Banana Gallery - P-stem protection
hi Terri....although my climate is milder, and excess moisture over the winter instead of cold temperatures is my concern, I think I have a partial solution that could work for you. Although temperatures much below freezing (say 5 degrees)makes the whole thing redundant for soft tissue plants like bananas, it may be worth a try to maintain continued growth as much as possible. The link above is for a system I devised, using varying sizes of plastic pots, and peat moss. I cut the bottoms out of the pots, and using sheet metal screws, build a tower using sequentially smaller pots from bottom to top. I cut the bottoms out using a jigsaw, leaving a half inch flange for attachment points. In the fall, I fold the leaves of the banana back on itself, making a bit of a "hat" for the p-steim, then fill the tower with peat moss, place a plastic cover over the top to shed water, then another uncut pot over that. I then put a thick layer of mulch around the base of the tower. So far, it seems to work well at giving the plants a bit of a quick start in the new growing season. Plastic wrapping, I believe, would be counter productive, trapping moisture and encouraging rot. The dry peat moss wicks moisture away from the p-stem. As long as the temperatures cooperate a bit, could be worth a try.
