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Do I give up on Banana tree?

17 years ago

Hey

I have (had) an indoor banana tree that I overwatered in December and all the leaves died off. I left the little stump of it in the pot because I was told that it could still sprout leaves again. I have been waiting 5 months and the stump has shrunken and there are still no leaves. I was just wondering if you guys think it's time to give up hope.

Jess

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Comments (8)

turquoise
17 years ago
If you have room in your yard or on the patio, how about giving him a quiet corner to see what he does? That's what I try to do with "last hope" plants. Good luck!
jess2
Original Author
17 years ago
Well, I live on the 11th floor in a small apartment lol, so there isn't much room and just wondered if anyone with a banana had it come back to life after this long.
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nbutler5
17 years ago
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ornata
17 years ago
Try standing the pot on a heat mat or heated propagator. Hopefully it will encourage the rhizome to sprout.
genielady
17 years ago
I had a potted banana on my deck to die back like that (gotta be careful of overwatering potted bananas) so I repotted it and 'cleaned up' the 'stump', and it came back out. What variety is it?

Here is a link that might be useful: Herricks Bananas
jess2
Original Author
17 years ago
Looks like my banana is an Orinoco. Yeah, maybe I should try repotting it to a smaller pot. The stump is really shrivelled up now, to about the size of an egg. Maybe this is a bad sign hahah.
Thanks for all your advice everyone!
jesusislord
17 years ago
hey I had a banana plant that I ordered from Burgess seed catalog, it looked bad when I got it but it just kept getting worse so after about 3 weeks it was completely black even the roots looked black maybe a few white ones , but the trunk was completely dead, so I threw it in my compost. Then a month later I was turning my compost and found the rhizome rooted and a trunk was forming.
tsmith2579
17 years ago
Carefully remove the corm from the pot and wash it. Check it very closely for any signs of life. There may be some very small new growth sprouting. If you don't see any sign of new growth, stick you finger into the core of the stump, down into the corm. If rotted and mushy, it is probably dead. When I removed the mulch from my musella lasiocarpa in April 1st, a stump broke off but it had 6 tiny sprouts the size of a hat pin head on the edge. I now have 6 one foot tall plants. Bananas will recover even under poor conditions. One more hint, plant it is a black plastic pot and the pot as much sun exposure as possible. The black pot will warm the soil and help with sprouting.

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