Quote:
Originally Posted by maesy
Jack,
I have always been reading Franks posts about his winter storage. In fact it was my motivation to store them bare rooted in the cool basement through winter. Just like many american banana lovers do, where they have warm weather for 7 or 8 month and then a not so cold winter with frosty nights for the rest of the year.
I have found out that the growth in our clime is not comparable with the growth in the states. Our average temperature in the growing season, is never as high as in the states, which pushes bananas into fast growth.
Here is already august when the ground has warmed up to the temperature the bananas like!
In the states that happens in June!
The only exception was 2003. Then my garden looked like a jungle already in the middle of July.
The other and maybe the main reason that it takes so long for the bananas to get going is, the perma frost and cold average winter temperature, causes a very long time to warm up the soil.
All in all, the bananas can not make enough strength in summer to get through the dark, cold and long winter time.
But,.... Never give up!!!
Me personally cut down the amount of different cultivars. I planted a dwarf brazilian and a dwarf orinoco out in my garden in iron baskets, they are easy to take out without disturbing the roots to much. Beside them I have a musa sp. yangtse that I also put in the ground to over winter like musa basjoo.
Marcel
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Interesting. I live in the lowland, the temperatures are extreme here (for the region), also, I get very little rain, that could cool the soil. My region also belongs to a very distinct part of Central Europe, because there are incredibly large natural water reservoirs and they do keep the warmth well (up to +6°C in the winter, when compared to the rest of the Slovakia).
It is also the fact, that typical crops of USA in the zone 7 (corn...) grow here like weed, the problem usually is to get rid of them, not to grow them.
I think the soil temperatures in Switzerland might be a result of surrounding mountain system. The rocks (microclimate element) usually heat up slowly, but then they remain hot for a longer period. However, the water is much better heat leader.
These are some of my hopes and estimates, that the bananas will like it here quite a lot (based on seeing what grows in USA and here). Well, I will see, but thanks for the warning. I will make it so, that even if some bananas do not survive the winter in the storage, I'll have enough pups to keep on going. You might have just as well saved me another year of searching, thanks.