Banana plant dying

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calvinkrause Gold Coast, Australia Aug 19, 2015

Hi!

I bought this banana plant about 4 months ago and it grew one leaf but stopped growing before the leaf unfurled, after about a month. A month ago the leaves started getting brown spots and then the lower leaves began dying. Even the "new" leaf is turning brown now.

I cut off almost all the leaves and I changed the soil completely because I thought I may have overwatered the plant but nothing changed. The plant has 3 healthy pups (4th one coming). Could it be dying because it puts its energy in the pups? Also, there were a ton of those small yellow liquid-filled balls (eggs, fungi?) in the soil.

So death is probably inevitable now but I just want to know what caused this so I can at least grow the pups for a long time.

Thanks so much for your answers!

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Aug 19, 2015

The liquid filled yellow balls are the remnants of a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote. The fertilizer is used up, but the shell remains.

Once the plan starts making pups I do not think the main plant will recover.

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calvinkrause Gold Coast, Australia Aug 19, 2015

Is that normal for banana plants? Where I bought it a lot of the plants already had 1ft pups but were just as healthy..

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Diana_K Contra Costa County, CA(Zone 9b) Aug 19, 2015

I know that is the way the edible bananas are grown. They are propogated from the pups, and the mother plant is removed. It won't produce another crop.
I am not so sure about the ornamental types.

I have one in a covered, semi-enclosed patio area. It grows through the summer, then takes a beating through the winter. At the end of winter we cut it down and it regrows from the same root, but to one side or the other of the original stem. (One year 2 of them grew) The original one has been lightly frosted and beaten up by the wind, and is so tall it is hitting the roof. It does not die, we cut it down.

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