Bananas in Toronto

I was away most of the summer but my bananas did quite well. Robb

They look great!

Linda

Wow, you have a real jungle there. Good for you.

Super Bananas!
What do you do with them in the winter?
Ann

Impressive! I love the look of your gardens.

--Ginny

WOW! Nice job! Cute kids too. :)

Don

Holy smokes, that must be about 12 feet tall! I'm curious as to how you overwinter it too.

Sandy

Me too.

I have a friend with one and any tips you have would be most welcome.

Joan

Here in BC we chop them to 4 feet tall, put a wire cage around them stuffed with hay and wrap a tarp around the whole thing.

I popped a nice length of Big "O" drainage pipe over top of my musa basjoo, anchored it with two wooden stakes and twine, and stuffed it full of leaves. It's supposed to be hardy here to zone 5, but I geuss we'll find out come spring, eh? This is my first year with it, so I'll let you all know what happens.

--Ginny

Edited to say that I checked and was very surprised to see they may be hardy to zone 5 or 6. Let us know how it does.

This message was edited Dec 7, 2006 3:41 PM

Looking good there Zone! It really grew to an impressive height for you. :)

I am sorry, I was fully occupied... as a grade7/8 teacher it is a busy time of year. Some of my bananas (musa basjoo) have been in the ground for 5 years. I wrap them well for the winter. The bananas in this photo are musa sikkemensis... I haven't tested their hardiness yet. Some people report that they are as hardy as basjoo. I cut them off at about 1.5 metres, and dig up the corm. I cut the roots off to about 20cm. but then I pot them up and put them in my basement. I put them against an exterior wall and try to protect them from the heat. I give them a little water to try to prevent dehydration, but they are basically like a big (huge) daffodil bulb. In April I plant them out again and as soon as it warms up they are off and running. Robb.

I promised to let you all know how my Musa Basjoo faired over the winter in my zone 5b garden.

Yippee!!!!! I have a new shoot coming up from the old stalk. The stalk itself died back right to ground level and it didn't appear to be ready to do anything at first, so I was a bit worried that it had died. So I started to dig it up (carefully) last week to try and see if there was any life left in it at all. That's when I discovered the new shoot about 1" below the surface. It has popped up about 1" above the surface now.

Like many other locations across the country last winter we had warm temperatures and rain through the fall and into Decemeber and January. We didn't really get any cold and snow to speak of until late February, but then it got *very* cold, around -25 to -29 degrees Celcius for extended periods of time throughout the latter part of February and into March/April. We also got all the snow we had missed in January and then some!

So it appears that, with adequate protection, Musa Basjoo is indeed hardy to zone 5b. I'm a very happy gardener :-)

--Ginny

I just went past CBC YWG this AM to find that they have 2 bedrggled bananas in two of their 5 big street pots?????? This is the Cdn. windy city right now tres wet. Your bananas look quite beautiful.

Real plus. Last year I planted a lily in one of the pots (guerrilla gardening ya know) and it is growing well now. Amazing. Guess because pots are so large. Will plant some more lilies there this fall.

inanda

The musa basjoo that were left in the ground all winter have not reappeared yet, but I still have faith. I have planted out the corms that I stored in the basement for the winter and they have already produced their first leaves. They will be at 10 feet before the end of june. Robb.

I had 3 last year but i took them in the house over the winter (not before they had suffered some damage from an early frost) Have just moved them back outside yesterday.

Was gently repremanded this AM on CBC bcause I trimmed the dead windblown leaves from CBC bananas. Is there anything ele I should not do witrh them?

Ginny

If the leaves were dead, there would be no harm.... unless DEAD and WINDBLOWN is the look they are going for this summer at the CBC. Robb

Thank you Robb. Makes me feel better.
Inanda

Robb your banana was huge last year. I've tried overwintering a banana plant twice in the house and both times I've lost them. Corms sound like they overwinter better. I'm going to have to find some.

:) Donna

Rob, your bananas are truly magnificent. Amazing.

Ginny, please find some bamboos that will cope with -50 from time to time. That would be great.

Checked out CBC bananas yesterday. One has a new 5 inch shoot about 4 inches away from the main stem. Strange. Poking through the petunias surrounding the banana.......

Wonder how the plant will cope inside during the winter. Can it be a house (studio) plant?

inanda

If it is a tropical variety rather than a temperate variety, it will not go dormant. Tropicals have to over winter actively growing. A cool sunroom might be good but, if you have ever had spider mites you might want to forget about it.... if your banana gets spider mites... it is pretty much game over. Robb.

I've been shying away from bamboos Ginny. It seems every year I end up with one plant that is a real garden thug - spreading invasively the following spring in an attempt to take over the whole garden it is in - and I spend weeks eradicating it. Based on what I hear about bamboo and its vigorous root systems I want nothing to do with it.

My Musa basjoo is regrowing very slowly - painfully, excruciatingly slowly. It's only about 3 inches tall but finally starting to unfurl miniature leaves. I'm not much known for my patience, so it better shape up soon or it's outta here! Of course, that's a lot easier to say since I found another one cheap at my local nursery on Monday that I plan to try to over winter indoors. I need to actively grow my Musa ensete indoors too - but now Robb tells us they're prone to spider mites. Oh no - say it's not so! I already had that problem with brugs this past winter, and I still haven't completely gotten rid of them.

--Ginny