winter protection
 

For those of you interested......This year instead of caging my basjoo bananas with oak leaves and covering them with a tarp for the winter,I tried something different. Infact someone on this site suggested it(sorry I forget who)I cut off the leaves in the fall...stacked garbage bags up along the stems,filled with oak leaves. Worked like a hot dam. Granted we had a mild winter,but my leaves are already peaking out of the bags and unfurling,at least a month early. I believe it is due to the mild weather and probably the fact that the bags are black and attract the sunlight creating some early warmth. My forecxast is for continued warmth,with mild frost...so as long as we dont get hit with a blast of arctic air...which is unlikely here at this time of year...the bagging is a great solution...and saves on some labor of all those leaves that I used to have to collect...2 years ago I needed 32 bags to fill the cages...this past winter I only needed about 10....one third the work with a better outcome....

Re: winter protection
 

I think it was Sandy who promoted this method, which I plan on doing next winter.:waving::waving:

Re: winter protection
 

Awesome method. Got any pics?

Re: winter protection
 

The black plastic really does draw some heat.. I used black plastic on the lower 3ft supported by bambo runners, and clear up top, so any leaves popping up could get light.. The heat tapes as backup around the P-stems definately did the job. The black plastic definately took more fill than a garbage bag.. Jack's on to something quick & simple :^)
My pics are in my winterization album..

Re: winter protection
 

I can't take all the credit for this method. Someone suggested it to me a long time ago on gardenweb.
But I perfected putting a tarp over the top and leaving a circle around the plant and filling it in with dry fluffy leaves. It seems to make a difference in zone 5 anyway, if you keep the bags of leaves dry, and the banana dry underneath it.

Re: winter protection
 

Hey sandy I wasn't taking any credit whatsoever. :^)

Well yesterday I was unbagging the 2 nanners at the corners of the deck (well two of them (cause I noticed soemthing was wrong)). Someone tripped over the cord of the heat-tape and unplugged them. Any how I guess my mother PC is down to under a foot versus 3.5 feet of p-stem w/ 12 of leaf. Dwarf Orinoco(almost to the ground). Well I think when I get done I can start a thread "Heat-tapes vs. no heat-tapes" or tall & green vs. alot of cut-off brown. Well i know the unplug effected two more so I best be off to check out the Raja Puri, and the SDC's. @ least they are all alive thanks to the straw :^)

Re: winter protection
 

thanks all....i will try to get some pics as requested by media hound

Re: winter protection
 

My experimental basjoo worked! I planted it a foot deeper than it was originally growing in the pot and covered it with three wheelbarrows full of leaves in a big mound and it came back! woo hoo!!!