caliboy1994

Ok, so after previously assuming that my Ice Cream had root rot (I had found what appeared to be a rotted root on my plant), I've decided to get a second opinion. I'm going to start the story from the beginning.

I got my Ice Cream in mid-July and the gardeners planted it in compost with a layer of gypsum underneath to help break down the layer of heavy clay below the topsoil. At first, I watered it diligently every day, never letting the soil dry out. Then, after a few healthy dark green leaves, I noticed something. The leaves were getting lighter in color, and the plant's growth was slowing down! This was by mid-August, when things started getting really hot (90+ degrees a day). The growth also slowed down by 50%, from making a leaf a week to making a leaf every week and a half. I thought that I was overwatering, so I decreased the frequency of watering my plant. I watered it by hand whenever the top of the soil was dry and let the sprinklers water it three times a week otherwise. Then, I just let the sprinklers water it. But the leaves kept getting lighter! At the end of August I fertilized it with 6-4-6 probiotic organic fertilizer. More recently, the characteristic pink edges on the newest leaves were not there and took a while to develop. I recently covered the sprinkler next to the plant so that the sprinkler doesn't overwater it. It's now getting a smaller amount of water from another nearby sprinkler. Now, the late summer heat is beginning to fade away, and it's still not speeding up it's growth or getting any healthier. Here are a list of my observations on the plant and its growth:

• Ever since a few weeks after planting, the leaves have been getting lighter and lighter. The older leaves remain green and healthy-looking.
• The lightest and most newly emerged leaves lack the pink edges characteristic of Ice Cream bananas, but the pink edges begin to develop after the leaf has fully emerged.
• On the most newly emerged leaves, the left side of the leaf is darker than the right side.
• There are a lot of ants around the base of the main p-stem.
• I found what appeared to be a rotted root. The same root was healthy just the day before.
• The plant is in the process of making a new pup, but it's taking forever to emerge out of the ground (it's been over a week and a half since I first discovered it sprouting from the main corm). Since I first discovered the new pup forming, it hasn't even grown up 2 inches.
• There is a very large trail of ants on the path next to the plant (it's ant season here). Over the past week the trail of ants has diminished.
• I checked the leaf sheaths for aphids, and found none.
• A few weeks ago, I saw a large root that looked perfectly healthy.
• The plant gets around eight and a half hours of full to near-full sun a day (from around 7:00 in the morning to 3:30 in the afternoon).
• The plant is planted next to a wall to help protect it from the wind.
• Other than the lighter leaves and slow growth, the plant appears to be perfectly healthy. The newer leaves are progressively getting bigger.
• There are lots of ants in the soil around the plant.
• The soil at least an inch under is constantly moist. The compost does not appear to drain well.
• The plant is planted at the top of a slope.
• There is a shrub growing close to the banana plant.
• I've found ants climbing on the petioles and leaves.

Here are my prime suspects for what is wrong with my plant:

Root rot: I have been suspecting root rot for a long time, and I recently found a root that appeared to be rotted (it was brown, slightly mushy, and when I pulled it off the inner part of the root didn't come off and it was slimy). Although, a few weeks earlier, I found a large root coming from the corm that was nice and healthy.

Masked chafer grubs: These grubs are the larvae of the masked chafer beetle (also known as a June bug). They feed on the roots of plants, particularly grass and shrubs. They can be very damaging to lawns. Damage peaks in late summer to early fall. Perhaps these are what are damaging my plant, and maybe the ants are very interested in them for some reason? Has anybody had problems with them feeding on banana plant roots in the past?

Heat stress: I know that too much heat can have bad effects on banana plants, but can it really turn their leaves lighter like this? And the symptoms don't seem to be wearing off as things are cooling down now. Plus, Ice Cream banana plants are pretty drought tolerant, so I'm not sure if this is the cause.

Here are a few pictures of my plant:



Here is my actual plant. Notice that the newer leaves are lighter in color. This picture is actually pretty out of date, it was taken almost a month ago. My plant has gotten a bit bigger since then.



I'm pretty sure this root is rotted. I had found it near the soil surface just the day before when I was checking on my plant, and it seemed to be healthy and new growth.



Here's a leaf just after it emerged. It's very light in color compared to the older leaves, and is lacking the pink edges characteristic of Ice Cream bananas. The left side is also slightly darker than the right side. After the leaf became more developed, it darkened slightly and the edges started to turn pink.



Here's a picture where it is easy to see the difference between the newer and older leaves.

I need to cure my plant of whatever is ailing it ASAP because winter is coming, and I don't want it to die during the winter! Can somebody please help me get to the bottom of this mystery?

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Bch Grl

Your plant looks pretty healthy to me.....from your picture. The leaves are all green and not brown or yellow. The smaller, older leaves are still there and you have a lot of leaves on the plant. Maybe it has to do with what it was fertilized with before you got it that made the other leaves so dark. The new leaves will darken and toughen up as they mature. I don't think anything is wrong with your plant. I think it looks pretty good! I wouldn't worry at this point, and I wouldn't move it, either. Just my observations.
Margie

caliboy1994

Thanks, but I'll see what others have to say before I decide what to do.

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Bob3

I agree, your plant looks pretty good, and the light yellow tint of new growth is perfectly normal, though it does appear to be pretty short yet for an Ice Cream.
Just how tall is it right now?
There are some tricks you can employ to increase chlorophyll production but once you start down the "Dr Frankenstein" path with exotic chemicals, you might get hooked & wind up with a 30 foot tall monster trying to eat your car.
You might consider planting some "water hungry" plants around the base to help suck up excess moisture.
A little extra potassium in it's diet never hurts, either, and phosphorus can deter some fungus growth.

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Blake09

I think that you are doing everything you should to make a healthy banana. The high heat could of slowed the banana down, but it should pick back up once it cools off a bit. Ants will farm aphids on the plant but you said that they have gone away so I dont think that you have an aphid problem (the trail of ants could of been that they have found food near by, or moving a colony).

Your plant looks healthy, once the cigar leaves get a tan in the sun they should darken up. You can give it some high nitrogen fert and that will make the leaves look better. An example: 12-5-5, 10-5-5, or 10-10-5. I fert my bananas with 10-10-10.

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caliboy1994

Thanks a lot. But today I did find that some of the trimmed leaf sheaths on the plant were rotting underground. And the soil around the plant smelled a little bad. I also found another root that appeared to have a rotting tip. I'll see how it does through the winter.

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sunfish

Just too much water.May be best to pull it and pot it up into some good soil,until it recovers.When you re-plant it maybe planting on a mound will help.Definitely knock down any berms that are around the plant

caliboy1994

Will do. Glad that I have 2 25 gallon containers! I should probably not re-plant it until next spring then. I just need to buy more soil for the pots.

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Drew

I would say it looks ok, but a few possibilites to consider:
it is going through a settling period in it's new environment
gypsum takes time to work and annual applications may be required
may be planted too deep
If it's planted too deep this will be the main concern, it'll need raising. The heat you experience there shouldn't be causing that variety any issue.
Cool bananas

Bob3

Be sure to avoid "regular" potting soil, which is blended to retain moisture.
You *might* want to go with a fast draining type of soil, as for cacti & palms, or even blend your own with some compost & sand.

Also, I'd check with some of the folks on the forum here to see if they might not have an "optimum" fertilizer blend for your condition, it'll have a lot of phosphorus & potassium.
For instance, I have some stuff here that's a 0-52-34 blend of KH₂PO4, it'll help discourage fungus growth & lend to part of the phosphorous needs. They might even have something better & are quick to share their experience if you ask.

If you're not going to dig it up soon, grab some lettuce seeds & plant a thick bed of the stuff around the base, it'll help soak up excess moisture.

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caliboy1994

Right now it's planted in pure compost. I'm probably going to dig it up within a week. I'm planning on replanting it in cactus soil with perlite mixed in.

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caliboy1994

Right now my dad won't let me pull it up right now, and there's a massive heat wave coming in soon. I just poked holes in the soil to help dry it out and improve airflow. The weird thing is that when I was digging the holes with a piece of rebar I hit something hard around 8-12 inches down. It felt like rock. Maybe it's a pipe or something. Anyways, it's been taking 2 weeks to complete the last leaf! I can't seem to convince my dad to let me pull it up and put it in a pot for now. He thinks that it'll just injure it. Would I be better off just leaving it in the ground (the heat wave should dry out the soil real nicely, but I fear for the health of my plant) and letting the soil dry out or just pulling it up and potting it in a 25 gallon, or will that injure the roots and stress it too much?

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venturabananas

I wouldn't be too worried, your plant looks pretty good to me. The lighter leaf color is normal and leaf emergence rate slows down as a banana plant ages and as the hours of sun per day decline as we head into fall. You were watering too much, which might have caused some minor problems. I know people who live within a few miles of you who water once a week, or less. You should probably aim to let the top few to several inches of soil dry out between waterings if you are worried about rot. Bananas are much more resistant to drought than you might expect. Just ask Sunfish, I've seen him take out thriving pups out of bone-dry hardpan. Rot over winter is much more likely to kill bananas here in So Cal than too little water. At least that's been my experience. Good luck. Take a breath, relax.

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saltydad

Obviously if you're finding rot I can't contradict you, but from your pics the IC does indeed look healthy. My banana plants new leaves all are lighter than the older ones until they get the same length. If you are concerned with greening it up, a safe method is to add Epcom Salts at a 1 tablespoon to a gallon soak. It provides magnesium and sulfur.

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caliboy1994

Thanks, but it's not just lighter leaves, it's slow growth too. It took 2 weeks just to complete the last leaf! It is making 2 little pups at the moment. Could this be contributing to the slow growth? And I haven't been deep root watering it, just letting the sprinklers water it or watering it by hand with a pitcher if needed. Should I do that? Still though, the soil is constantly moist and only the top seems to dry out.

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venturabananas

Water deeply once a week and you should be fine. Two weeks for a leaf to emerge is pretty normal -- unless you live somewhere with more tropical weather than where you live. Remember, even now with the warm days, it is still cool at night here -- low 60's to high 50's. Those are not optimal banana growing conditions.

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caliboy1994

Oh, and here's a more recent picture:



Turns out that this plant is not an actual Ice Cream and is just one of those fake ones. The good news to this is that I can kind of use it as a practice plant to help get me acquainted with growing bananas. I plan on getting the REAL Ice Cream next spring.

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"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
~ Masanobu Fukuoka

Find me on linktree here as Solarpunk Farmer:
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