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View Full Version : Musa Basjoo Pseudostem cold Min temp


morebananas
02-28-2018, 05:39 PM
Uncovered my Musa Basjoo this year because they were aggressively growing. What is the estimated minimum temps a uncovered 5" diameter pseudostem can take for musa basjoo?

I assume leaves die at 32F or by frost at any temp?

its gonna get 27-32F for a couple nights

scottu
03-01-2018, 07:16 PM
you are in zone 7. Way too early!! Cover back up! Many more nights coming cold enough to kill the leaves. when it stays cold longer the plant also.

Should not be getting any sun yet, or water.

obdiah
03-01-2018, 08:26 PM
way to early for zone 7 but in answer to your question a large basjoo stem can take a few hours of 25 to 26 f as long as it warms up during he day but any new growth will be killed
and the out side of he stem will be damaged how ever the growing part inside will be ok
don't uncover until mid April

briangifford
03-02-2018, 09:06 AM
I don't really have an answer as far a s minimum temps, but there is a guy here in KY (6b) that has let his Basjoo's just die back and just left the dead leafs over it. And year after year they come back without extra protection. But again, that is only from observation. I drive past them almost every day.

I do have a question (sorry to hijack). At what point is it OK to uncover?

geissene
03-02-2018, 12:36 PM
I live in PA, also zone 6 and I have started uncovering my basjoo this week. I normally would wait until late march *BUT* this winter seems to have killed my p-stems down to the ground. All that remains is a wet mushy p-stem that is starting to get moldy. So, for me its time to clean it up and hope that some corm has survived.

My basjoo start growing in late March or early April and the light frosts that normally happen usually just burn the leaves back. If a hard freeze is expected, it would be necessary to recover them.

Good luck!

Erik G

morebananas
03-02-2018, 02:10 PM
Thanks for the info all. My 10 day forecast just has 2 days a little below 32F now so i'm going to try to cover the leaves to avoid frost and see how it goes. Mine are growing gangbusters. They outgrew the cover I had on them because they grew 1.5' of Pstem under it plus now have 3' leaves. We had almost 2 weeks where the LOW didn't go below 50F

George Webster
03-02-2018, 07:12 PM
I live in zone 6 St Louis. When I planted my Basjoos I covered a large area with 6 inches of wood chips and shredded oak leaves. In the fall when the p-stems freeze and go down I normally cut them to length and lay them across the area. This year, do to family illness I just left them. With this heavy mulch I do not fertilize or water them. In the spring they do not come up till the ground is very warm. The soil does not freeze and it warms slowly in the spring. When they do come up they grow fast. No flowers but great looking plants. Below is a picture I took last summer and another taken this afternoon. Not sure when I will get out to clean up the bed. My son included for comparison of height is 6-4.

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=62752&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=62752&ppuser=8191)

http://www.bananas.org/gallery/watermark.php?file=62858&size=1 (http://www.bananas.org/gallery/showphoto.php?photo=62858&ppuser=8191)

I hope I got the links right so that you can see the pics