03-12-2018, 07:23 AM
Susceptibility varies by cultivar. With small fruit they don't sound like plantains, which aren't necessarily more resistant anyway. Lack of symptoms doesn't mean lack of infection unfortunately in bananas or heliconia.
You can't really sanitize, but if the new area is truly free of the disease, only get plants from others who can guarantee they don't have bunchy top on their property or ideally, even nearby. Tissue cultured plants (sometimes available at Home Depot and Garden Exchange) are less likley to be infected, though if sitting on shelves somewhere for weeks they could become infected. Inspect any banana plants you buy to make sure they have no aphids. You'll have to pull back the leaves from the "trunk" some to make sure.
You can't really sanitize, but if the new area is truly free of the disease, only get plants from others who can guarantee they don't have bunchy top on their property or ideally, even nearby. Tissue cultured plants (sometimes available at Home Depot and Garden Exchange) are less likley to be infected, though if sitting on shelves somewhere for weeks they could become infected. Inspect any banana plants you buy to make sure they have no aphids. You'll have to pull back the leaves from the "trunk" some to make sure.