blownz281

For example I have a 6ft Musa Grand Nain and haven’t decided if I want to wrap it or dig up and place in my garage. The lowest my garage gets to is 55 degrees. I do have a bright window and several garage lights with the lumens/K to keep them happy. I have stored really small Orinoco types and they did fine without the garage lights.

Also have a huge mat of Truly Tiny not sure what I want to do with them. I had another mat for a few years against the house but on the northwest side but didn’t come back this past spring. It would always melt down and start over. Not sure if one on the east side against the house would do the same. But no idea if it would dry store either? Would love to get fruit since I have grown this variety multiple times in the past.

Thanks

wstrickland1

Been dealing with nains for 3 years now, never tried to save any. they always pup back in the spring. I'd sure like to get one to fruit. Same with dwarf red. Good luck.

blownz281

Yeah that’s why I want to keep the size of both as both come back here. Dwarf Red grew great for me and was always stout. But in 2017 polar vortex took the mat out. One I have had for almost a year now is very wimpy with the cold but looks exactly like it and guy called it a D. Cuban which is the same.

nexmp76

I personally store all mine in the garage in pots over the winter. I've done it the last couple of years and has been successful for the most part. Last year we had a warm spell in early March and I got a little overzealous and watered them a bit. It then got cooler for a couple weeks which messed some up. If you dry store them I would make sure to wait until later spring to bring then out. I have Raja Puri, Dwarf Orinoco, and Blue Java in the ground as well. For those, I do chicken wire cages around them and stack with leaves. Those all come back but have died to the ground. This year I added a Dwarf Namwa in the ground. I have also wrapped them all with plastic to see if I can save the stems so we'll see what happens this year. My garage has stayed in the 50's as well with some open windows so it looks like we have similar conditions. Hope this helps.

blownz281

Okay cool sounds good. Yeah not planning to water anything and some are still growing with the lights and window in the garage. Think what happened last year trying this, was I watered them and they never dried out and melted away come spring. I just dug them up with dirt on there roots and placed in empty pots. Weird weather anymore but stopped years ago wrapping mine outside. Sometimes the stems stay other times they melt away. But going to put wire cages around the stems and then wrap plastic or clear garbage bag over top of them. That has worked in the past. Tarps would work until we had warm and cold days. They would bake. Where the clear bags they don’t bake.

blownz281

Post a pic up of your plastic wrapping.

nexmp76

I'll take some pics when I'm home this weekend and get them posted. It's a little hard to gauge when the weather is up and down. If we get another big warm spell in earlier spring I might give them just a slight bit of water. Think I overdid it last year when we got the initial warm up. I ended up using clear shrink wrap like they use in warehouses and folded the leaves down over them for insulation. Got the idea from Ty Taylor. It's my first year trying it though so we'll see.

blownz281

I have heard of the shrink wrap idea before. But cost wise you can’t reuse the shrink wrap again once used I wouldn’t think… where as I was going to try clear garbage bags again like I did when I lived two hrs further south back in the day. The bags would be reuse able I think. I got a roll of several hundred thin ones from a job for free one time because Of a order error so never reused them as had tons.

nexmp76

Sorry it took so long to get back. Had to go out of town for a bit then was a bit under the weather. Here are some of mine I have wrapped up. I do think clear garbage bags would probably work good too.

blownz281

Hey man no problem. Okay so you just use shrink wrap then and the cage to hold some leaves around them. I got a box of large garbage bags to throw over mine but the weather has been too warm to warp anything. Cool lows once awhile here and there. I had collected a bunch of leaves to do the cage with leaves too. But that’s too much work for all the stuff I have and don’t want it attracting anything from the woods.

Do you have the wrap touching the stem completely or do you have some air space between them?

Everything in my garage is doing great and growing with my lights so happy with that.

nexmp76

If you've still got good temps over there I wouldn't worry too much about it. I have most of mine in the garage over winter and let them go dormant until the spring. We've been mostly in high 50's during the day and mid to high 30's at night. This is my first year trying out the wrapping. The past few years I have done the cages with leaves and the corms have always come back but I lost all of the pstem. I'm hoping the wrapping preserves the pstem or at least a good portion so I don't have to start over in the spring. What I did was fold the leaves back towards the pstem for protection then wrap them. I didn't wrap them to the ground to give them some air flow. As I've been looking it looks like it's been trapping a good amount of moisture in there like a greenhouse effect. We'll see how everything works out.

Storing them in the garage or basement has definitely been the safer method. I'm doing some experiments this year to see if I can get some to fruit earlier next year by preserving more of the pstem. It sounds like you have a pretty good setup in your garage that should work for you. I haven't tried lights on the larger ones in the garage over the winter before so I would be curious to see how that works out over the course of the winter for you. I'll try to report in the spring how these did.

beam2050

if that doesn't work this year, next year try shrink wrapping the chicken wire....just a thought.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

blownz281

Beam Your suggesting to keep the plastic off the stems?

blownz281

Your weather pretty much sounds the same as mine. I still have a bunch still pushing leaves. Jan-Feb are the coldest months for us so that’s when I better wrap stuff I feel.

Yeah the garage being warm and lights on 12hrs a day stuff is happy. Even had to water stuff as they were dry.

beam2050

i am trying not to be a knowitall with this,,,,i have never dun it, but to my way of thinking,,,, the wrap will not let the p-stem breath and the wrap may promote condensation inside even covered with leaves. this will be interesting to follow.

50, 100 miles north or south with bananas can make a huge difference for the grower. for me, the varieties that our winters don't wak the p-stems will push leaves all winter long. my fear is snow.....

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

blownz281

Rule of thumb is not to let plastic touch the bare plant/palm tree. But I have done it before ages ago. Just wrapping plastic bags around my plants two winters in a row and tarps. Seemed to work alright as they grew during the winter as in throwing cigar leafs. Sometimes they would melt though if it got to cold and of course the heat. I think if I need to wrap any of mine this year I will chicken wire them and put plastic over that.

Yeah states and different areas that have some zones will vary alittle.

beam2050

yes, when you cover a window for cold you have to give it some air space for it to work.

also wrapping the p-stem tightly would be like wrapping a persons head, bananas breath too. probably even when dormant.

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

blownz281

Yeah the moving air also is warmer. Think I need to poke holes in the plastic to let heat out if they get too hot too. Don’t think leaving the bottom somewhat open would do much since heat rises.

beam2050

back when i first started i built a small hoop green house for about 25/30 plants in pots. i covered it in plastic and then a large tarp, and when it got to freezing i put old blankets and a light inside. i would open it up during the day.
it worked well until i went out of town and had the wife open it up before she went to work.... she forgot one morning....it turned into an oven and fried 3/4's of the plants.


seems like everything you can do turns into a catch 22.

Attached Images

PC020323.JPG (1.07 MB, 7 views)

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npk of wood ash 0/1/3 to 0/3/7

npk of banana leaf ash 1.75/0.75/0.5

blownz281

The weather is all over the place anymore so hard to work around that. But I also made a hoop house out of wood and plastic. When we lived in the north and one snowy day the sun came out and temps were in the 40’s my needle palm baked as I wasn’t home to remove the hoop house. It lived a few years in my zone5/6 until then.