bigdog

Despite watering frequently (every other day), two species are standing out as poor performers in the extreme drought and heat of August (Well, drought has been going on all year) this year. After an unusually cool July for Knoxville, Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis and Musa thomsonii looked fairly decent, with M. itinerans actually looking very robust and healthy. Since the start of August, with temps consistently in the high 90s (Fahrenheit) and no rain here at my house, they have both taken turns for the worse. The M. itinerans var. xishuang actually started dropping outer leaves that were still green, like they just peeled away from the pseudostem. Also, the last three leaves to emerge immediately browned on the edges upon unrolling. It's like the pseudostem is literally falling apart. It still has about 10-11 green leaves, so I'm not worried that it will die (yet), I just thought it was strange. M. thomsonii just hasn't grown much at all since planting, and it started the same behavior as M. itinerans. Both do get full sun until late afternoon, so maybe that hurts them also. Weird though, because Leu Gardens in Orlando has a planting of them, and they apparently do fine (they are in the understory though). Maybe its the sun + heat that is doing them in. We even broke 100F (101F) last Thursday, which is an event for Knoxville. Hasn't happened since 1995 until this year. Nashville, OTOH, has been burning up for 2+ weeks now, hitting 100F or better (106F last thursday!) 13 out of the last 14 days. Ugh!

Taylor

The latest leaf on my Jamaican Red is burnt on some parts of the leaves. I know this doesn't explain anything, but I hope it makes you feel better that it isn't only you!

STEELVIPER

Maybe its lack of cooling at night in your area? Some musa's will just not do well if they get no night time cooling. Meaning 100's/ 90's during the day and say high 70's-80's at night.

mark

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Fcastro

Frank,

It's been hot like that here too with the heat index as high as 115 , but at least we're not suffering from a drought like you guys are. One thing that might help is something that I've been doing with a bunch of my plants who's butts were getting kicked by the sun and heat. I've been draping shade cloth over them and it's really seemed to help ,it's really easy to build a shade house if your plants are arrayed in an orderly fashion or you can just buy the cloth and cut it to fit the plants individually ,it's not heavy at all so it won't hurt your plants. Here's a link to a site that has very reasonable prices. Good luck.


http://www.cloudtops.com

Chironex

Frank, I have this problem with a few of mine, namely, Ice Cream, Double and one or two others. The pstems appear to be "delaminating" (my made up term for it) in the sun and heat here.

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Scot

Bananaman88

Mark,

Do you know if this is a problem for 'Hua Moa'? I had trouble with almost every single leaf that mine tried to put out this year. Being in Houston we do have high night-time temps for several months at a time. I had to help almost every leaf unfold and many had burned looking spots on them. Now that is has started cooling off at night the problem seems to be getting better. I wonder if 'Hua Moa' is originally from a higher elevation that cools somewhat at night?

bepah

My Ice Creams are doing well. The 3 I have have produced 18 pups this year, but we have had excellent conditions, although very, very dry. I water (using a drip system) for 30 minutes a day and heavy mulch using only compost....

During our hot weeks ( 2 of them this year) I thought these bananas would shoot out of the ground they grew so fast. So, air temperature is not the issue. I am guessing that the soil gets so warm in LV that your 'delaminating' may be the result. Mulch and water works for me.

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John Case
Rookie Gardener, Veteran Drinker

sandy0225

If you're getting that much dryness, they need more water. MORE and MORE and MORE water and that will fix your problems. Also you might need to check them for spider mites.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
1501 East Fuson Road
Muncie, IN 47302
www.northerntropics.com


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