taradal
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Location: Acworth, Georgia

Yellow banana leaves

I was thrilled that my banana plant made it through the winter, however, in the last few weeks, all the leaves have turned yellow. Even the new leaves are coming in yellow. I just moved it outside, where it will have more sun. It's in a large pot and, throughout the winter, I've added chopped banana peels and coffee grounds and there's a pretty healthy worm population in the soil. Tried not to over water. Any suggestions?

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rainbowgardener
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The commonest reasons for this would be over-watering (I know you said you "tried" not to over-water, but depending on what the soil/ potting mix is like, they still could have stayed too moist) and lack of nitrogen. Banana plants are heavy feeders and require a lot of N. Coffee grounds are a very low level source of N. If you aren't opposed to synthetic fertilizers, you could just dose it with Miracle Gro or something. If you are trying to be organic (sometimes harder with large potted plants), you could use alfalfa meal, cottonseed meal, soybean meal, fish emulsion, crab meal, etc.

imafan26
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Bananas need the equivalent of a 100 inches of rain a year. It is almost impossible to over water them unless they are sitting in a pool for days. We usually have a well around a banana patch and run a hose into it and fill it up.

Bananas do need a lot of nitrogen, after all it is primarily an overgrown blade of grass. They are also heavy potassium feeders too. If you have them in a pot, the pot needs to be big enough to accommodate the fibrous root system.

Check the banana sheaths for aphids, aphids can cause yellowing as well as transmit disease.

The leaves may be yellowing just because you changed their location and light and it needed to be hardened off more.
Young silversword bananas are not that easy to kill unless they are frozen. You may have to wait to see if the top blackens or new leaves come out.

Sometimes bananas get broken or have to be cut because they really are not wind tolerant. Even if I cut a banana over three feet tall, but still a silversword or a maidenhead. The core will still spout new leaves just as a cut blade of grass will. Peepers are harder to come back from since they don't have enough roots or food storage in their trunks to come back from.

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rainbowgardener
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Thanks, imafan! Imafan is in Hawaii and clearly knows a lot more about bananas than I do! :)

taradal
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Joined: Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:39 pm
Location: Acworth, Georgia

Thanks for the replies! I don't see any sign of aphids or mites, so I hit it with some MiracleGro.
It's not from not being hardened off, since the yellowin occurred when it was still indoors. I thought it might be not enough sun, but hoping the added nitrogen does it!
Kathryn

imafan26
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Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Miracle grow should have enough nitrogen and potassium and it should help.



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