Bananita

Hi all,

My indoor banana produced 6 healthy pups which I successfully repotted a few months ago in spring. All pups have grown to become healthy banana plants, one in particular had a very thick stem and large leaves and quickly grew to be the biggest. Here she is in her healthier days, only 10 days ago (second from right in the biggest brown pot):



However, over the European heatwave 3 days ago she suffered greatly:



And has not responded overnight to extra water:




Any ideas what has happened to her? She is seemingly the only one of my 6 plants to be affected in this way. If there is any hope to save her I would love to hear your suggestions. Many thanks!

sirdoofus

You obviously have some experience with those plants, and the fact that one is responding differently than the others, throws a bit of a wrinkle. But if I had to guess, based on the pics, it looks like the medium in that pot could be pretty heavy. When plants that seemingly maybe suffering from lack of water don't respond to watering, my first thought is rot down below.

If it were me I would remove the plant from the pot, wash the medium off of it, inspect the corm and roots looking for the beginning signs of rot, clean off any questionable spots, and re-pot it into a well draining medium.

As a default with potted, especially housebound bananas, I usually stick with a well draining mix, like succulent mix, and add perlite to make a 50/50 mixture of potting mix and perlite...but something similar is fine, as long as it is very well draining.

Then keep it in a bright area out of direct sun and don't consider watering until new signs of growth emerge.

Let us know what you find if you choose to pull it and have a look.

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Bananita

Thanks very much for your input. All plants are in the same medium (this one: https://www.bio-kultura.nl/Biologische-Potgrond), which makes me wonder why only one should be suffering. Maybe, if you are correct, I should be wary that rot could be developing in the other plants too.

Thanks for the helpful pointers regarding improving soil drainage, I will implement for future repottings. I had assumed that by using pots with drainage holes that I was safe from root rot (especially in this hot weather).

Unfortunately I'm not able to inspect the roots for a few weeks, but if it is still alive when I am back I will certainly share the results. Any other pointers or ideas much appreciated!

beam2050

bigger pots. 3 gallon

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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

sirdoofus

I had the same thought. Keep an eye on them. Bananas, especially in pots, seem to be particularly susceptible to over-wet medium. I have definitely killed my share before being schooled by the experts on this forum.

And maybe its something else, but not a bad idea to verify.

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