How do I cut my Banana tree back? its a huge thing ... I cant find my camera to take a picture. I know its late in the season but it all hanging over and watery.
Thanks
MITCH OR LOUC
they are Elephant ears not banana plants .... sorry wrong picture
This message was edited Jan 5, 2008 12:35 PM
Here's what it look like now, you can see where I stopped.
Yes you can - but they need mulch on those roots in there! Same with the brugs if you have them still in ground.
I am sorry Sylvia, but I don't know bananas about bananas, so i can't help.
When I was growing up, we had a banana tree in the middle of a concrete patio. Daddy would cut it to about 4 feet and wrap it with a blanket (it looked ugly, but it always came back, AND produced bananas at least one year. I have a picture of it!).
Sylvia, been gone all day and just found your post. My EE's look just like yours.
Every year (so far) mine have died to the ground..bananas, too. I wrapped them last year and they just got sort of rotten. stink. pewhee. This time I cut off the part that has frozen and turned brown. The EE leaves just got sort of opaque. I do know that they are root hardy. Even though we have hard freezes, it would be rare that the ground actually froze. When I cut the leaves, I just left them on the ground and have allowed other leaves to accumulate. They are usually late coming up because the ground has to be really warm but they not only come back they multiply and are bigger than ever. Not truly worried about based on previous experience. Sure hope I'm not wrong this year.
Christi
They are EE's! lol Thanks guys I looked out side and spotted all the dead and rotting stuff and I really freaked out about the Elephant Ears ... they looked as if they were rotting. So Christi you are saying this thing is going to multiply? OMG! I don't have the space! (you guys can expect EE's at the spring swap) I sure hope my black one come and the one CJ gave me. I got three or four different kinds out there.
Mitch I cut the top off the Brugs too and they stems still look good. I need to mulch them too.
Connie Show your Banana pictures, so I can show my friends in Florida. lol
Josephine you got a Dmail.
mmmm bananas...would save me buying them at the store as many as Dh eats.....gee guys see the monster you are creating here now thinking I need one to grow in my yard ROFL
Mibus2 I bet he don't eat as many as I do. I buy two bunches of bananas when i go to the store. I buy one bunch green because I will eat the entire bunch in lieu of food. I also freeze them to make my smoothies. lol
I can buy one bunch on sunday and they will be gone by Tuesday ..I had picked some up at the store once for $1 a grocery bag they were ripe and if I hadn't put some in the freezer I would not have any to make bread or anything else.
I pulled 3 out the other day and made banana bread and he asked me where they came from like he missed them and now they were too ripe to eat.
Did he think you were holding out on him?LOL Don't you love to go to store and find those 99cents yellow bags? Do you freeze your with the skin on or off? I They are too hard to peel if you leave the skin on ... and I cut them in smaller pieces so I don't tear up another blender with the frozen fruit. lol
I freeze them whole and then cut the top off and they peel right off ..I need them mushy anyway for baking so ti works good for me
And yeah I think he did lol
I will have to try that, cutting the tops off.
Sylvia,
I will post it when I get a new scanner...it's an old pic from the 60's!! I remember it distinctly as I have on an outfit I made in Homemaking I and a silly hat, and I'm holding the stalk of bananas and grinning like crazy! :-) We lived in Edna, Texas...it's a lot warmer there than here in Austin.
Hmmm...bananas...makes me want a strawberry banana shake from Jack in the Box....I love theirs!
Hi Sylvia (and others too)!
Remember how many EE's I have been bringing to the swaps?? YES GIRLFRIEND THEY MULTIPLY!!!! For that reason, don't mulch (sorry Mitch) but every runner that is laying on top of the ground will root in all directions 5 foot away even. I yank off all of the top runners and pull up and toss the baby plants around them. As for cutting them back, all of the green will die back so you can cut as low as you want to. They retain enough water that they won't die if they are as large as yours are. In our area they don't come up at the first of Spring, they like it warm so it will be later than most plants.
Sheila
Have to keep all this in mind when I plant my EEs. As for bananas, my dad was nice enough to hack down my large (over 15' tall) banana tree that was now a stick with brown leaves the other day. He said the first hack he made into the tree, water just spewed out of it like a fountain! As cold as it has gotten here, I am surprised that water hadn't froze yet. I have been cleaning out the flower beds during break, and I discovered new growth on one of the brugs I've got in the ground this year. I think it is charles grimaldi. Only mulch was the dead leaves and grass that had accumulated on the ground. Some of my more tender plants have rugs wrapped around them. Not sure if it helped everything, but my plumbago is still going, and last year I didn't wrap it and it bit the dust.
Blue_eyes....you sound like a fellow teacher when you write "during the break"...perhaps? (I teach 9th.)
Last year was a "killer" in the true sense of the word for gardeners, yes? I still have lantana and plumbago green and blooming after the 3 or 4 "freezes" we've had. I hope this year's "winter" is milder than last...even tho we will probably see more bugs than we saw last summer...wasn't that nice? Very few bugs here by the lake and usually we're swarming/ crawling with em!
Connie....actually I am a grad student, in my third year of my PhD. This semester will be my last class...yea!!! It keeps me rather busy, and my colleagues wonder why I take the time to garden. But the plants, digging outside, being able to sit outside and enjoy the blooms and butterflies, is my de-stresser. It gives me something else to focus on when I need it.
So Sheila, I wont need to dig for bulbs? I am going to have a lot of baby plants to dig up?
Connie stay away from that Jack in The Box! I took some kids there yesterday and one of them ordered that Oreo shake, Lord I just had to have one! It was awesome!
Blue you think you are tired, your parents are tired too, they told me it looks as if you are never gonna get thru. LOL
See for me - I have them where I wanted more of them and well... so I always mulched anything and everything.
It does seem like I've been in school forever, but it will be worth it (I hope!).
Now if I could just find a good man...I'd be set. I think that's what they are getting tired of. Me not being married off. Hard to meet people when you're in the lab all day though. Anyone have any ideas? Lol...
This message was edited Jan 6, 2008 2:18 PM
Kim, they should be thrilled that you have a good head on your shoulders, and are as self-sufficient as you are; and happy with yourself as you seem to be. If marriage is in your future, it will be when you least expect it, and will be the love of your life.
Mitch...Sylvia doesn't have the room for them to multiple as we both know. Maybe if she move them to the side of the house or the alleyway. But near her hostas and as often as she waters, they will multiple.
Yes Sylvia, you will have little ones to pull up. It is easy if you get them when they first show up though. The main thing is keeping the surface runners in check, they break off and pull up easy.
Shelia - Sylvia already keeps more plants in her small yard then I ever had here - I am in awe each and every time I am there.... having been lurking in the ariod froum - all I can say is wow... and so many people on there with their plants that are just huge, and the colors every shade or green, red, and white you can think of....
Sylvia - the roots are good to eat on the green one you have called Taro, the leaves make a good wrap for fish too if you ever cook fish, dont eat the leaves but steam the fish wrapped in the leaves - yum.... love it. You could always sell hosta/ee/canna right? lol...
Yes, she has a bunch Mitch. But then, I dont' think any of us met a plant we didn't take home if given the chance! We just have a bit more room to put them! LOL! Like she said, she is planting in the neighbors side of the yard too!
Mitch..You said "here", are you still in RO? I thought you moved the last of your stuff before Christmas?
Plants are moved, I am still here I have to finish the year - and I left some plants here with the house to look good... well ok so I left the things no one wanted! I moved furntiure and Esther with son in March and I will be up there in June once the school year is over.
If you know anyone wanting a home South of Dallas send them our way!
Ok that explains it. I guess you mean to say you "will move" furniture...in March?
Yes will - I am sooo tired with all the work we have been doing on the house! Feels like I already moved everything up there!
Sheila look at the picture I think "The Thing" has already tripled! See the two on the left hand side next to the huge one? I did not plant them. Greg came over to clean up, when he picked up those bags you see, I noticed those two on the side their. I planted three bulbs out there now I five! You are right, they are going on the side of the house or in the front. Mattie wanted one, now she has it!
Lol - dont move until spring, tropical plants dont like to be moved in cold weather.
True Mitch. If you dug them up now you might loose them Sylvia. As soon as they start coming up next year would be the best time to relocate to the front yard.
You haven't been to my house but my neighbor gave me a start of EE a few years ago. I a couple in my pond and they were fine the first year, but really went crazy the second. They pushed rocks out away from the liner and everything. Here is the biggest culprit after cutting some of it's roots to get it out.
How do I get them out the ground? Do I need a Machete?
No, a shovel will do. As long as the bulb is up, the lower roots should die. It is the runners that grow on top of the ground that spread so bad, at least from my experience it is.
ok :)