Question
I have a banana palm that is 10 feet tall and been thriving for many years. Now the edges of the leaves are brown and it is weeping a sticky substance. Please tell me what to do. It seems to be in crisis. Many thanks,
Pat

Answer
Hi Pat, Bananas are very resilient growers, and will continue until they break a bunch of fruit, then the process (normal) is to die back and another plant from the same Rhizome (underground root system) takes over, and on and on and on; what is happening to your Banana plant is it is just stressed, either too little water or something disturbed its Rhizome (leaching into it or trauma of some type). The substance you are alluding to , can only be the normal secretions from Bananas when a leaf or the main trunk is cut, this is a very staining liquid, so don't get any on your clothes. I wouldn't be overly concerned about the Bananas health, unless the entire plant begins to decline, then you have a definite problem underground. Give it a good drink and if you really want fruit, you must fertilize it quite a bit in the next couple of months. Nick