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Ice Cream Banana Melting


D. Morrowii

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I planted these bananas several months ago and they were growing nice and steadily until a few weeks ago. One is doing worse than the other but it appears both have stopped growing new leaves or the leaves are bound up. New leaves are very pale And don’t want to darken up. I tried fertilizer a couple weeks ago and applied 1 tablespoon of boron to one about a week ago. Any banana experts have sn idea what it could be? 

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Water?   That thing looks like it needs hand water every day during the dry season right now.  The soil/sand is bone dry, pretty deep down during this part of the dry season around my area.  

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Just now, Looking Glass said:

Water?   That thing looks like it needs hand water every day during the dry season right now.  The soil/sand is bone dry, pretty deep down during this part of the dry season around my area.  

Last week I hand watered 3-4 days in a row in addition to a couple drippers that water twice a day. I know drippers aren't good for bananas but I use it as a back up. How much water per day do you recommend at this size? I have two Dwarf Cavendish not far from these that are doing pretty well with the same watering regimen.

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2 minutes ago, D. Morrowii said:

Last week I hand watered 3-4 days in a row in addition to a couple drippers that water twice a day. I know drippers aren't good for bananas but I use it as a back up. How much water per day do you recommend at this size? I have two Dwarf Cavendish not far from these that are doing pretty well with the same watering regimen.

Maybe it’s not water then, if you did that and didn’t see it perk up, and your others are doing well.  I’ve been hand soaking most of my young plants once a day, or every other day lately.   Parts of the lawn are crumping after 3 days without irrigation.   This is the worst time of year for me.   Hot, sunny and dry over fast draining soil/sand.  

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Yeah it sure is dry out even when the humidity is high I think the wind diminishes any benefit. So far it’s only been the two ice cream variety suffering everything else I have in the ground is doing pretty well banana wise. I don’t have sprinklers in the lawn and I haven’t been watering it either and most of it is completely brown. 

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My advice is not to take your banana split outside this time of year or the ice cream will melt.  Oh wait, we're talking about plants?

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Jon Sunder

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40 minutes ago, Fusca said:

My advice is not to take your banana split outside this time of year or the ice cream will melt.  Oh wait, we're talking about plants?

Well I cant have the banana split until I get the bananas! Sure I could buy some but what fun would that be? :-)

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If I had to guess, I'd think some kind of root/crown rot.  The leaves shouldn't fall away from the base like that, so if you are keeping up on the watering then maybe it just isn't taking up water?

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23 minutes ago, Merlyn said:

If I had to guess, I'd think some kind of root/crown rot.  The leaves shouldn't fall away from the base like that, so if you are keeping up on the watering then maybe it just isn't taking up water?

I'd probably go with this initially.  You can peroxide the crown and see if that helps.  This usually happens if we have a wet cold spell like we did this year. 

If you can't get the stem to perform, just chop it and you should get healthy growth from the root ball.

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Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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1 hour ago, Merlyn said:

If I had to guess, I'd think some kind of root/crown rot.  The leaves shouldn't fall away from the base like that, so if you are keeping up on the watering then maybe it just isn't taking up water?

Merlyn , Thanks for chiming in here. Hmm those leaves  have been falling away for a couple of months now so maybe I missed something a while ago.

1 hour ago, kinzyjr said:

I'd probably go with this initially.  You can peroxide the crown and see if that helps.  This usually happens if we have a wet cold spell like we did this year. 

If you can't get the stem to perform, just chop it and you should get healthy growth from the root ball.

Thanks Kinzyjr, I’ll try it it certainly couldn't hurt. 
 

Dumb question, can you spray ground clear a foot or 2 off of a banana plant?  If not then I think my wife figured this one out. She was out there looking at them with me and asked why there was some brown grass around the base of these but not the others. A few weeks ago after getting tired of pulling weeds constantly I decided to spray some grass/weed killer around these and a couple of the palms. The weed problem wasn’t as bad around the other banana plants so I didn’t spray there. 

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1 hour ago, D. Morrowii said:

Merlyn , Thanks for chiming in here. Hmm those leaves  have been falling away for a couple of months now so maybe I missed something a while ago.

Thanks Kinzyjr, I’ll try it it certainly couldn't hurt. 
 

Dumb question, can you spray ground clear a foot or 2 off of a banana plant?  If not then I think my wife figured this one out. She was out there looking at them with me and asked why there was some brown grass around the base of these but not the others. A few weeks ago after getting tired of pulling weeds constantly I decided to spray some grass/weed killer around these and a couple of the palms. The weed problem wasn’t as bad around the other banana plants so I didn’t spray there. 

I think you found your issue.  I don't spray weed killer here unless it is to get rid of Virginia creeper vines.  Even then, it is very targeted.  You never know what effects it will have on a particular plant until it is too late.  The good news is that it may correct itself over time if the plant can survive it.  The bad news is that it will take a while.  If you're in a rush, you could dig them out and wash all of the soil around the roots away and pot them in a large pot with fresh, uncontaminated soil for a while.  This way you could eliminate most of the weed killer and control the moisture better.  +1 for your wife's troubleshooting!

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Lakeland, FL

USDA Zone 1990: 9a  2012: 9b  2023: 10a | Sunset Zone: 26 | Record Low: 20F/-6.67C (Jan. 1985, Dec.1962) | Record Low USDA Zone: 9a

30-Year Avg. Low: 30F | 30-year Min: 24F

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Agreed, I think the weed killer is most likely culprit here, I know Roundup is pretty forgiving, you could spray that two feet away and have no problem unless there was a breeze that blew some mist over to the banana.  I don't know if ground clear is as forgiving, or maybe you did get some mist over that way.  Either way, looks like the most likely scenario.

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Corpus Christi, TX, near salt water, zone 9b/10a! Except when it isn't and everything gets nuked.

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 I try to avoid it too but I got lazy. The weeds and centipede grass were getting out of control crawling for the only water around. Live and learn I guess.  @kinzyjr No hurry here I’ll just see how it pans out. Thanks much for advise as always folks. 

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Yup, the only weedkillers I use are Glyphosate and 24-D.  Ortho GroundClear is a long-term salt and fatty acid vegetation killer and will take out a lot of stuff.  It's risky because it can kill a lot of different plants, and stays in the soil for up to a year or longer.  Glyphosate plus a squirt of Dawn soap in my 1g sprayer works great and only kills stuff that I actually hit with it, no soil or root absorption.  And if I accidentally spray a good plant, I immediately rinse it off with water and no problem.  24D is a selective Dicot killer like almost all broadleaf weeds, oaks, trees, cacti, roses, etc.  It's possibly bad for cycads and ferns, though I'm not sure about that.  It doesn't touch palms, cordylines, bananas, philodendrons, agaves, aloes, cannas, gingers, bird of paradise, or any grasses.  I use 24D for mostly killing off artillery fern, and not much else.

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