Banana plant dying ?

[Rajesh Sethi]

soil: sandy,
temperature: 27 deg C
India

I had purchased a banana plant a month ago, the nursery people handed me small freshly dug plant with one leaf about 1.5 feet long and plant was 3 feet with a small corm. I brought that home and kept it in gunny sack for about 10 days, used to sprinkle water every alternate day.

when the garden was ready, I planted it. I was happy to find some new white roots.

Now the problem is few days back I noticed the new leaf that has not opened yet started to dry, though the single old leaf still looks fresh.

Question: Is the plant alright or is it dying? Do I cut it down so that it may force new sprout from corm, or leave it like that and wait for new sprout?

 

[roadrunner]

In part, it probably depends on the type of banana plant. I grow Orinoco banana plants (http://fruitmaven.com/2009/12/orinoco-banana/), so my recommendations will be based on that plant. You say you have sandy soil, so do I, very sandy, so sandy virtually nothing lives in it; however, I've amended the soil greatly (with home-grown compost), to the point where it's very bio-active and diverse in soil organisms, including worms,which couldn't live in the sandy soil before all that and I heavily mulched it with leaves to protect the soil from heavy rains and drying out. That would be my first recommendation, since banana plants, in general, are "heavy feeders" and need very rich soil.

The second recommendation would to ensure you water adequately. Banana plants, in general, require lots of water, I've heard some say that you can't over water your banana plants -- I'm sure you can, but it'd be a lot of watering. What I do is save water from my dish washing (not the soapy water) and use it to water my banana plant; I also pre-wash my dishes (especially greasy dishes ), using my garden hose, in the mulch bed of my banana plant, so that way I'm not just using water that I otherwise wouldn't use.

I assume it's getting enough sunlight. However, the only other thing that comes to mind is possibly a disease of sorts. Since most banana plants are simply genetic copies of their parents if you get a disease in one plant the other don't have a chance. Here in the US, back in the 1950's, we had to switch from the Gros Michel, or Big Mike banana to our current banana, the Cavendish banana, which is now commonly found in grocery stores. The reason was because of Panama disease, caused by a soil pathogen that none of the plants have a chance of fighting off, because they are genetic copies, i.e. no sexual reproduction involved. Here's a pretty good story on that... http://panamadisease.org/

If it was a disease, I'm not sure there's anything you can do.

 

[roadrunner]

BTW, I'm not sure if it's dead or not, but I wouldn't cut anything away just yet.

 

[DrCase]

I don't believe you could kill it ... Just give it more time to start growing

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

I think root was disturbed while planting, now everything looks good, new light green leaf is coming out.

thanks all

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

 

[roadrunner]

That soil looks very hard packed. What's it look like when you dig into it?

 

[Rajesh Sethi]

Thats what left after pulling out bricks and concrete chunks, it was a dumping ground from building repair, I have cleaned the surface and dug only few patches where I planted and from one of the boundary made raised bed for flower seedling.

Actually, the soil level I remember from old days is at about 1 and 1/2 feet below.