Ensete issue

[surfermatt]

Hi team, 

I have been having a little trouble with my ensete glaucum (ornamental) banana plant. It’s 1.5 years old from seed. It’s absolutely exploded this year. Some new leaves are showing this dark rotten looking marking. There has been a good leaf recently too that is still flawless. I noticed what seemed to be a few “ spears” jammed when one of the newest leaves did not open or did not have one side to it. I cut them at the top to relieve the pressure (not sure if this was the right thing to do) but know these plants can grow back from the ground so figured it couldn’t hurt. This is it growing after a few days from the cut. 
 

other info- on a once every four day drip schedule where it gets probably 2-3 gallons a time (snaked drip line). New fertigation setup (maybe when it hits it could be burning it?) but it’s fertigation and I’ve read ensete are heavy feeders. A smaller but directly next to it red ensete maurelli seems to be fine. I haven’t noticed any significant pests. Mulch was recently applied. 
 

any help or ideas would be appreciated. This has become a really cool plant that I plan to use for temp canopy. 

[Merlyn]

The leaves drooping makes me think it's underwatered.  That happened to mine in drought times typically May and October here in Floriduh.  The sides of the leaves would droop downwards in an inverted "V" and then we'd get a thunderstorm and they'd flatten back out.  I quit growing Ensete here in FL due to constant crown rot.  They looked reasonably good, but would fall over if you pushed them from the side, and the center of the crown was a rotten stinky mess.  For that reason I'd probably avoid having sprinklers hit the trunk or base.

[surfermatt]

Thank you for the help. The soil is moist. I may have some rot but figured it wasn’t that due to our recent temps being high (summer in socal). I’ll keep my eye on it and water a little more. No sprinkler here to hit it with. May try some hydrogen peroxide to see if that helps also. 

[surfermatt]

I tried some h peroxide and heard and saw minor fizzzing. I’ll stay on that and water heavy. Thank you. 

[Merlyn]

Yeah, if it bubbles with hydrogen peroxide then there's at least some fungal infection.  I've been treating crown rot infections with Daconil + hydrogen peroxide mix, with good results so far. 

I forgot to mention, there's no problem with chopping off the end of leaves if they've grown out jammed or deformed.  I've cut back several bananas when the leaves get all messed up with the wind or during transplant.  As you noted, many bananas can be cut back all the way to the ground and they'll regrow just fine.

[surfermatt]

I wanted to give an update. It grew out of the infection with some peroxide and absolutely exploded this summer. Unfortunately, it started flowering as well. Any idea how much time I have left? I wonder if fighting the infection plus vigorous growth made it flower early or if the ensete glaucum flower much earlier than the red forms. It’s been 1.5 years since planting as a large seedling. I did notice the green form is much more resistant to caterpillars eating the leaves vs the red form next to it which gets eaten. 

[dalmatiansoap]

Beautiful plant on the end of it's circle. You will enjoy it probably few more months considering winter is coming. I hope it will forme a lot of bananas and you will have fresh seeds to offer on market 

[Merlyn]

@surfermattgood to know that hydrogen peroxide works on bananas too!  Unfortunately I have no idea on flowering for Ensete.  Mine were all the red ornamental ones, and they died from crown rot before getting close to flowering.  I think all Ensete are non-offsetting and monocarpic, so you might need to sprout seeds or get a seedling replacement.

[Than]

On 8/9/2022 at 10:29 PM, surfermatt said:

I tried some h peroxide and heard and saw minor fizzzing. I’ll stay on that and water heavy. Thank you. 

what percentage did you use?