Question
Hi Tracy!

I live in New Jersey, near Philadelphia.  I have many plants that I keep outside in the warmer weather and bring inside during the colder months.  The back porch where the plants are kept is not heated, but I have a space heater in there that is on all day.  Sun comes in through the windows, but not directly.  That being said, I have had 2 dwarf banana plants now for at least 2 years, and they have survived this cycle of outside/inside.  Yesterday, I was out there checking on the plants because the temperature outside has been in the single digits at night, and discovered that one of my banana plants was drooped, with its leaves feeling all dried out and turning black.  I felt the soil and it was dry, so I watered it.  I brought it in to my work office today, where the temp is 70 degrees and the fluorescent lights are on all day and night, to see if it will perk up.  Do you have any ideas that I could try to revivie my plant?  When I bring them inside, I always repot, using fresh potting soil, and I recently put on of those plant spikes into the soil to feed it a little bit.  Any helpful suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!!

Take care,
Chuck

Answer
Hi Chuck,
   Dwarf Banana plants generally like a lot of water so the problem was likely caused by the soil drying out. It is common for a Banana plant to fold it's leaves downward from the center rib and turn brown when it is under-watered.
I really cannot say for sure if your plant will survive. For some plants, allowing the soil to dry out completely even once is fatal to the plant.
The most you should have done was water it and make sure it does not get stressed for other reasons. Additional stress could overwhelm the plant and prevent it from recovering.

However there are a few things that are now going to cause the plant additional stress. One of those things is a change in environment, lower light levels and a drastic change in temperature in that new environment. The best thing to do is to put the plant back where it was before. As long as the plant was healthy and doing well in that environment it should be fine.

Another thing that will cause additional stress is that the plant was fertilized. You should never give fertilizer to a plant that is unhealthy, stressed or dormant. Fertilizer will not ' cure' an unhealthy or stressed plant and could actually cause more harm. Most plants should not be fertilized during the winter either.
Fortunately you used fertilizer sticks. They have probably not released much of the fertilizer into the soil yet so you can just remove them and it should be okay.
Although in this situation it was good that you used fertilizer sticks (because you can remove them), I always recommend that using fertilizer sticks should avoided. For one thing, there a risk of damaging delicate roots when the stick is pressed into the soil. Also when plant food sticks start to melt they can create chemical ' hot spots' causing damage to roots that come into contact with these spots. With fertilizer sticks you also have no control over how much fertilizer the plant gets or when it gets it. There are many factors that effect how fast or how slowly fertilizer sticks melt.

I hope this helps. If you have any questions or need additional information please don't hesitate to ask.
     Thanks
       Tracy