buzzybee

I wish I could post pics but I have not come into the light of things with learning how to do that...... It's on my to do list! I will work on it and see if I can post something soon so y'all can help me identify my naner. Thanks!

austinl01

Hey y'all. I wanted to update you with a fresh picture of my musa basjoo mat. We got a little rain today (0.12 inches) so this really revived them. It's been near 100 degrees for the last week. I've been watering regularly, but it's hard to keep up.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Dean W.

Looks great, Austin.

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deruo

I would kill for a garden like that!

Hi everyone, new member here in Southern Ontario and big fan of Musa Basjoo.
I bought a 3 inch shoot last July, and never got around to planting it outside due to a couple of moves since then.

I've cut one pup off and planted it outside and though I thought I'd killed it in the separation process, it's come back and doing very well. I was thinking about mulching it over the winter but think I'd best put it in my storage space in the parking garage over winter. Unfortunately, the dirt in my "garden" is only about a foot or so deep because it's over the parking garage. I'd think it'd be fairly easy for a foot of soil to freeze here sufficiently to kill it. Unless I get a heating cable and wrap it around the rootball somehow - but thats too much work for this year

The main plant isn't looking too healthy. For months it's grown on a slant, leaves withered with brown spots, but its working on two more pups. I've repotted it and it was pretty rootbound, but I'm going to try using some 20-20-20 fertilizer on it and see what happens. After that its spending the winter inside and will go into the garden with this years bamboo next spring.

I do have what may seem like a silly question. For those of you who overwinter your plants in the garage - do you water them at all or just let 'em dry out and then replant them in the spring?

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Funny how the more I enjoy growing my banana plants, the less enjoy eating bananas.

austinl01

Tom, when people overwinter their bananas in a garage they water very sparingly or just let them dry out completely. I would water just a few times during the winter because the banana won't grow much at all. Let the soil completely dry out and then just water a very small amount. It's better to underwater than overwater in the winter.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

raggedyredhead

I'm in NJ and after speaking to a number of people, I am leaving mine in the ground. I'll probably wrap Pstems in paperbacked housing insulation. They already are mulched but, I will probably add more. Doing pretty well so far though temp is still 80's. Looks like I will have the other non cold tolerant ones
growing under lights.
My house is a jungle! I need to live in a glass house.

Chironex

It's never too early to think about where and how to best protect our investments. I don't have too much to worry about here in Las Vegas, except for a chance for frost a few times and perhaps a few cold days. Fortunately, I have access to a southeast-facing garage that keeps everything above freezing. Already cleared out a spot for all of my bananas to keep toasty this winter. I almost laugh when I say winter as it is nothing like the winters near Chicago.

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Scot

Jimzone7

raggedy
I'd be very careful using house insulation, if that stuff gets wet it wont dry out and that's about one of the easiest ways to kill a mat in our zone 7. I'm in Staten Island and wintered over basjoo last winter. (I've got some pictures of their "winter home" in my picture gallary) Good luck

Austin
Your lasiocarpa are doing great, I think you were right all lasiocarpa's are not created equally, ours are beauties. I'll try to get some pics up soon, There's one in my gallary but that's not even the big one. Thanks for a great addition.
Jim

raggedyredhead

Thanks very much for the warning Jim. Only reason I considered this was because I saw a video on Utube. I will check out youe pics on winterizing.
You made an excellent point!

Raggedy

austinl01

Jim, I'm excited to hear the musella are growing great. I had no doubt that they would! This banana is easy to grow and very rewarding with lots of pups. I truly believe my musella is of an excellent source because the leaves are so bluish green that they are amazing to see. Here mine are behind my dwarf cavendish that I picked up at Home Depot last month! I wish I had a better picture of them but this will have to do for now.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Chironex

Austin, Wow - those are great looking plants. It is starting to get a little cooler here now - almost....Today was over 100 degrees but it's cooling off more at night.

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Scot

austinl01

Thanks, Scot. It's been cool here with 3.13 inches of rain in 24 hours! The high was only 77 too! Very untypical for late August, but I'll take it rather than the typical 100 degree days. All this rain makes the bananas shoot for the stars!

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

arthurb3

WOW!! They look great and so do they palms!
Home

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Arthur
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
www.arthur-in-the-garden.com
www.arthurinthegarden.wordpress.com

arthurb3

WOW! They look great!
www.arthurinthegardenc.om

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Arthur
Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
www.arthur-in-the-garden.com
www.arthurinthegarden.wordpress.com

austinl01

The basjoos keep growing and growing. This year has been super for bananas with regular rainfalls all summer. In just a couple days, I got over 3.10 inches of rain at my house. Yesterday brought another 0.40 inches! The bananas are loving it. I'm 6 feet tall to give the plants some scale. And, we've still got a few good months until frost with is usually in early November.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

Jimzone7

Hi Austin
Everything looks great, it's nice to see the progression over time.
In one of your earlier photos you showed the replacement for the EE, (the ones with the upright leaves.) It's one of my favorites and I'm thinking about planting them next season. Any info on them would be appreciated.
Jim

austinl01

Jim, the upright EEs are hardy in my zone. Some people dig them up for the winter and store the corms in a crawl space or garage. I just mulch them and they reliably come back each year. They don't require as much water as the regular EEs which is a great attribute. I got rid of my regular EEs because they would always wilt even if I watered them often. Treat the upright EEs like you would bananas. They like compost, cow manure, and regular fertilizer.

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Austin
Arkansas River Valley

Average January Low: 31°F, Average August High: 92°F
Extreme Winter Lows: 5-15°F, Extreme Summer Highs: 100-112°F, Annual Precipitation: 52 inches

deruo

Wow, your garden looks great!

I just love this plant. The pup that I divided this year looked like it was a goner after I planted it. Several weeks later it's come back and has been going great guns even with the cooler weather coming.

The momma plant, from which the pup came from, wilted, and then the neighborhood terror-squirrel got into it. Looked deader than dead. Stem broken right off. It was in a pot, and against my better judgement and thinking it'd been lost anyway, I planted it outside at the end of August. It's now pushing up two pups, and a new stem-like thing is forming.

Even the replanted pup is putting out two pups! The neighbors have all been asking what I've got growing there.

I'm hoping for a southern plantation look next year on my postage stamp-sized yard in downtown Toronto!

I'll be digging them both up in a couple of weeks for overwintering. I'm hoping the ground will dry out some before then. We're getting the after-effects of Ike today.

I'm thinking I'll overwinter the healthy pup indoors and the original plant and it's pups perhaps in the underground garage. Apparently its heated and doesn't drop below freezing. I'm thinking because it's been sickly recently, that it could use the rest for the next 7 (wow, is winter here really that long?) months.

I'm finding Musa basjoo is almost as easy to grow as cactus!

__________________

Funny how the more I enjoy growing my banana plants, the less enjoy eating bananas.