Anyone from the Carolinas going bananas?

I suspect in our lower zones where they need minimal protection, the hay will suffice. It worked pretty well on my basjoo last year, kept it over 3' in height (I lost at most an inch or two). I'll admit I've never tried it on taller than that until this year though - the highest this year is 4.5' since I decided to wrap the 5' banana in lights (which works really well). Dug all the others up - last year of that though since I'll have others to worry about next year.

So far the lights remain my favorite option. We hit freezing last night again and the lights kept the air around the stem at a nice 43-47F. On the very coldest night in the teens next month (there's always one of those days) I'll just wrap in the frost blanket for extra warmth.

On a separate note, the spider mites are about to go wild in my garage. I've sprayed with Neem to keep their numbers down (if I see even a few I get antsy) - but they will clearly be an issue all winter. Aphids are on a few of my other bananas too, but they don't seem to affect them much - yet. Considering all the bananas I've got stuffed in there now (over 60 including small pups) - I'm probably lucky they haven't taken over. Spider mites also love Christmas Palms, and fighting them in those is just impossible - too many fronds. Just 4 more months to go.

I found a product called Organicide in the organic section at Lowe's. It really took care of a broad mite infestation I had on my hibiscus earlier this summer. You might try alternating it with the Neem, that is what I did. There is a drawback in that it can suppress flowering on certain plants; read the label carefully. It took two months for my hibiscus to set buds after using it.

I use a combo mulch that's free from Sea Pines, which is a big development on Hilton Head. That would probably be useful in keeping plants warm through the winter. I when I get the mulch delivered it's very warm and steaming in the middle. If you used enough I would imagine it would keep a plant very warm. What exactly is in the mulch is a pot luck. Cedar, pine, cypress are always in it and it's shredded.

End theory is that you need to find a shredded mulch. A combo of sources would probably be best. Pine bark won't produce heat I don't think. Pine straw if enough is used would act as insulation to a point.

On the bug problems. If you're not planning to eat something that's in your garage I would just let loose with a roach bomb. A couple would fog the whole place and kill just about any insect. Contained space so no worry about killing off everything in your back yard. With the cold outside anything that runs for it will probably freeze to death. That's what I would do.

Thanks guys. I just worry using some things about the edible bananas. When I had only basjoo it wasn't a concern, but half of the bananas in the garage now will be (hopefully) producing edible fruits in a year or so.

The Organicide is a combination of fish and soybean oil. I wouldn't want to eat it but it wouldn't hurt if you did. LOL

I'll keep an eye out for it next time I'm at Lowe's (I feel like I live there some weekends). Thanks for the tip.

How's the smell? Neem about drives me out of the garage - fish oil makes me think of fish emulsion smell (which seemingly brought every stray cat in a 30 mile radius into my yard). My wife adopted one of them - naturally. LOL

LOL, Fish emulsion IS horrible! No. the Organicide is not smelly at all. This is the stuff they recommend for the cycad scale in FL.

FYI, I use the Dyna Gro Neem and it says to add dish detergent or other liquid soap to emulsify the oil. I use Dr. Bronner's lavender soap and my Neem smells lovely.

Another FYI, you can get Neem at a good price with one of the co ops right now. Free shipping too.

Had to share this - made my jaw drop. Musa Thousand Fingers. I'd heard of it, but that's just incredible. Saw this over at the banana forum.

Now that's a lot of nanners.

And on another note, it's been two months since I received the bananas from Louisiana and Florida. And the growth rate between the bunch is pretty interesting. And it doesn't seem to matter if you get a pup (with nothing cut off the top) or a chopped banana corm, they grow the same. The cut banana of course immediately reduces the size of its new leaves accordingly.

'Praying Hands' took about a month and a half to "wake up" and put out its first new leaf.
The 'Ice Cream' has been the fastest to bounce back (except one pup). But one of the cut banana is already over 3' tall. Thing took off in a hurry. Overall I'd say it took a month to get the first new leaf.
Siam Ruby has been taking it's time, but has pushed a few new leaves out. It pupped already too.
Bordelon has grown pretty quickly, though it's initial growth has been messy (not a very crisp leaf yet)
Orinoco grow pretty quick, again, about a month or so.
Saba have taken almost two months to start growing, and one of the cut corms just started growing again. The other is showing life after significant rotting on the outside. The two pups I have are also slowly coming back to life.
Basjoo also seems to take a while to recover to being dug up or having a pup split. Generally it takes 3 weeks to a month or more to get it growing again once it's out of the ground and potted. After that, it's hard to slow it down.