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when you have a healthy banana tree growing will all her leaves a glorious green color. Then all of the sudden your banana tree starts to turn her leaves yellow to brown?!?! Is that because of our recent drought that Puna is seeing somewhat these days or is my banana tree crying out for nutes?
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Are all of the leaves turning yellow/brown or is it just the bottom ones? It is very normal for the bottom leaves to die off. I cut them off and cut them up for mulch.
Also after the banana produces fruit the mother plant will die and the keki will start the cycle all over again.
I haven't watered mine during this drought and I'm in HPP too.
Jade
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We had the Bunching Top virus hit ours (in Keaau) a couple of years ago (the County will take care of your plants if you have this, DO NOT take them to the green waste OR compsot them at home, the aphids will infect more plants in the area). This virus caused die off of our banana plants.
The BT virus causes a very distinctive 'hockey sticking' of the leaf veins. rather than extending straight out from the center of the vein in parallel straight lines, they have a curve downward near the central vein.
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Water it and mulch it, add a bit of compost or old chicken manure. That should perk it up.
Bananas make a lot of old dried leaves, but those are the lowest ones on the stem and this is normal. If the center leaves are turning brown, then you have a problem. If the stem has fruited, then it will die off, that is normal. There will be several new banana stems coming up from the roots, though, so there will be more bananas again.
Bananas don't grow as a single solitary plant. They like to be in patches. If you plant just one and wait a couple years there will be a thicket of them there. In the untended banana patch outside my window an individual stem will have five to six green leaves (and very unhappy limp leaves they are at the moment) and the stem is almost entirely obscured by old brown leaves hanging down. When it starts to rain again, I'll go in there and trim away the dead leaves and use them to mulch the roots but at the moment I figure the dead leaves are sort of wind insulation to keep whatever moisture is in the trunks in.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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quote:
Originally posted by jade
Are all of the leaves turning yellow/brown or is it just the bottom ones? It is very normal for the bottom leaves to die off.
Jade
it is my lower leaves on this banana tree. But what worries me is the fact that all of the sudden this is happening. Since last night before sunset I cut two leaves off that were yellow brownish. The rest of the leaves were perfectly green. Now this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. I have another banana leaf that is about 80% yellow. Isn't this rather fast for normal?
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
Bertrand Russell
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Considering how dry the weather is now, that may not be overly fast. Have you been watering the plant?
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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quote:
Originally posted by Hotzcatz
Considering how dry the weather is now, that may not be overly fast. Have you been watering the plant?
not a whole lot. I have been depending on evening rain to take care of water matters. Every fourth day or so I will drop a bucket of water on banana trees. Is that to little water in your opinion?
"I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong."
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If the banana tree is busy turning it's leaves brown, I'd guess that's too little water in the banana plant's opinion at least.
Wind will also dry things out a lot so other than adding more water, if there was some way to protect it from wind that would help. Park a truck upwind of it? Mulch around the base will help keep the moisture in, too. Mulching with compost is best, if you can get any compost. Otherwise lawn clippings, dead leaves, almost any sort of organic stuff will work.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
