breakintheweb

I've only had banana plants for two months and having been reading a ton since then. I've noticed that my "dwarf cavendish" isn't growing much, has big black spots on new growth leaves. I was inspecting the stem which had black streaks and felt soft in spots.

I decided to cut them to the ground today and here are the resutling pics. The questions i have are, should i remove corm entirely? what are the risks to my other banana plants in the vicinity?

bottom side of removed stem



remaining stem in corm after cutting.


another pic of the same


New leaf growth on same stem


leaf side view


Second stem after cutting (not nearly as bad)


Area after both stems removed



Entire album link
Photo Album - Imgur

pitangadiego

Maybe I am missing something, but don't see a problem with the leaves, or the second stem. Hard to tell on the second corm, but it is helping the pup, so leave it.

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Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

breakintheweb

I thought the big black spots on new leaf growth was a bad sign? I took the second stem out because i wasn't sure if was infected and i've recently planted 4 new varieties (TC) in the area and didn't want to take any chances.

I'm still unsure if the stems i removed were in fact diseased and it they were, what disease was the cause. I'm also unsure what the risks to my other plants are if this is a disease.

In the meantime i'm going to keep reading

pitangadiego

Leaves are generally an indicator of plant health - but you have to understand that they report history, not current situation, in most cases. By the time a leaf emerges from the top of the pseudostem, the problems that it gives evidence of, such as under-watering, stress from a cold winter, over-fertilization, etc. are history, perhaps reporting events of a week, or two previous, or in the case of winter stress/damage, as much as 6 months ago. You may be looking at corms that were severely weakened by winter, and they may not survive, or they may continue to struggle for a while and then fade out. But that doesn't not mean they are diseased, just that they had a hard life. The second stem looks perfectly healthy. In general, there are few if ANY diseases that we experience with our banana plants. More often they suffer from inconsistent care, and the fact that we and they are not in Panama enjoying 90F every day. Betwe3en wind and cold, there is hardly a leaf on any of my banana plants (100+) that is recognizable at this point in the year. The onset of warm weather has caused them to push out their first new leaves in a long time.

The only real issue is with rotten portion of the pseudostem which is caused by a combination of cold and wet. The dark brown mushy portions need to be removed promptly, of they will affect neighboring leaf stems, until nothing is left. Other than that, chill out, sit back, and enjoy the ride.

__________________
Encanto Farms Nursery
http://encantofarms.com
We Be Bananas
http://webebananas.com

Gabe15

Where are you located?

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Growing bananas in Colorado, Washington, Hawaii since 2004. Commercial banana farmer, 200+ varieties.

breakintheweb

I'm located in South West Florida (33901). We've had high temperatures in the 90's for the last month. We haven't had much rain but the humidity has been in the 50-70% range.

The banana's are in full sun with a very sandy soil that has been amended with a 20lb bag of compost per plant.

breakintheweb

Here is an update from two weeks later. The corm has sent up 3 additional suckers. The two suckers that were present in the above pictures have grown several inches with the largest putting out 3 new leaves.

I'm thinking the issue was due to me being to liberal with the water hose and getting the leaves very wet. I'm now using a water can to water 6-12 inches from the stems.