I thought my bananas were doing well....... brown and yucky but still showing a green sprout deep in the middle..... but now they are starting to look really bad and seem to be either rotting (I only give them a cup of water a week) or just dying........ is there any chance that they'll come back from the roots..... or are they a lost cause ....... When can I start putting them in the ground to possibly save them ..... remember I'm a zone 5 and we still have a few nights of cold but not lower than 34 so far.......
any help would be appreciated......
Need Banana help ..... TropicMan are you around ?
Which bananas do you have? Generally if the big trunk dies back, pups will come up from the roots. That would of course be if the banana is healthy. Where are they brown and yucky? I lost a ten foot one because I had bruised it in the winter. It got totally soft there and through several layers. I ended up have to cut it down to the soil but I got five babies out of the deal. LOL
This was not a good year for bananas,mine were under the crawlspace,but unfortuneatly,they never went dormant,must have been
too warm,some dried up to nothing,and others went soft and mushy,clean to the middle of the corm.
Out of 30 plants,I might have 3 plants that was okay stem and all,and have already planted in the ground last sunday.
Thre rotted ones I cut as much of the mushy soft stuff and planted and will hope for babies.
You might just try what I and chele did and get babies too.
The ones I kept in pots,are ok,and will plant them shortly,as soon as
the hurricanes winds end.
It will most likely be a month or more,before I know if any of the bananas
will make it,for it takes that much time or more before new roots will start to grow.
Keep in touch
Don
Hey Tman!! It is so nice to see you!
I'm sorry to hear about your bananas. That is such a bummer. I think I may have had a near total wipeout myself. Since I moved, the garage here is not insulated at all where as my other one had like foot thick poured concrete walls and was beneath my house. My new garage, although quite large is metal over a wood frame. :(
I just bought an old (115 years old!) farmhouse in SE Alabama this past Fall. About the only thing the yard had was some Banana trees, three crape myrtles, a magnolia, and a bunch of (ugh) melliluca. I have 1/3 of an acre so I pretty much have a blank canvas for the yard and I am having the time of my life! LOL! The bananas that were somewhat sheltered fared really well this winter. They never even went dormant completely. The parent plant is taller than the house....and since the house is built up off the ground and has 9 foot ceilings, that is tall!
Hi Chele,
Dawng was my web camera on again,did you really see me???LOL!
So hear about you nananers too!
So your now a country girl!!!! Farmgirl!!! Redneckgirl!!!
Saw your new greenhouse,wow!!! Your the Jill of all trades!!!
Girl you amaze me!!!!
I wish I had half your energy!!!
Holler next time you see,and I'll put my blue jeans back on!!!LOL
Bama Belle,
I too have the red clay in my soul,my mama was born and bred about 85
mile north west of you,in Greenville,Ala,your nanas look great,let us know when it's banana split time!!!LOL
Thanks guys..... I don't feel so bad now.... well I feel bad that we've all lost our Nana's.... but I feel better to know that my first attempt at overwintering and having no luck wasn't totally my fault..... I like all gardeners fell at the mercy of mother nature.....
I'll stick mine in the ground next weekend and see how it goes .....
I have three nanna's that I have kept in the house during the winter, they are doing okay, I think I will plant them out about the 20th of April. Then I have two outside that are hardy to my zone, I did take the hay off of them about 3 weeks ago and haven't seen anything coming up yet. Do you suppose they didn't make it. I have a China Pink elephant ear planted from last year that is already starting to see growth to it. I guess I just need to give the nanna's some time.
Tropicman sorry to hear about the lost of your nanna's.
OK, yall. I feel bad. I am down here in banana land. If mine propagate well this year- I am getting ready to break off the babies and spread them out- I will share. I tried to dig out some ice creams and got no root- I am hoping the rhisomes kick in and give me some new plants.
I believe I have about 5 or 6 kinds of fruting bananas but am not sure. The dwarfs seem to do the best then anything that I use horse dung on does great. I have several varieties of ornamental vareities of bananas but can't tell you what they are. I grow but don't know!!!
Linda,mine haven't showed there heads either,last week of April first week of May,usually before I see anything.
Cyber,I'll take you up on your offer,if you get babies!
Heck,I don't care what flavor they are!!!LOL
They should be ok I have mowed them over with a weed eater on accdent and they grew back like nothing happened. I also had a 8 foot tall zebrina trunk last year that rotted in a heat falure that droped the greenhouse to 25f that night. I lost the entire trunk and almost all the corm. Its not 6 inches tall and doin great and i didnt loos any bananas in that cold but lost alot of trunks.... My point is dont give up i have had good times and bad times with bananas but they allways seem to grow back. They are tougher than people think I have only lost maby 2 plants in 2 years now. cold is you enemy but like i said 25 f for 8 hours did not kill any of my bananas this year they just wont be as big as id like when i put them out.
Musa Basjoo 5
Musa bordelon 3
Musa Ice cream 2
Musa zebrina 4
Musa orinoco 15
Ensete ventricosum 3
Ensete maurelii 3
Musella Lasiocarpa 10
all of theese have came back despite the cold and i have about 300 other plants in various stages from ee's to brugs and they all made it with only a few deths and mostly the babies took it the worst.
all in all dont give up we dont give tropicals enough credit.
Jerry
Howdy Tman! I certainly do see ya! And you oughta wear more clothes if you turn on that webcam! LOL
Yep, I am a country girl now which is partially to blame for my plant loss. :( I had too much going on in November (moving into the new house-have 7.25 acres now! woo hoo and working on the old one) and I just slid them all in to the garage like I normally do. I forgot to take into effect the vital differences. I went from foot think poured concrete floors and walls under my house to a stud frame with sheet metal. That should have turned on some lightbulbs for me. LOL I will definately come up with a better plan for this year. I can't keep replacing the same plants!
I'm going to go gas my car and take a leisurely midnight trip to Louisville. I hear there are a couple of guys down there with excessive amounts of things. hehehehe
Wow, Jerry! That's neat that you guys so far north can have so much tropical stuff!
Tropicman, I am tacking a note on the wall to remind me when I start digging up bananas to put some to the side for ya. As soon as I get more soil I am going to separate what I have in the ground. They are getting too clumped together.
yes me too it seems with a greenhouse we can grow anything up here its just a shorter season outside.
Jerry
BamaBelle.
Get a closer look at the far left tall banana plant .
I could be imagining but it looks like she has a flag leaf and a bud showing.
Chele!
Gas is $2.69 a gallon today,hope you don't have to fill the whole tank up!!!!
That reminds me of the days I use to borrow watermelons at midnight!!!
Then there were times we'd visit the field corn at nite at the right time the milk would fly,when you take the first bite!!!
Thanks Cyber!!! I appreciate it!
LOL Tman! Lucky for me it's only about a two hour drive. ;) I can sneak in and out under the cover of darkness....
Good luck
Make sure you wear your ninja outfit,and bring along dissappearing
smoke dust!!!!
Don I never pictured you as a violent man! ;S
Not me,it's chele going out after midnight,on a mission of danger and adventure!!!
Exploring for new plants to bring back home!!!!LOL
Hey, you could always go with me. Never hurts to have a good man to cover your back. :)
Sure thing,I could also be the get away driver!!!!
I like adventure and mystery.
Does this mean you will just sit in the car and wait or are you going to actually help me carry the stuff???
Well sure,I'll carry the light stuff,right now I have a pinched nerve in my lower back,thats numbimg my leg,I wouldn't want to drop anything,might just wake someone up!
And we wouldn't want that to happen!!!LOL
You wouldn't to have any on those night goggles???LOL
LOL Might be able to borrow a headlamp but I think that might be obvious. You know, it's times like these that I absolutely hate being a big boned girl! LOL Okay, I'll carry the big stuff. I don't want you to get a worse boo boo then you have now. ;)
Thanky you,Just for that,my treat on the ice cream cone on the way home!!!!
You deserve it!!!
LOL You nut! I'm going to go sit down now! I've been in transplant hello for two days straight and I gotta go relax so I can get up tomorrow and do it again. Stay out of trouble! LOL
LOL!
Only trouble I get into,is when I'm with you!!!
I know nothing................ :)
I'm not talking Either!!!! LOL
LOL I like my partners in crime tight lipped. ;)
Not another word!!!
Unless food is offered!!!!LOL
Oh crud! What are you the Busch's baked bean dog?? What food do you need to keep you faithful? LOL
He needs COFFEEEEEE!!! Is that a food?
Heck, I'll throw a filet mignon or some snow crab legs at him if I can buy his silence! LOL
Like for you to know Marcy,I've cut my cofffeee drinking back to 25 cups a day now!!!!!
Where's the beef???
No sea food for me!Yuck!
Meat and mashed potato man!!!
Metal impresso tags are on sale http://www.growersupply.com/meimta.html
Oh wow Don! That is sooooooooo awesome!!! And better for your heart!!! :)
How is the ice cream coming????? LOL!!!
Hadn't had any for quite some time,but summer is coming on,and I can only do so much!!!LOL