Bananas

Not been a great year for my bananas - cold nights early on + strong winds have restricted growth. Just putting them away for the winter with a good 2 " top dressing of compost:

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Then fleece around the bottom of the stems + a bubble wrap windbreak:

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THat will do for now - I will probably pack them out a bit more & put something over the top when / if we get some cold weather but theres more danger of them rotting in the damp at the moment.

 

Pete - you will be absolutely right. In the past when the E. maurelii got too tall I cut them totally back to the base. But this winter I just cut the leaves in half, and they are doing fine (so far) in my garden room set at a minimum of 12C.


Having propagated them a couple of years ago, I had so many that I also cut back 4 to overwinter dry. However this time I didn't cut them back to the base but left some of the "stem" on, which is what I have learn't from elsewhere.

On Monday 18 Jan, I started them off again on heated pads - just 15 to 20 watts that lifts the base area by 5C - picture above. 4 Days later, on Friday, I lifted the largest one and saw that it already had a single half inch long root.

 

@PeterS , seems to be going well.
I lifted my medium sized Maurelii and cut the roots hard back to the base, jammed it in a 12in pot and cut all the leaves off, put it in my conservatory, its up to now grown two full sized leaves, with a third one on the way and roots are growing as well.

The place is starting to look like a banana sanctuary.

 

Just as i side line, I didn't get round to protecting my Basjoos on the allotment this year.
Up until a week ago they were still growing a few tatty new leaves, since then we have had two maybe three nights with lows of -5C.
They dont look very good now but the stems seem firm, only time will tell.

 

Pete - those look superb. I really think they are one of the most rewarding of all tropical plants. I remember reading of someone (in America I think) saying that he had done the same as you, lifted the plants and cut off all the roots. he said they were really tough and would immediately start to grow back.

I noticed that my largest two, with just the bare "stem" were still showing quite a bit of green when I put them on the heat map. It leads me to believe that, because they had the extra energy reserves in the "stem", they weren't totally dormant, and so were able to start into growth quickly. By contrast, two years ago when I cut my first subject back very low, it went totally brown and shrivelled and took some time to start growing roots in the spring.

 

I remember seeing pics a few years ago from the US of Ensete being dried off, after having all the leaves and root removed.
The stems were left intact, they were then wrapped in hessian and put in a space under the house, where it was cold but dry.
Apparently they were left dormant all winter in that state and woken up in spring.

I just wonder if winters are too damp here for that to work, mine rotted when I tried something similar a couple of years ago.

Never heard of cutting the stem back to ground level though, unless you want to propagate.

What I've done is similar, but probably easier as there was no dormant period.

 

When I first did this, a couple of years ago, I was following the method shown in the videos in the very first post in this thread - I think the videos are still working. That chap cut the stems back to the ground and let them dry out totally. They then came back in the spring, sprouting in many places.

I kept mine dry and found that 3 out of 4 came back OK in the spring. However it is a very fine line between over watering them when they have no roots, and under watering them because they are on a heat pad and drying out all the time.

Only later, I learnt that it is better to leave the "stem" on them. And yes you are right, I am sure the winters are too damp to leave them outside even under cover. But kept in the loft of the house, as I did two year ago, seems to be fine.

This year I think mine were only semi dormant, because they were showing a bit of green. I suspect you don't have to cut them to the ground to propagate them, just cut them vertically to produce a fresh surface in the corm itself. I have done that with one this year - so I will see how it goes.

 

John - thank you - you have added to my conviction that the best way to overwinter them is to cut off most of the leaves (I cut mine off horizontally) and overwinter them in a greenhouse. Its interesting to know that they survived as low as 4C.

I haven't come across the weight problem yet, but many others have talked about it. Perhaps that's the time to cut them into quarters and try to propagate them.

 

I think it fairly safe to state now that my clump of Basjoo stems appear to have come through the winter with no protection.
New green is just starting to show at the tops of the stems.

Lowest temps this winter have been a couple of minus 5s, but on both occasions it was sunny and rose above freezing during the day.

 

Pete - I am pleased to hear your Basjoos are doing well. My E. maureliis are growing furiously - your idea of cutting the leaves in half to reduce the height, and leaving them in my conservatory overwinter has worked very well. And even the ones that I overwintered as dry stems are now all growing well. But I lost my Dwarf Cavendish again. I have overwintered one once, but generally they die. I think 12C just isn't warm enough. Either that or its my watering.

Its been a mild winter here, as well. I think -5C was the coldest, but it didn't necessarily warm up much the next day. Still cold now, -2C last night.

 

I dragged the overwintered Maurelli and two Cavendish outside today, they are both covered in RSM, I sprayed them, then took them back in once dry.

 

My 3 ensetes have been growing slowly over winter, all look ok but the stems are very dry.
Potted them on into new compost and gave them a little water then put them in the GH Friday.
The basjoos, same here unprotected couple of -5'c and just starting to show some green

 

My basjoo is covered in greenfly and not liking being in a pot and being moved into the cold greenhouse. But otherwise it's alive and of an impressive size (according to my gardening neighbour), so thanks for all your advice on here last autumn.