Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

Hi all!

About 4 weeks ago we finally started to get some decent weather and it was time for one of my namwahs to come out of its resting phase.

I cut the withered old leaves away and then cut the stem off at about 5 feet of height (the plant was 6ft).
It looked pretty healthy and fresh apart from one of the outer leafstems, and quickly started pushing up new growth. However, it stopped just shy of a foot and did not do anything except starting to look increasingly bruised and pale brown. The old stem originally dried out nicely at the cut, but now felt a bit more mushy and liquid sometimes dripped out of it. I gave it another week (this past week) hoping the expected new leaf would pop out soon and enable the plant to start its growth. Unfortunately, the rotting process outran the up and coming first new leaf so I decided to cut the plant back today. I took the top one foot off, and found the stem to be light brown, slightly mushy and kind of foul-smelling. The centre growth did not look too good either.

Then I cut the stem al the way back until only one foot stump remained. The centre looked relatively nice and green, and only the outer ring had visibly gone bad. Below is a picture after it had been standing in full sun for about an hour in the hope the cut would dry out as fast as possible. It went a little brown just like banana peels tend to do as well. Does it look like this plant will be able to recover? Or with it just continue to rot away when left like this?

I do not water it, and we only had a tiny bit of rain two weeks ago. At night I covered the plant's top with that white kind of insulation cloth for plants. Any advise would be most welcome.

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

You could pull the plant from its container and inspect the roots.
Use your fingernail and nick a root and inspect if they are still functioning.
The roots should appear whitish and healthy and fresh.
Give them the sniff test also.

Now is also a good time to refresh/changeout the soiliess mix and up pot your plant also.

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

Thanks for the reply! I'll have a look at the roots soon ;)

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

That pstem is done for. There seems to be a gash in the pstem a few inches from the top or just an optical photo illusion (????). I can't enlarge it enough to be sure.


As Cinci said now is a good time to inspect the corn & roots. Then treat with bleach water before re-potting. if everything is OK and no rot in the corm you should get a couple of new pups.

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

:lurk: How goes it?

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

Well, a few weeks later and the namwah is doing quite alright!
The outer layers of the pseudostem continued rotting but this did not seem to affect the corm itself.
It's growth is back to a regular pace and the leaves come out better every time.

I did not do anything except having a peep at what's beneath the soil and putting the plant against a hot, sun-facing wall in an atempt to dry out the old PS as much as possible..

Here are two pics. Sorry about the rotated one, it won't seem to come up right despite many attempts with two different photo editors.

Thanks again for all your help!:nanadrink:

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Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

Good work. Bananas can be resilient.

Re: Can this rotting stem of a namwah be stopped?
 

I'm pretty sure if the rot's not affecting the inside of the corm and it's only the outside that is rotting, then your plant should be fine.