Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Hi I am new here and am hoping for some good advice. I live outside of Vancouver BC, and we have been dealing with lots of snow and now fog with below freezing temperatures. I had cut back my trees to about 4 ft and insulated and covered same as I did last year, by making my own tree sleeves from black plastic and insulation. My tree faces south and is against the house under the eaves, so it is protected from the snow fall.
This morning I noticed it has fallen over! I don't know what to do now???
Are they dead or rotten? Should I prop them up or is it too late to save them? Any suggestions would be appreciated. My poor babies!!!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Would you have any before and after pictures of your plants? It would be very helpful for us to see what they look like. Also, do you know if there was a lot of moisture penetration inside the cover that you put over it? If there is, you will need to let it dry out. Any way to find out if the p-stem is rotting or just dry? Hopefully the corms are still firm.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

unfortunately I don't have any before pictures. Should I take off the cover and look? It is still below freezing and I wasn't sure if that would harm them as well. But if they are wet or moist what should I do if the temperature is still at freezing? They would freeze before they would dry out.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

I would just stand it back up and brace it better. Whatever has happened cannot be fixed anyway, so at least you will have a chance versus removing the cover and freezing it for certain.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

OK so I just took a look and the stalks are mushy right down to the base!!! I guess that is not good!! Now what should I do? I do have mulch around the base but should I protect the root or corm more somehow? This is so depressing as I was looking forward to taller trees this summer.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Don't give up till theres nothing but a hole in the ground!( and check out pitangadiegos site). Mulch twice as heavy and cover with a tarp. Cant hurt.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Like Bob said!!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

I can't prop it up, it is bent from about 3 inches from the ground. I used insulation (house insulation) and black plastic. I wonder if the moisture is from sweating? is that possible? So, I should just leave it alone for now as we are not done winter yet! yuk!!!!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Do you have anything else or can you get anything else like dry leaves, straw, old hay, etc to mulch it with and a plastic tarp about 6x8 feet? If you can get any of the above mulches and the tarp, go ahead after you've procured your supplies, then uncover the plant quickly, take off all the plastic and house insulation and cover it very well in at least a three foot circle or even better four feet all around the stems of the bananas and at least 2 feet thick with the good dry mulch. Then cover it with the plastic tarp and weight it down on all four corners. I think getting the wet stuff off of it and preventing more freezing to the corm underground is the best you can hope for at this point.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

If it is that bent, then cut it off just below the bend/break. Cover the "stump" with whatever insulating material you have and tarp over that. If the pstem is that damaged, there is nothing you can do to save that part - it will not recover and grow up straight again. So, by lopping this off, you will save the corm.
In a month or so this spring, you will have a full plant again.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

I was thinking that I should cut it off. If I leave it attached will it rot the corm? The insulation isn't wet, which I don't understand. Should I have staked them at the time of insulating? I have noticed around town some people have staked them(the type that have the nursery bought sleeves).

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

If you leave it attached, it will not rot the corm by itself, but since this part of the plant is already a goner, it will facilitate protecting the corm a much easier procedure.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

It sounds like your insulation wasn't enough. The pstem has frozen solid and then later on when it thawed, it sagged over. There wasn't enough protection on the stem to keep it from freezing. I'd be willing to bet that this spring some of the other people who have protected theirs in a similar fashion and staked it up will find the same results, it's just not sagged over because the stake is holding it up. At least you know!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

OK I have cut the pstem down to ground level and all the other small ones as well. They were dripping with water! I just covered them and the ground around them with the insulation (4 layers) then covered with plastic to keep the insulation dry. It will probably sweat though. Now is there any other suggestions before I just sit and wait?
Thanks for all the help!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

That's about all that you can do at this point is try to keep the corm from freezing. If you are successful at that, then your banana plant will come back this spring. The water that you saw is coming from the plant, I presume. That's a good sign. It means that the corm is not frozen.

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Stop worrying! You have done everything you can....they will come back when the weather warms up......and before you know it....you will be looking up at them once again.....generally on an average winter here we can keep the stems intact if we mulch them with leaves and keep the rain off so they dont rot...but this was an extreme winter for us...so likely they will die off to the ground and regrow again starting in march...weather permitting ofcourse! I usually uncover mine around the "Ides of March",unless there are still frost warnings out...thats only 6 weeks away....yeah!!!!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

"Ides of March"(March 15th) for those of us who dont know!

Re: Help! Winterized but now fell over!
 

Thanks Jack. I had cannas for years and did nothing to them over the winter until one year they all went to mush. Now I am paranoid. I never had much of a green thumb but loved my cannas, and my banana was doing so good this past summer. Can hardly wait for spring to come, hate this snow!