Cut Dead Leaves Off?

I have a dwarf musa banana tree I am growing via hydroculture indoors. During warm sunny days, I put him out on the deck in full light. I've only had Nanners about a week. He arrived looking healthy and vibrant and still looked so after I transferred him to Hydroton. A few days later, though, one of my kiddos accidentally dropped a library book on him and knocked him silly, damaging one of his leaves. He went downhill very quickly. All of his leaves withered and I thought he would die, but yesterday, he unfurled a pretty new leaf.

I tried to pull the dead and dying leaves off, but they do not come easily. I am a relative newbie to growing plants and generally am not successful, but the plants I know you have to trim dead leaves from typically let them go easily.

Do I need to cut Nanners' dead leaves off and, if I do, what is the best method of doing so?

You can see pictures of Nanners from his first transfer, to his dying leaves, to his new leaf here: http://hydrocassie.wordpress.com/

i just cut them off to the green part with a pair of scissors. if its only half dead then i cut that part off and leave the rest. kinda curious as those leaves dont look dead dead leaves are brown and crunchy. those look like they are water hungry and lacking stuff.

i have never grown my bananas in the conditions you are growing it so cant say too much. but do know when my leaves die they are brown.

they are heavy drinkers and eat alot too.

The Hydroton provides oxygen to the roots and provides water and nutrients via capillary action. The water level is just at the bottom of the roots, so his roots aren't sitting in water except maybe at the very bottom. He was fed with MiracleGro Quick Start root booster when I transplanted him and I will be giving him another dose of it today.

The leaves that are dying are browning and getting crunchy in spots. They had simply wilted at first and I was just going to leave them with the hopes that they would pop back up. Once they go brown and crunchy, they don't come back, do they?

nope once brown thats it for them. so just cut them off . with scissors or very sharp knife. they dont peel off. those leaves dont look to be bouncing back so just cut about one inch away from main stalk and let him rejuvenate as new leaf looks great.

one thing i might mention watch around the bottom of stalk for new babies popping up. I have one popping up on my drawf now and several on my full size musa i got last month. they are pretty tough though so kind weird a wacking from a book made the leaves die like that though. mine been handled more rough then that in trying to transplant it when its pot wouldnt come off. sometimes its the littlest thing.

plenty of sunshine mine get morning sunshine all morning up till 12 then rest speckled during the day. as it gets very hot here.

Thank you. Can the babies be simply cut off and put in a new pot to propagate like bromeliads can?

Have you had yours through winters yet? I'm wondering if I should get him a grow lamp or if CFL light bulbs (which are supposedly full spectrum) are sufficient for wintering indoors.

I actually did keep my old ones through winter. freak snow storm(put him out for light then a blizzard come through) got them. but i would put mine in a heated green house and if warm enough set them out during the day. now my drawf one i put in a sunny window during the day. i would wait till the Babies got big enough before trying to split them off. I actually let mine grow with mom as its natural shade and get the nutrients they need. i have like a clsuter of them as thats how they grow in the wild.

Sounds neat. Do you have a picture of that? I'd love to see how they cluster.

will try to get one tomorrow as its raining now .

Send me some of that rain!

It sounds like it's raining well south of us and well north of us, but it just doesn't seem to want to rain here. :(

Yay!! It's finally raining here! Thanks for sharing! ;)

your welcome hehe