jack hagenaars

For those of you interested......This year instead of caging my basjoo bananas with oak leaves and covering them with a tarp for the winter,I tried something different. Infact someone on this site suggested it(sorry I forget who)I cut off the leaves in the fall...stacked garbage bags up along the stems,filled with oak leaves. Worked like a hot dam. Granted we had a mild winter,but my leaves are already peaking out of the bags and unfurling,at least a month early. I believe it is due to the mild weather and probably the fact that the bags are black and attract the sunlight creating some early warmth. My forecxast is for continued warmth,with mild frost...so as long as we dont get hit with a blast of arctic air...which is unlikely here at this time of year...the bagging is a great solution...and saves on some labor of all those leaves that I used to have to collect...2 years ago I needed 32 bags to fill the cages...this past winter I only needed about 10....one third the work with a better outcome....