I have 24 banana trees in my backyard; they are all doing well with the spring season and are very green and full. The tallest one is about 3 1/2 feet and will most likely get to 12 feet by the time winter arrives. Yesterday morning 3 of the trees had bent over by a 45 degree tilt at the base of the tree. This morning one more had done the same. The trunk feels strong, but I do not understand what is wrong. It almost seems as if it was pushed over on purpose, but I know that that did not happen. This is my second year with my banana trees and this did not happen last year. Am I watering too much? Please help...I love my trees.
I am wondering Did you have strong winds or strong rain last night or How close to the road are the 3 trees? Someone could of hit them. Can you take a pic of them for me. Tom24
They are actually in our backyard. When we first realized that they were leaning we thought maybe they were growing crooked, but then the next morning they had fallen. We have five clusters of them and out of three of the clusters there was four that had fallen completly over. We have already broken them off from the base because they were lying completely down on the ground, so they are no longer there. But I can take a picture of the remaining banana trees if you like? No more have fallen yet, and it has been over a week since. So the more I think about it, there more I think it was storms that might have caused it. Or I also think that last year we did not cut the base down far enough to the ground and that is what has caused them to grow crooked. I am not sure. I will send you pictures if you like. I am curious to know your thoughts on this.
If these have flowered and set fruit it's possible that they have expired. Once the pseudostem produces fruit it dies only to be replaced with new suckers / pups. A photo would certainly help because even vicious winds pretty much will only shred the leaves and not collapse the stem. Cheers, LPN.
Here are some photos, but like I said we took off the remaining of the fallen ones once they hit the ground. There is one in these pictures that is leaning...that is how they started out before they fell.
These appear to be quite healthy albeit small, dispite the odd collapse. With so much main growth activity, I wouldn't be too concerned. Do you know which species of Musa this is? Do these offsets snap off under their own weight? Cheers, LPN.
I agree With Barrie They do look very healthy, What I do for my Palms is put a stake in the ground to keep the heavyness of the top to colapse the bottom. Keep up the good work. Tom24
I have been growing bananas in 8B/9A Florida for many years, and almost every year, at least 2-4 of them do collapse in the storm season. It doesn't really even take a lot of wind, just a heavily saturated ground, although wind mixed with a saturated ground together amplifies the problem a lot. I usually just chop 2/3rds (or more) of the tops off and replant them in to the ground. Sometimes, they send out new shoots from the top, and other times, they will sucker from the roots when you do this. I would imagine there could be some stuff you could mix in to the soil to make it a bit more gritty, heavy, etc and less slippery.
Thank you so much for this information. I was really leaning toward that because since I had posted this no more trees have fallen. I think you are right in that it was do to winds and loose soil. I really do appreciate your commment on this. Thanks a bunch.
