i am new to growing bananas. i am in zone 10 (san diego...fuerte avocado country) where temp has been between 40 and 70degrees and the air is DRY, but with gentle wind.
my 3 banana trees have been in the ground a month and the leaves are turning yellow, brown at the edges...
i have fed them "miracle gro" and mulched with bamboo leaves. they get a lot of sun as they r in front of a big boulder, but nights have been chilly.
any growing tips would be appreciated as i am dreaming of a little banana grove...
thanks
jack

temp has been between 40 and 70degrees, that meens that from 4 to 21 degrees celcius. well at 40 DF, the banana will not grow. at 70 DF it will, but the optimum temp for bananas to grow is between 82 to 87 degrees fahrenheit for about 9 month minimun to insure the growing and the flowering cycle. you need also humidity for 80 to 95. so for that reason i do not think that san diego can be a good place to plant bananas.
the only way, is to use the greenhouses, and it will be very costly, because u will need to install a heating system, with a fogger system (for humidity). high initial and operating cost.

the leaves are turning yellow, because during cold weather conditions the root system will be week or dormant, and it will not absorb the nutrients in an efficient way, for that reason you will see sever deficiency symptoms. Even if you add mulch or you use miracle grow, 40 Degrees F is very low temp for banana to survive.
thank you.

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bob

thank u for your help!
indeed, they r not growing, but at this point they dont seem to be dying either!
now that spring is almost here i will wait and see!

Do you want to fasten the growth of your bananas? Since you have only 3 bananas, and they are only one month old, then you can cover them, they are not tall and only 3. so what u do is put wooden borders around the bananas to support the nylon cove around the bananas. This will create a better condition around the plants, like increasing the temp and humidity during the day times. Add to this when you cover your bananas, you are blocking the rain water from reaching their roots, thus u can irrigate with a little bit of fertilizers. The point behind this is you are increasing the temp & humidity, and adding fertilizers (it is preferred to add fertilizer while irrigating water, so if the soil is wet, you can not add fertilizer).
try to make this experiment, it is interesting.
by the way, if you covered the plants, and still the rain water is leaking to their roots because of a slop or something, then try to make small ditch to prevent the rain, as a result you can irrigate with fertilizers.
=> High temp + humidity + nutrients (fertilizers) with adequate amounts of water = good vegetative growth.

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bob

i have both thin (1mm) and thicker (3mm)clear plastic sheeting...
u r suggesting building a mini greenhouse?

hi,
yes, if u build a mini greenhouse, they will grow faster. I think you should give it a try. 1 mm thick is fine. just try to figure out a design for this greenhouse. it is fun, and it will surely work.
take care. bye.

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bob

I also am having problems with yellowing leaves. they are yellowing just around the edges and then getting brown and crispy. I took a leaf into a buddy of mine who is a banana grower and he suggested that it was spider mites (we did find evidence of them). I was told that mites are a problem with bananas. I have begun spraying them with insecticidal soap weekley. After reading this exchange I have placed a humidifier near my trees (I grow them inside for now). Am I doing the right things?

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Patty

Hi I am also having some yellow in the leaves of some of my plants , but this is normal in our area (so. California north Baja) because of the cold night temperatures of winter , in another month they will green up as they become active again , they should not be fertilized when dormant , and they will snap out of it trust me .

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my concern is that I keep mine inside so the temp is pretty constant (70 f). they are all very active right now. i guess the warmth and the grow lights (I live outside of Seattle so we really need the grow lights) are making them happy. One in particular has 4 new suckers in the past month. I am planning on taking them out soon and potting them. I am not sure if the yellowing of leaves is still normal in spite of the warmth. I am pretty attached to them and I really worry about doing something to mess them up. Can you tell I am new to bananas???? I also wonder about how scrawney they are. I read in another chat that they like tomato fertalizer so I ran out and got some. is that the best way to fatten them up?

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Patty

I think it was on Victory Garden a year or two ago that I saw a banana plantation in San Diego with dozens of varieties of banana. They even sold bananas at a fruit stand on the property. Seems like it was on the coastal highway. My plants, ice cream and rajapuri, are doing better now that Spring is near. They lost almost all of their leaves in the light freeze we had and they were both with bananas, so remains to be seen whether the fruit will finish maturing or not.

Pshrader- don't worry about the leaves if you have found mites. Mites are easy to keep under control if you just mist daily(or bi-daily) the underneath sides of the leaves. I got all freaked out when that happened too, but it's really easy to get under control (mites hate water). After a few weeks of that the mites will stop turning the leaves yellow.

Another thing to consider is banana's love heat and humidity and lot's of water in a well-draining soil. Any wind and low humidity is not going to make them happy. A windbreak of somekind would be good and maybe a mist system.

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Make your words soft and sweet; you just may have to eat them someday.

You are absolutely right, I have a net house where I plant my commercial banana pants to produce fruit (bunches), I installed over head sprinklers to increase humidity, because banana likes humidity a lot.

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bob

High humidity will hasten their growth. Hey! You're good! I haven't harvested a single bunch.

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Plant a Banana in Soil;
And Before you know, it will start to grow...

How surprising to see this thread still continuing!

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Make your words soft and sweet; you just may have to eat them someday.