I had sunk a basjoo banana that I had been growing indoors outside a couple of days ago. He was throwing out almost two new leaves a week, but he has been absolutely torn up by the wind the last few days (and the wind hasn't even been that bad). Two of his leaves were ripped clean off
He is about 5 ft tall. I freaked out, dug him up, and brought him back inside. He was beautiful b4 the wind got ahold of him
I am kind of new to gardening. What are my choices to wind protect this guy? Kansas is usually pretty blustery....
wind protecting a banana??
bueller? Bueller?
Unless you grow your banana in a completely sheltered area the wind is going to shred the leaves. In the tropics and anywhere that is good climate to grow bananas leaf shredding is a natural and normal occurrence. They were designed to shred so that high winds won't catch the huge leaves like a sail and topple the these shallow root plants.
We get such strong winds in the spring that I keep the bananas in sheltered areas. They've ridden through some pretty nasty storms. As Vee8ch said, shredding is nothing to worry about, healthwise.
Note also that leaves grown indoors will be different than those grown outside (i.e. thinner, flimsier, less tolerant of light and wind). The new leaves coming out will be better adapted to the environment in which it is placed, and unless your banana is sickly to start, the corm should have enough energy to regenerate all of its leaves anyway. I still wouldn't place bananas in a high wind exposed location, and in my area at least, the basjoos can't handle direct sun all day long without a bit of burning. I live in the desert, however, where we've already seen 100+ degrees for days in a row this year.
tropicalaria -
Thanks! I was wondering if the plant just needed to "toughen up" to being outside. I wasn't worried about the leaves shredding, but was concerned about the leaves being ripped almost completely off by the winds
Capt, I am in KCMO and mine is outdoors on an northeast-facing sheltered lower deck, protected by the house. It's leaves do shred in our winds, but it doesn't hurt the plant.
I have 5 and they are still in the GH. Had them out for a while and they started looking nasty. Leaves turning dark on the edges from the wind tearing them up. So I moved them back in the GH, thought I would put them back out after our wind dies down some. I know we usually have a lot of wind, but it usually slows down from the 70mph to the 5-10mph. But here this last week it has really been bad.
Linda