What is the procedure I should follow to bring my banana plants in for the winter?
I have 7 assorted types and sizes but the 2 small ornamentals will be no problem at all.
Do you think this plan of mine will this work for the larger plants?
The big ones , will be dug and trimmed back ( by how much? )
Should the root ball be pruned or not?
They will be potted small.
Kept in semi-dormancy with little to no light and very minimal water ,
just to keep the roots from drying out and dieing ???
Any advice would be greatly appreciated by my 'nanas
Thank you for your time, Shirley
Need advice ........ over-wintering bananas in Zone 5
the ones i want to keep as house plants and yes i have pictures of banana after a long winter in my plant room i just dig and repot but the others i trim all but one leaf the main growing stem and wrap the roots in a plastic bag with holes cut in it to keep them from rotting. they almost allways cxome back.
i know you can hack the whole trunk off and ive seen them come back but you loose alot of the size i like to have before i put thenm out
Jerry
I foolishly bought a banana this summer not thinking about teh space to bring it in this fall..now its coming to count down day and I dont know what im going to do with it...Im taking the advice of the above statements but I cant put it in darkness since my place to keep my tropicals is in our breezeway....maybe if I tuck it under a shlf..should I water it once a month, just to keep the roots moist?....I need help too....Judy
hi Judy,
Where ever you keep it , water it a little every 3 or 4 weeks , more or less , to keep the root-ball from dieing.
Use your judgement.
You can keep it in your plant room and kinda growing , just cut the foliage back to minimum and watering just to keep it alive.
Thats how I started my first pups that I got in Nov '03 , planted in pots just big enough for the pup.
I keep tropicals everywhere in the winter, some in my cool bedroom (semi dormant) , dining room( growing)
Full dormancy ....... they are in the cool dark basement or closet.
But as I said this will be the first year to keep larger 'nana plants over.
Looks like we're in da same boat as far as growing zones go, eh ?
We can do it ! ! !
Thanks for the encourgement...its a dwarf so should be less space to keep it but I sure do have a tons of brugs to find a place for....Judy
lol, tell me about it ;-)
later, S.
I think its going to be a massacre around here..chopping brugs and trying to make room for the rest....my husband is going to scream....lolol...Judy
I'm having a similar issue with a couple of my nanas, but about the only space I have left is in the basement, which is dark and quite warm due to the furnace being there. Avg temps are around 64f and humidity is quite low. Any suggestions?
Logee's Greenhouses has a large banana that they cover with lots of straw each Winter - it rots down to the ground, but it grows back come Springtime. They have been successful for a few years - perhaps a call to them may help. I had no idea they would survive one of our WInters, but they do it!
Julie
I just dig mine up and pot them
before I had the GH I would put them in my upstairs bathroom,southern exposure /w skylights
They would continue to grow,slowly
The one was so tall I had to lean it to the side
Julie, Im a zone level up from you and I know even with mulching the nana wouldnt make it...Judy
I have never heard of one surviving through one of our Winters either - it really surprised me to hear that they pull it off every year! Our earth freezes solid for at least a foot in depth... Perhaps it is a specific variety that is more tolerant of the temperatures?
The Basjoo is supposedly hardy to zone 5b, believe it or not.
Solid down to 12"? You gotsta move!!!!!
lololololol , our frost line goes deeper than that here.
You do realize that they are only talking about light freezes and frosts , not the prolonged deep freezes we get every winter.
Building codes up here require waterlines and anchors, etc to be 48" deep.
There are a variety of cold hardy nana plants . A few are here .
http://ssl.securesites.com/cart.pl?db=stuff.txt&method=phrase&search=Musa&merchant=bigdipperfarm
one of them being the Japanese fiber nana aka basjoo .
My brother lived in southern Ill and had tried to grow different kinds of cold hardy nana plants down there for years.
Ain't gonna work unless we find a prolonged freeze hardy variety. (*fat Chance *) These are TROPICAL plants after all.
This message was edited Sep 6, 2005 10:24 AM