Good Morning! I recently acquired a Musa, it was planted in a 1 gallon pot. The soil was catus soil with a little bit of Bonsi Jack Succulent and cats grit. The leaves have brown spots on the. Even the new cigar leaf opened and had brown spots. I read about tap water and started collecting rain water and using distilled water. Yesterday I transplanted in a large pot, maybe 10 gallon. I drilled approximately 15 1/2" holes in the bottom, placed a few coffee filters in the bottom so the soil wouldn't fall out. Iy sits a couple inches above the deck for better drainage. I mix miracle grow cactus soil with black cow organic compost at a rate of about 30-40% compost to 60-70% cactus soul and mixed in 1 quart of bonsi jack cactus grit. I gave it less than a 1/2 gallon of distilled water. The plant sits on my deck and gets sunlight from morning till about lunchtime. Do you think that making the transfer and other changes will rectify the brown spots? How often and how much water does it need? Is it ok to let it get drenched in downpours of rain. I tried once before and I know I over watered it. The core rotted and I had insects in the soil. I would really like to be successful this time. Please help.

tlasek,
Do you know the variety of you nana? Label? Nanas need good rich soil and I fear that cacus soil isn't going to cut it. I shy away from Miracle grow types of soil. Also a pointer is only go twice the size when you bump up to a larger pot. They need good roots to get established. There is a variety of nana that has brownish design. If it's not that variety I would suggest removal of leaves and allow the plant to grow new ones. Do not allow them to sit in water! I have never used coffer filters to keep the soil from exiting the pots so I can't advise you that might be an issue. What type of soil do you have there in MD? Hope this helps! We grow ours in the ground here.

I'm not sure which kind it is. It came from a gentleman in our area that grows them every year. By description, maybe the dwarf variety They grow beautifully and by summers end he has bananas on some. Do you recommend changing the soil? There isn't many other brands at the hardware store, Home Depot, I never checked Lowes. It said fast draining for cactus and succulents and with the compost and grit I thought I was good. I could probably mix some sand or perlite in the soild around the corm. Why do you not like miracle grow? Just wondering. My main worry is how often and how much I should water it. I don't want to kill this one. It has been excessively hot for over a week. I'm telling you, temps in the upper 90's with feels like temp over 100°. It looked droopy yesterday morning, it was HOT, I rolled it in the shade and gave it a couple quarts of distilled water. I got me a rain bucket ready, we may get rain today. It has a new leaf about to emerge, second one in a week. Just those brown spots are buggin me. BTW, Thanks for your replies.

tlasek, I find that MG products/soils tend to have mushroom sprouting, attrack ants and issues with compacting in pots. It might be great to mix with your area soils in ground beds. I used to use a product called Earthgro but they don't make it anymore so we switched to kroger's Black Gold, made by sungro. I use 1 part of our clay soil to 3 parts Black Gold for our pots and always top dress with only Black Gold. Have you looked up Banana Zebrea? The dark spots markers appear like some of those. Can you ask the guy you got this from if he knows the variety. Hope this helps. I don't recommend allowing them to sit in water in a saucer. Heat is hard on them if in pots, you want to watch if they start to fry, drooping is a sign that water is needed. Frying is when the edges burn. I can post photos if you need them.

tlasek said: Just those brown spots are buggin me.

Like these spots on my 'nana?


This is a Musa 'Dwarf Cavendish' - a very popular banana for pots. And, obviously, has some normal leaf coloration that some could describe as 'brown spots.' My others (that are different varieties) have bright green leaves.
Other Musa have red blotches in their leaves, often more on the undersides.

I'm not sure why you give them distilled water, though, as mine get tap water, and have for years.
Those in the ground at my house get unfiltered irrigation water. Is it salt buildup in the pot you're trying to avoid?

Bananas get thirsty, as they come from the tropics, so distilled water is going to get expensive! Don't let it get to dry!

This is to follow up on what kenisaac's post to help understand.

This is the leaf off Zebrea from our collection.


This is the back of one of our nanas and you can see the darker area.


Another clump of nana and you can see how the edge is fried as it hard to
get water to this area.


A couple of clumps of nana under stress due to the 98 degrees we are having today.



This clump of nana gets extra water due to it's next to the garden area.

Hope this helps.

@karmahappytoes, you have a banana plantation!

Thanks kenisaac, I have more than what was posted. Love my nanas!!

Yes Ken! So I'm guessing it's normal. Sheew, multiple leaves have emerged since my original post a few days ago. Plus it's getting little sprouts at the base. I read to cut them off, I can't. Unless it will die if I don't. I've wanted one for so long. I also read that the ph level in tap water isn't quite suitable, therefore distilled water or rain water are recommended. I made a rain bucket, but so far no rain. 😂 IDK I'm really afraid to wet all the soil in the pot for fear it will rot again. I will watch for ants and hope the soil doesn't compact. If it does, guess I'll have to repot it again. There are many different varieties of the black gold soil, which is best? I really appreciate both of you for offering your guidance. Photos are the little sprouts.

First, you are learning and if this one doesn't work out, I know where you can get more!! I would also raise the soil level to cover the new little shoot on the side.
On the Black Gold Soil, I use the all purpose variety. No special mix as the whole yard and all the pots get treated the same here. When I dump pots I'll admit the
soil goes out in one of the nana spots. They love it!! Sure don't waste it. I also
mulch the nanas every few years with fir mulch. With this heat this week they are starting to get huge with some topping over 6 foot.