Bananas

Overwintering bananas indoors

I found some useful information on the Bananas.Org forum, which I would like to relay back. All types of bananas can be overwintered by either of the following methods :-

1) Continuous growing. Bananas will continue to grow at temperatures above 12 to 14C - so they can be overwintered inside the house. They will need light of course so put them by a window, but you mustn’t overwater them. Put them in the smallest pot possible (it will hold less water) and then only water them a bit when the compost has entirely dried out. Overwatering is the easiest way to kill them.

2) Dormancy.

Dig up your bananas. Cut off all the leaves, but leave the pseudo stem, as above. A single leaf can be left; it will do nothing over the winter, but some feel that it will speed up recovery in spring by having an area of photosynthesis available early. But you don’t need any leaves. Also you don’t need any roots, they will die and re-grow in the spring, so you can cut them off too.

The picture above came from Bananas.Org and shows Orinoco bananas (a Florida fruit growing bananas).


Americans often store them in the crawl space under their houses, where the temperature must be above freezing but below about 10C. Different bananas will behave in different ways. Some will retain the full pseudo stem and leaves, for some the leaves will fall off and for others part of the pseudo stem will desiccate and die. Obviously, any dead or rotten parts should be removed in the spring before bringing them back into growth. You will need to keep them dry with good ventilation to prevent mould and rot.

You can still get them to flower and bear fruit, digging them up each year. But if there is a stem about to fruit the chance of retaining it in dormancy over the winter is extremely low.

Other information that I found useful was that bananas don’t like wind (well we all knew that) they are greedy eaters and like a very rich soil, so use loads of manure. They like a NPK ratio of 4,1,6, ie loads of nitrogen and potassium but little phosphorous. It wasn’t clear if the potassium was for fruiting or not, as many Americans on the board grow them for their fruit. They obviously don’t have Morrisons over there. It may be that for ornamental purposes just nitrogen is key. Also they don’t like to be crowded. They don’t like other plants in their root area.

 

Update on propagating Ensete 'Maurelii'.


Last autumn I took a small Maurelii, cut the stem and roots off, then cut it vertically and potted the halves up. The picture above, taken today, shows the progress. The plant on the left clearly had the original growing point, which has grown well, with a couple of pups. The pot on the right, without the growing point, has now produced about 20 pups which I will now pot up separately.

 

Just potted up some of the pups. The biggest problem is managing to get a piece of root with each stem. I lost about half the stems as I couldn't get a decent bit of root with them, and I broke a few in the process. Most of the root was on one side of the mother plant, so I took the stems from that side. I have left the mother plant with some stems attached to hopefully grow more roots, before trying to pot up the rest of the stems.

 

Good result @PeterS , just thinking if you left them longer you might get more with their own roots, just a thought.

Just what are you going to do with that lot

PS, hope you dont have RSM on the larger plant?

 

I don't know

I will keep two or three to replace any losses over the next winter. Then I am going to have to find people to give them to. By the time they are established plants they won'y be easy to post - but if anyone locally wants some - do let me know.

Being a mean old git, I do like to get as much for my money as possible. But it does then give me another problem. I can always give some to a new friend, who lives very close to me, who sells some plants from her garden for charity. But even so most people want hardy perennials - not that fancy soft southern stuff.

You are probably right about leaving them longer to grow more root - but then I already have more than enough.

Incidentally, I have a Lasiocarpa which now has three pups. I presume that I ought to cut at least two of them off as they will stunt the main growth. I am hoping to get a flower one day so want a strong main stem..

 

I find the biggest problem with Lasiocarpa is the amount of pups it produces.
Similar seems to be Cavendish.

I might try what you did on one of my Maureliis this autumn, got two which will both both be too big to overwinter by october.

Incidentally, I overwintered one in the warm conservatory and a smaller one in a cool greenhouse almost dry, but in leaf.

The smaller one has taken off much better than the big one, stronger new growth and much less acclimatising needed, it was planted out a month before the conservatory one and not looked back.

 

Your tip of cutting the leaves in two, and leaving the plant to continue growing in a conservatory worked very well for me last winter thank you. In fact almost too well. The larger one has now reached the eight foot ceiling and the leaves are now running horizontally.

 

Looking really well peters

 

Getting some huge leaves from the 'nanas this year - hopefully the wind stays off for a while:

--

 

Looking well there nick
I'm having the same problem too every time I get s few nice new leafs it blows a gale and every thing gets shredded

 

I bought a montbeliardii again but they didnt post til the mid of june so its not very big but it as offsets/pups ? do i leave them be or chop them,not sure if it slows the growth of the plant down?

 

Not sure an ensete with pups is normal.
But then never had a montebeliardii, so cant help.
I'd be inclined to wait until the pups have enough root separate them, and then pass them onto friends

 

Yes that sounds unusual.

 

Another unusual event.....at least I think so? Has anyone else had flowers on an Ensete maurellii? (I couldn't wait for the flower to actually appear..too excited!)

 

That's fantastic Noisette - I have never heard of flowers on a Maurelli - well not in the UK, though I suppose you must get flowers and fruit in Ethiopia, where they come from.