Banana tree

Just covered my 8 banana trees (musa basjoo)just in the nick of time with winter fleece. Did not want to tempt fate and leave it for another few days. I usually cover them the second week in Nov. but Oct. has turned out to be so cold and frosty. My pond has been iced up for 2 days.:(

 

I have to admit I didn't want to temp fate I moved ours into the greenhouse last week and good job we did as we have had some right bad frosty nights since.Hel.xxx.

 

We have had some frost.
Nana leaves are now damaged.
I dont bother wrapping basjoo anymore, its survived about four years now without any.
It looks bad, I leave some of the dead leaves on to protect the stem, but soon recovers in spring.

It does get down to about minus 5C on at least a couple of occasions most winters.

 

Very wise Bob.:thumb:

Thats a bit young.

 

Same here Bob. ive wrapped mine today :thmb:

 

I`ve put my Brugs in the ( cold ) greenhouse, but the canna`s are still outside in their pot, for now. And the nana is, as yet, unprotected.

 

My brugs are still flowering in my cold greenhouse David...
I was thinking of leaving my canna out this year, its about 5yr old and in the border, what do you think ?

 

My potted nana is about 3/4 ft high but has four small 1 ft high suckers around the base, should I leave them there?
I thought they suckered after fruiting, obviously not.

 

Welcome back Bob


Love your Sig

 

strongy, I would say they are far to small to remove yet, and might not survive the winter, but hopefully down your way they may well be OK.
They sucker at anytime, not necessarily just before, or after flowering.

 

Good to see you back Bob, holidays what are they??:D

Pete, I bought/salvaged mine from a GC last june, it was about 2/3 ft high with a very spindly trunk and three leaves. I thought I would rescue it from certain death. It has grown well but still has a thin trunk, pehaps next year should see it thicken.

 

I find if you remove suckers before they have roots of their own its very difficult to get them going.

Some people manage it but its not easy.

I leave them until they are about tree ft high, before detaching.

 

One of our banana tree is 8 foot tall, one 7 foot tall and the others are 5&6 foot tall. I have them growing outside for 4 years and not lost any to the cold weather. My wife wraps them up in fleece about mid Nov. but she was panicking when the pond froze and thought we were going to loose our nana trees. The trunk of the trees are pretty solid only the leaves went black when the frost came down.

 

Last year I planted a sucker on the allotment it is now 2 foot high. I turned the leaves down, wrapped it in fleece and put a plastic tub over it. Did the same last year and it servived.