Figaro

My first banana plant was a dwarf cavendish that's about a year old. I've posted some pic's recently and mentioned it looked like she was getting ready to flower.

Well, we've had torrential thunderstorms all day today and I just went out back and saw that the DC had not just been blown over in the winds, but the pseudostem was totally ripped away from the roots!

It doesn't look like there's going to be any way to save her and I'm totally depressed. It's going to be at least another year before one of my bananas flower and I was really looking forward to my first banana harvest from the DC.

I could cry right now!

I'll post some pics tomorrow after the sun comes up here.

mksmth

this make me sad for you. wishing you luck for future flowers and hopefully you will get lots of bananas.

Mike

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sunfish

I am so sad

Abnshrek

Well the upside is you'll probably have a bunch of pups in the near future.. :^)

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Julian

Sorry man. I know the feeling.

crazy banana

Oh no! So sorry for you. I would be devastated, too.

sunfish

It is only a banana plant

servatusprime

That was just from a thunderstorm?? Crap I might be doomed we get big storms regularly down here. Sorry that it blew over. I would be very upset too after all that anticipation.

robguz24

Is it worth trying to replant it further in the soil. I'm always amazed at the abuse they're able to take. I've had most of my Ice Creams topple with very little root attached. I just replant them a bit deeper, mulch, and water consistently. They always survive.

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Figaro

Thanks for all the sympathy - except Tony who I did give some "thanks" to but got no sympathy!

I don't think she's worth trying to replant, but I'm open to opinions:

robguz24

I wouldn't hesitate replanting that and have done so with plants in worse shape than that. Just bury it a little deeper and try a bigger container or put in the ground. It should establish new roots in little time.

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Foreverlad

Figaro, admittedly I'm fairly new to bananas, but honestly, I think there's more than a little hope left for your DC.

Clear out the old root-mass and replant the banana a bit deep in the soil. Give the soil a good watering, amended with a little rooting hormone or other similar root stimulator and within a month, you might never know this had happened at all.

Figaro

Wow! You guys are making me feel better already! OK...I'l give it a shot and see what happens. She was in a 45 gallon SmartPot...I'm not sure I'll go bigger, but I will go deeper!

Thanks!

Foreverlad

Yeah, from the looks of the pictures, your corm is mostly unaffected. The corm is like the brains and the battery for the banana. Keep the corm healthy, and best case scenario is everything goes back to normal. Worse case, you get a couple of pups.

You can find videos about professional banana farmers who remove pups from parent plants, chop off all the roots, and replant the pup further downfield. It quickly adapts and takes off on it's own, so long as it has enough corm to weather the change.

Figaro

Thanks...I have three of her pups I removed that are all rooted right now, plus a real young Williams Hybrid that was started as a TC. So, it's not like I don't have any plants, I just don't want to have to wait another year for one to flower.

Foreverlad

Out of curiosity, were any of the roots visible above the soil line before the accident? It's hard to tell from your photos. At a guess, I'd say the corm was very close to the surface and roots were just barely submerged in soil.

Not that there's anything wrong with that on a potted banana, but from your own experience, I'm sure you can appreciate the value in potting a banana slightly deeper =)

Edit: btw- I notice some of your older leaves have large black spots on them. I just recently came across this in another post on another forum re: bananas. Was your pot completely saturated prior to the storm? Trying to discern the cause for blackening of leaves.

Figaro

First, thanks everyone for the input. I did just finish repotting the plant, and as soon as I finished the winds started kicking up and another thunderstorm is rolling in. I staked the plant so hopefully it will make it through this storm and tomorrow, I can reinforce it a little and give it a good shot of SuperThrive, which works miracles on stressed plants (and, this one needs a miracle!).

The answer is, "YES!" the plant was definately up a little high, especially after a year of the soil settling. I noticed this when I removed her last pup and could see that she was blowing in the wind pretty far over, so it occurred to me that it could happen, which actually makes it worse, cuz' I decided not to do anything about it. I was worried that if I piled some compost/soil mix, it would end up rotting the pseudostem and worsen the issue, so I left it alone.

All of the blackening of the leaves happened after she fell over and was sitting in the sun all day today.

Here's what she looked like 10 days ago:

Should I Remove This Pup?

And, only 4 days ago I thought I might be getting my first flag leaf:

Is This A "Flag Leaf"?

I'm a banana "newbie", too, so I guess that's called "learning from experience"! My bananas will definately be planted deeper in the future!

Foreverlad

Figaro,

I appreciate the link. I missed your last thread. All my bananas are planted in the ground outdoors, so I haven't had to deal with a similar situation.

I'd considered the dangers of rot from a deeper planting, but at least in my neck of the woods, flooding and pooling water just isn't an issue. From everything I've read here, deeper planting is generally beneficial; if a corm/stem is going to rot, soil level won't be the issue, oversaturation will. That'll hurt the plant whether it's sitting plumb with the soil line or buried 2 feet below it.

Anyway, absolute best of luck with your DC. Interested in seeing how things work out.

Hammocked Banana

Yes definately burry it deeper. I can see in your other thread that the pups are coming off the mother right at soil level. I wouldnt be too worried about rot, my basjoos outside are all burried 1-2 feet deep at least.

Edit: black spots are sun burn from the sun being magnified though puddles of water on the leaves when it was laying down.

crazy banana

I agree with the other posts: plant it deeper, give it some "Super Thrive" or so and water it carefully. You have nothing to loose-just try it. Good luck!