blownz281

Mysore lost two pups which were two feet maybe alittle taller. They both did the same,p-stems got skinny and top of the plant become to heavy and they bent over. Velutina lost large mother plant and medium sized pup to the same,Orinoco pup is doing the same. I have them in a bathroom with no windows. Have the bathroom light on for 6hrs a day or longer,walls are white so its bright. 5 bulbs on a strip and think they are 40watt each. I let the nanners stay dry for several weeks cause the pots were soaked to rid bugs. Watered them twice so far thats it. They have been in the house for over a month. The house stay about 75*.

Any ideas what is going on?

Thanks

Gabe15

Likely it is because there is not enough light, so they are stretching out (etiolation) and becoming weak. They need much more light.

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

blownz281

Okay thanks Gabe.

timmko

Try and get a full spectrum bulb. They have 200watt compact flourescent 6500k for about 10 bucks and put it in a regular silver clamp on utility hood. That would help alot. They need to have the right spectrum of light which your normal bathroom bulbs won't be able to duplicate.

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Roslyn

It may also help if you put the bulbs very close to the leaves. I know that for starting tomato seedlings, they say to get a fluorescent light and put it a couple inches away from the tops of your plant. That seems a lot harder to do for a big banana plant, but if you can rig something up, it would probably help. Just make sure the bulbs aren't so hot that they're cooking the leaves.

blownz281

Thing is my Mysore,banana,Raja puri,bordenlon are all doing fine. I grew a bunch of nanners before with only normal lighting in the house. I have replacements for all these,but hope they will come back.

Roslyn

Raja puri seems to be especially forgiving about not getting enough light, though. We've got one that's probably 7 feet tall, next to a window but it doesn't get much light. It has really slowed down in its growth... not sure it's growing anymore, actually. But it still looks great - nice and stocky. When most plants don't get enough light, they put all their effort into growing tall, even if that makes them weak. The idea is, in nature if they aren't getting enough light, it is probably because another plant is shading them out. So if they can outgrow that bigger plant, then they'll be okay. But that is not the situation inside a dark house, so the way they grow is not helpful, and just makes them unnecessarily weak.

Anyway... not sure how the different cultivars compare to each other, since we only have the Raja puri at home. But I am really impressed with our Raja puri for staying kindof short and stocky despite the low lighting. Most plants would not be so well-behaved, so it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if some other banana cultivars don't react as well to low lighting.

Vickie H.

In winter mine over in my basement. I have shop lights and a couple of windows. It stays between 50-60*F in the winter. Some are potted some are bare root. Here is a pic that you can see a few of them.