frankbrad

Trying to identify what is going on here. This is a Highgate banana plant. It was inside all winter and was planted outside about 5 weeks ago. It has pushed out 3 healthy leaves since then with no sign of trouble. The older leaves took damage but that was due to the sunlight. Put the banana plant in 1 bag of mushroom compost and 2 bags of nice top soil. Cut to three weeks later, gave it a dose of 20-20-20 fertilizer along with some soil acidifier after testing the soil and seeing it at 7ph. Then had a couple weeks of heavy rain and temps have been in the 80s for a few weeks. A cigar leaf came up looking like heavy fertilizer burn. You can see it has emerged small and lost the majority of the leaf(dried up). The new cigar popping up is even worst. Was fearing root rot so I dug away the little much I have and saw a good number of healthy roots, can't tell the condition of the lower roots, and while I was digging found to my surprise 2 pups. The plant is only 5 ft tall so it seems a bit early for pupping to already happen.

Any suggestions of what the cause is and any recommendations on what to do and what to keep an eye on?

Thanks all,
Brad


http://imgur.com/gallery/jFVZqI2

beam2050

dang dude, either that or you have one very serious caterpillar. think I would hit it with some 7s dust to be safe. I would be one of the last ones to know but 20-20-20 seems to be a might strong.

best of luck

__________________
...................................................

npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

frankbrad

Would water sitting in the pstem for a week straight cause rotting of the new cigars? The rain has been constant enough that there has been continuous water sitting in the petioles which I figure can't be good right?

frankbrad

Thankfully there is no rain predicted for the next week so I can finally control the watering. Will keep updates on the status of the plant.

beam2050

rains a lot in the tropics. to strong fertilizer and lots of rain? was it a liquid fertilizer? just trying to help out until someone with some real knowledge comes along.

__________________
...................................................

npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

frankbrad

i gave it about 1.5 Tbsp of 20-20-20 water soluble fertilizer in 1.5 gallons of water. Since the banana in in the ground and not in a pot that doesnt seem like so much that it would cause this.

beam2050

I put miracle grow on some small ones once and dang near stopped them in their tracks. I know an experienced grower that said he put liquid fertilizer on his and killed quite a few of them. he thought it was to much nitrogen all at once.

__________________
...................................................

npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

frankbrad

Hopefully that is the problem. The plant should recover from this since the heavy rains should have diluted any water soluble fertilizer.

beam2050

whats kickin me in the rump is usually when you do something seriously bad to them they quit growing for awhile. if you poisoned them with to much fertilizer it, to my way of thinking should have put them on hold. bugs and animals love them tender leaves. I think I would hit them with something to control bugs while waiting for the fertilizer to go away.

__________________
...................................................

npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

edwmax

I don't believe 1 1/2 tbsp of 20-20-20 will hurt the plants. If anything, you need more fertilizer (about 5 lbs during the growing season) and Seven dust (or spray) for the insects. If the plants are in the ground change to a granular fertilizer.

__________________

Starstryke

You overfertilized. Straight fertilizer plus lots of rain means it got hit all at once. This is one of the reasons I stick with time release banana fertilizer.

frankbrad

The new cigar is still growing so whatever is wrong it isn't bad enough that growth has haulted. for the future I will stick with slow release fertilizer. I just can't believe that the little fertilizer I gave it did this by itself, it had to be multiple elements. I have given it 20-20-20 before and it has never reacted this bad. It had some fertilizer burn when it was potted and had other growth issues, but this takes the cake.

frankbrad

So performed a soil test. Results: pH = 7, nitrogen = none, phosphorous = none, and potassium = acceptable. Can't really explain those results. Going to patch up the pH with some sulfur and apply some triple super phosphate and urea to fix up the nutrient levels.

beam2050

you see how the top of the cigar leaf is took out. still say bug. here in the east the fish wont eat a grasshopper. where your at the fish love em. here in the east we slap the fly's, where your at they bite back. you have some nasty little bugs. one west boy to nother.

__________________
...................................................

npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

frankbrad

I sprayed sulfur and seven dust.

frankbrad

What can you do to kill insects that are inside the pstem? Is it pretty much game over?

edwmax

Insects inside the pstem start with adult bugs outside. Spray and control those outside. ... Also, the larvae inside the ptem will mature and move outside. Then the spray will kill them.



Also, if the pstem is still small, you can cut it off below the infestation to remove the insects. But spraying is still needed .

__________________

venturabananas

Pretty much anything that makes a banana plant unhappy can result in symptoms like that, though the close up photo of the end of the cigar leaf does look like something was chomping on it. But that doesn't look like the sole problem to me.

__________________

frankbrad

Got an update. After giving the plant some urea, triple super phosphate, and some K2O along with treating it with seven dust the new cigar leaf is looking a lot better.

37.667910

I have some leaves looking similar on a small pup. I looks like fert burn to me. Normally works itself out aft a few leaves for me.

__________________