I have Raja Puri banana plants. I got my first set of hands this summer. The hands were on the plant for probably about 3 months, and then the plant started to die back. The problem is the bananas were not completely filled out yet, and definitely not ripe. I cut the hands off, and am hoping they will ripen, but what would cause the plant to die back before the bananas are filled out?

- Puris just do this? Wait for the bunch to ripen off plant?

- I didn't do something? Water enough? Fertilize (I did hit the plant with 10-10-10 every other month, although the soil is fairly sandy and lower in organics than I would like)?

- I have some weird banana disease? Although all my plants look perfectly fine, other than the mother plant that died back

- other?

My understanding is Puris are fast ripening, and shouldn't need the usual 18 months to grow, although this one is probably that old in total.