the ground around the trunk and up over the trunk it may help but you may need to shade it to keep temps from getting too hot inside. Leaving a little vent hole up top may help control high temps.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Thanks for the tip, I think it’s finally snapped out of its shock. I can tell the little cigar is making progress now …just very slowly.

Just crazy to me as all the other bananas around it have been going crazy doing a leaf or so per week for about a month now

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Mine will pull back during the 7 months indoors too.

The larger the plant the more difficult to overwinter indoors.

Once the plant tastes some of that Georgia heat it will sort itself out:)

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Finally the new cigar is completely poking out of the p stem !

http://www.bananas.org/attachment.ph...1&d=1682028444

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Very nice plant. great to know it is growing. Have you had trouble with growing them before or is this your 1st one?

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Looks like you are going just fine.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

This is my first Ae’Ae I got it as a pup in august and over wintered it in a pot in the house

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

I asked if that is your 1st because I have killed several. I am guessing Savannah is the same soil as eastern N.C. where I grow. I would not leave it in ground over winter. They do not like cold soil. I lost all (or as far as I know) of my AeAe to nematodes. The best and largest which grew huge were ground planted. Whether ground planted or in pots watch for eventual deterioration of the plant and be ready to act to save it. It will begin with lack of growth, then loss of leaves, then you find the corm rotting. This could be nematodes. to fix that you dig the corm, clean the dead tissue off, as much as possible then heat water to 130F, in a large pot (large enough to hold corm) and then dip the corm in the hot water. The books say for 20 to 30 mins. This kills any possible nematodes and you can recover the corm as long as it goes back into nematode free soil. That water is too hot to keep your hands in so I worried it would cook the corm. It did not. It worked to save it. Still that high heat scared me so next time I used 125F water and left the corm till the water cooled. That seemed to work too. There are other methods you can use too. The key is to act fast and not wait thinking it will recover soon. My way is from a scholarly book called "Bananas" by M.W. Simmonds as best as my memory serves me. Some others may chime in here with their own methods or dispute mine, which is ok, so watch this thread. Oh and by the way if you sell pups put me on your list. Been itching to kill another one haha.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Im hoping to keep it in the ground year round, but with some serious protection, all of my other bananas have survived being in the ground so far, I even have Heliconia that wintered over after this years hellish cold blast around Christmas.

I’ll have to make a post about what survived and is already bounced back


http://https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FrhJnAcXQ8E

This guy has been successful to get bananas to fruit up in NC so I figure if his protections are good enough for his cold, they ought to be good for my milder winter

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Attachment 3904
Finally have a new cigar leaf poking out!
Seems pretty good sized so I’m hoping it’s got it’s roots developed and is ready to take off the second half of the summer

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Looking good

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Very nice! You still have a lot of warm weather to get it going so sending good vibes your way.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Attachment 3923

Attachment 3924
August 9th

Attachment 3925
And this most recent leaf August 29th it did get a little bent around by the winds from Idalia but not too bad

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

It seems hard to grow Ae'ae banana.Here in Hawaii I also had a problem keeping one alive.It started out great in the ground and then got something like leaf tip burn and the whole leaves were turning brown until I figured out something was wrong. I took it out and examine the corm. It had significant weevil damage in the form of black tunnels running through the corm.Maybe 1/2 inch or bigger around.I carved and dug out each tunnel until I saw white flesh again.Prior to that I removed all roots.I just basically shaved the corm until it was totally white with the exception of the weevil damage.After that i soaked it in 10% bleach water that was 130 degrees for 30 minutes.Sometimes I just do the hot water soak. I let that corm dry out overnight and replanted the next day.I have heard this plant likes acidic soil so I don't add my usual dolomite lime to the planting hole.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

I don’t believe I have weevil damage, I guess just transplant shock. The leaves do seem sensitive to sun damage after a while, I don’t think it would be as noticeable if it were shooting out a new leaf once a week like they’re supposed to.

It did just shoot out a new leaf yesterday but it’s smaller than the previous two Attachment 3940

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

All summer and really slow growth is not good for an AeAe. The last two leaves you show are sticking in the trunk ( the 2nd to last to emerge still has not come fully out) and the last leaf is shaped wrong. That has always spelled trouble for me with AeAe. In my above post I said act fast when you see trouble. If it does not start growing normally, very soon, I would pull it and pot it in fresh clean potting mix with a hot water dip 1st. Every time I have done that they made a quick recovery. I do not think it will make it through winter this year if it does not put on great growth very soon.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Wouldn’t disturbing the roots just set it back further?
It didn’t send out a leaf from May til August so now that it’s doing at least one a month it ought to mean progress

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Yea, that's kind of where you are stuck. Between a rock and a hard place. If you see fast growth going forward then you maybe should try to leave it but cooler weather is coming and they don't like that. I can not imagine it recovering over winter. Maybe I am wrong but I have killed several over many years and have another I bought this year that is potted and it has pushed about a leaf a week except for when I moved it to a larger pot and it skipped one week. I am thinking the soil is wrong or there is an underground pest problem. The last one I put in soil went from the size of yours in May to a giant over summer with 3 babies by October but was in a lot of sun. By the way judging from my past experience I fully expect to lose mine someday.

Re: Stunted Ae'Ae ?
 

Attachment 3969

Made the call about three weeks ago to dig her up put her back in the front where there’s more wintertime sun. The roots seemed fine but I still soaked in 130°F water for a while and removed as much of the old soil that I could and then repotted with fresh soil and sand.

At first all of the leaves got bad sunburn and some had to be removed. I figured this would happen as it was in a very shaded spot between the canopy of a blue Java and Thai black.

Oddly enough I noticed it had a sucker coming up while it was dug up so hopefully it’ll sprout up over the winter as long as we don’t get too cold