Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Hi all! I just wanted to see how everyone's basjoo's are doing, especially up in the northern areas of the USA. I'm in Wisconsin, and its been a chilly spring so far with mostly 50s/60s for highs and 30s/40s for lows. Today was the first real warm day ... we hit 82F. Going to be chilly again for a few days but then it looks like we will be getting 70s during the day and 50s at night starting later this week. I planted all my basjoo's at the end of April. I got them off ebay. After planting them, all their existing leaves sunburned and crisped up brown, so I cut them off. So far they range from 1 uncurled leaf to 2 leaves. I'm wondering if theres still hope for getting some decent sized plants this summer? I gave each a 1/2 cup of milorganite last week and I've been watering about once a week for now since its been cool. I'm hoping they start taking off soon. Anything else I can do to get them going nuts? Here are some pictures. I have 10 basjoo's total, but I only photgraphed a few. They basically all are in these stages.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Once the weather stays above 80 they will take off. See my pictures in my gallery. They are growing in New York City.:bananarow:

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

I took mine out of the soil. Potted it and kept it inside and only bring it out on warm days. It's going absolutely insane growing over an inch a day. I am doing this to keep soil temps up. I figure I'll keep it potted until it gets a lot warmer then transplant. I had mine for a month where it hardly grew because it went dormant due to low soil temp. Trust me man once the soil is warm they'll take off. I also bought my basjoo from eBay but the leaves were fine although I did harden if off.

I live in near Buffalo by the way.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Hi there,

I have mine out in a large pot on the front lawn, and it seems to be getting burnt everyday since the weekend, with leaves drooping and turning brown



This leaves have burnt a lot more since this pic was taken

I am in Ontario Canada, and thought these were supposed to like sun????? I must admit they have been indoors until the weekend, and I only put them out last saturday.

Should I just rip off all the leaves and let it grow new ones outside?

Tips and ideas please, am new to all this

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

dont take the brown leaves off till there is no green on them. then just snip them off. mine went through this when i first put them out. but all 5 of mine and their 4 pups are doing really well. i have new leaves on all my basjoos. i had a trellis set by the wall of my house and it fell over and broke every leaf down to the p- stem. i thought the whole plant was a goner,then i looked at it today and suprise!!! i have a new leaf coming out. wahoo! hope everyones are doing well. and when it warms up, up there they should take off like crazy. in just a week i have had 2 leaves open on the same basjoo. so im keeping my fingers crossed for you!:waving:

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

I think mines is a gonner.:waving:

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

why do you say yours is a gonner?

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Well when I unwrapped it there was nothing there. It was about 2 feet. I used a tomato cage filled with dry leaves and several layers of heavy duty plastic sheeting. Moisture got in... no naner just a musy spot.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

So am I right in saying they like sun, and if so why do they get burnt like this?

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Mine wintered great they are already at the 5' mark. We too had a cool spring and my other nana's are doin' O.K. but the tried and true Basjoo has prevailed. Mine were uncovered and started growing nearly 2 months ago recieving full sun. This isn't the best pic but it's dark out.-Nate

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

I'm new at this too but from what I have learned from all these great growers is to put them outside with some shade for awhile with a little more sun each day. I got over zealous and do have some damaged leaves but all in all they're starting to take off now with sun most of the day.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

They do like sun. I planted several outside, but only one sunburned. I followed advice given here to leave it in the ground, (cut the badly burned leaves off) and sure enough, it is recovering!! I don't think I hardened it off properly, but the rest still look great. The only problem the bananas are having is the unusual windy days we are experiencing. They are healthy, happy but shabby.....

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Oh that would have made me almost cry. So glad they survived!

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

I'm just happy I finally got mine to break dormancy. Can I expect it to grow tall before mid august? It's about a foot tall now (30 cm exactly).

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

If you've already got a leaf, I don't see any reason why it shouldn't get at least 5'. That is, as long as you give it what it needs-Nate

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

that did make me cry! along with cutting off leaves that had been shredded by the wind a few weeks back.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Well, mine is dead!!:cool:

I beleive that................

1.) It was too young to go through the winter. Although it got about 2ft tall; I had planted it in-ground late July, and I really don't think that was a long enough period to get strong for the winter.

2.) Not enough winterizing stuff on the ground around the banana to keep the water OUT! Next winter, my new basjoo will have leaf bag coverage as well as.

I have another one I had growing inside all winter from a corm. I put it out early April and its growing fine!
I'll post a pic tomorrow.

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Well, mine are FINALLY taking off. The largest I have is about 10' (overall), and have new pups coming up almost everyday... They were slow to get started, but with the nice warm up over the past several days, I think things are really fixing to explode. I will try to post a pic or two on here tomorrow as soon as I get off these NIGHT SHIFTS!!!! I must say that I was able to keep about 3' or so of pstem to start off with on the largest one, so that helped. No protection except mulch at the base...

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

I took drastic measures and ripped off all the leafs on the basjoo, the only one left now is the one that is about to open up

Re: Musa Basjoos - How are everyone's doing?
 

Okay, so here they are!!! Just want you to know, wxman, don't lose hope. They will really take off when your soil temps raise and you will be amazed!!!
Here is the clump about 6 weeks ago...



And here they are as of today!!!



Sorry to have added the big goofy looking guy in there, but wanted something for scale and he is 6'3"...