chiquitawannabe

Hello everyone:

I am having a computer issue, but hopefully there is an image below to review. That image was taken in May, and as of August 1, the plant has not grown, and most of the leaves just wilt and lay over (as in the image). I have done a recent Miracle Grow feeding, but the only real change was now it has more brown spots.
In looking at some of your (members) plants in the galleries, it looks like your plants are planted deeper than mine, but maybe that is just how the leaves are trimmed back.
I am in the process of losing one of my two bananas, and do not want to lose this one.
Would really appreciate any help, or someone in Portland, OR that I could take my plant to for some TLC.

Thanks for any help.

Mike

muffen

How much are you watering your bananas? I have been amased at how much mine need to stay healthy looking.

chiquitawannabe

I have been concerned about overwatering, so just water once every other day.
I am in Oregon and we have had a very hot summer so far, so I really thought they would take off and grow pretty quickly.

How often do you water yours?

With respect to fertilizer, are you using triple 16 as others do?

muffen

I am in tucson so it gets pretty hot here. I was watering my bananas once a day for about 30min to an hour on a slow drip/flow (enough flow to give max water and min run off). With that they were producing a leaf a week but weren't getting bigger. Just this past week we had an amasing 5days of slow steady rain for 4-6 hours a day. Now my bananas look like they are finally getting taller! So, I would say that if your soil is drying out for any length of time you should water more. I know some people are really concerend about overwatering, but it seems to me that underwatering is a bigger concern. As far as fertilizer, I am still working that one out. I planted them with some composted manure and now use some plam tree food (i think tis 8-4-12). I give my plants about 3T once a week. Hope this helps.

momoese

Some container grown Bananas will need water daily in the summer heat depending on fast they are growing. I have a Large 15 gal terra-cotta pot with Bananas that sometimes gets watered twice a day when it's hot and they seem to love it!

mikevan

While I would normally blame over-watering for these problems, I agree here. From what it looks like, you have a large nanner in a small clay pot and the soil looks kinda dry - in this case methinks watering more often would help. It would ease up with a repotting into a larger plastic container (that can be put into a terra cotta pot for looks).

Be well,
Mike

Westwood

HI i also live in oregon. Florence not too far away from you I know you guys have had it bad heat wise in portland we just have upper 80's here.
I water my bananas alot during the summer every other day about 1 gallon for the bigger plants and 1/2 gallon for the 2 ft plants the babies get watered daily 2-3 cups just enough to keep soil Moist not soaked i have mine in huge pots though 2gup to 25 g and i have 3 Plants that no matter what size will have to go in 25 g and some new citrus comming as well...

since it snows sometimes up there you will need to Read up on storage unless you have a green house . Tammy

bigdog

Hmmm...I see a couple of large, plastic pots right next to your bananas. I would get some good potting soil, add a little manure, and repot them individually. Clay pots do not hold moisture very well at all, and are not a good choice for potting bananas into. Are they in a lot of shade? The petioles on the right banana look a bit stretched, possibly indicating a lack of light. It looks like they have been indoors for a while for that matter. Give them some more light (outside), fertilize and water (after repotting), and they should perk up.

chiquitawannabe

Muffen, Momoese, Mikevan, Westwood and Bigdog... you folks are awesome! Thank you for taking the time to help diagnose the problem and providing the remedies. I will post some current images soon, and some over the next few weeks to help document what happens.

Is this a good time to repot?

Mike

mikevan

When it comes to saving your babies, any time is a good time. Sure - you've got some growing season left. Don't mess with the roots too much. Often I'll just plop the rootball, soil and all, in the larger pot and fill in with soil. Don't plant down - keep the surface even with the new soil. You'll probably want to seperate them - but then, I like the huge corms that develop if you leave a few pups connected together! Large corms mean faster growing nanners. So - to seperate or not to seperate is completely up to you. The important thing is - they be in a larger pot that doesn't lose water so fast, that they get soaked pretty good periodically to kill any dry spots and that they spend more time in the sun. Since you use MG, you'll want to flush the soil really good once and a while to get rid of the salts that build up. Alternatively, you could explore organic solutions like fish fertilizer, diluted molasses, and good compost.

Have fun,
Mike