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My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
Experience is mostly derived from mistakes. Although I consider myself fully capable of making my own, I would prefer to learn from those of others, thus I joined bananas.org. :D
Last spring I wandered about in a garden shop and saw to my astonishment, that they had live banana plants (M. Basjoo) for sale, which was touted to have roots, hardy in Zone 5. Always a succor for trying something new I took one home. Unfortunately it took some time, before I got around to planting it, because at first I could not decide which of my neighbours I should overwhelm with my soon to be huge 15’ high banana plant :D, then later I enhanced my wealth of experience by committing another ‘mistake’ out of sheer stupidity. This led to an accident, which put me out of commission until late June, when I finally managed to assign my new prize possession its rightful domicile in mother earth. (See picture) Of course I did not know enough at the time to plant it about 1’ deep for additional frost protection. Therefore I went just recently to elaborate lengths to get it all snuggled up with protective covers. But that will be the subject of another post. Best, Olaf PS: There was elsewhere some discussion about red veins in the leaves of the M. Basjoo. I was with those, who had not noticed such thing, but now, looking at this picture, I can see some in the latest leaf. Maybe they become more evident, when the leaf is backlit as in this photo? PPS: Just now, after I typed all this, I don’t know how to integrate the picture into the post. The tutorial video went by in a blurr and was at times too small to read. I don't have the time to deal with that now, but the photo can be seen here: Banana Gallery - DSC025351 |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
If making mistakes defines experience, then I am the most experienced member here (also probably one of the oldest). Like your pic.
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Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
the code i use to display images is the following:
and you will get this: |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
The fact, that I did not plant the banana deep enough, had some other repercussions. After I realized, that I had five pups I decided to let the two largest ones grow, and separate the third for indoor over-wintering to transplanting it outdoors in spring. (See first picture)
That necessitated piling up some fill around the base of the plant, so that the corm to be separated could develop some roots of its own. I did that in mid-September and of course buried the two smallest pups in the process The second picture shows the plant w. the second pup, some soil piled around it and a 1' high fence with an average diameter of 1.15m (46") Despite all the help I got from mango_kush and saltydad, I am still unable to integrate the pictures into this post. At least they do not show up in the preview. To mango_kush: Where do I insert this line? The only place I can find is ""Send Trackbacks to...", but that does not work. Nevertheless, here are the two URLs: Banana Gallery - Not enough dirt around base and: Banana Gallery - After filling around base Best, Olaf |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
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:bananas_b :drum: |
Winterizing my M. Basjoo
Now, that I have finally figured out with a lot of help from mango_kush, saltydad and finally Blake09, who helped to clear up my main problem ( thanks to all of you) I am ready to talk about my procedure of winterizing my beloved banana. It is rather elaborate and probably mostly unnecessary, but I want to get as much of my plant through the winter, as possible. Whatever parts of the M. B. I can help survive, will not have to re-grow next year and besides it is a dress rehearsal for my Siam Ruby, which I hope to have in the same shape next year. I understand, that it is not as hardy as the Basjoo. It all began with putting a 1’ high fence around the plant with just under 4’ dia. Then I placed weeds and clippings around its base in a cone shaped fashion (See Pic. 1). The idea of that was to provide the plant with air and weeds and clippings are a lot more porous than leaves. For keeping the draft out and for additional insulation I sprinkled some peat moss over that cone of weeds. The idea of the cone shape was to have the leaves fall into a pattern draining away from the P. Stem, sort of like shingles. (See Pic. 2 and Pic. 3) Enough for this post. In the next one I will show, how I intend to protect the pseudo stem as much as possible. Best, Olaf PS: Sorry about the interference between the BANANS.ORG logo and my text. When I inserted the text into the picture, I did not think about the logo. |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
Excellent work, Olaf!!! :goteam:
Thanks for the great pics. ;) : ) |
Winterizing my Basjoo (Part 2)
Winterizing my Basjoo (Part 2)
Pic. 4 shows how the leaves are indeed generally behaving as intended, namely sloping away from the pseudo stem. When planting plants with hyperactive rhizomes, such as bamboo or asters, I usually do that in a tub with most of the bottom cut out and the top edge flush with the ground. That allows the roots to go as deep as they wish, but keeps the rhizomes from invading the surrounding area. Any of them creeping over the edge are easily detected and clipped off. The blue thing you see in Pic. 5 is such a box, slipped upside-down over the P.S., after I had clipped off most of what remained of the banana leaves, to serve as a base for the tomato cage. I had the box left over from planting the asters at the main gate of our gated community. I had sawed off the extensions of the T. cage, which normally are stuck into the ground, previously and fitted the cage with a wrap of netting to keep the leaves in. Pic. 6 shows the whole protective assembly fully stuffed with leaves and netting around the base, to keep the leaf mulch from flying off. I will show the finished product in my next post. See you then, Olaf |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
Hope you have great luck overwintering your basjoo, Olaf! :)
A look on how I over-wintered my bananas: http://www.bananas.org/f15/time-has-come-12898.html :bananas_b . |
Could that be a banana corm?
I shot that root carving on the wall of one of our hotel rooms in Vietnam.
Now I am wondering if this could have been carved from the corm of a banana. I cannot see any layering, as would be produced by the leaves, but I do not know, if such layering would occur in the corm. Best, Olaf |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
And here it is finally, the Banana Troll.
The banana is at its core and the mystic troll, a hohttp://www.bananas.org/images/smilies/banana_files/0489.gifmage to the (hoped for) magic survival of this tropical plant in northern climes. Olaf |
Re: Could that be a banana corm?
"Now I am wondering if this could have been carved from the corm of a banana. I cannot see any layering, as would be produced by the leaves, but I do not know, if such layering would occur in the corm."
Hi i think it could be a bamboo root... |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
I love your troll, he`s very cute. Let`s hope he`ll protect your banana. :ha:
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Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
I originally posted the one quoted here on Nov. 13, 2010
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The Dilemma: There has not been any frost for a while, but there might still be freezing nights for the next 6 weeks. Meanwhile my Basjoo is still suffocating under a load of leaves hiding from the winter’s cold (See above). I have been trying to figure out how to give it light, while protecting it from a late frost. Bubble wrap clearly had to play a part because it is highly translucent, even transparent, while the bubbles provide better insulation against the cold than simple plastic sheeting, but the problem was,how to support it with something, that is cheap (very important!) and won’t tear the plastic. Today, while browsing through hardware and building supply stores,for solutions, it finally clicked: I still had some ¾ inch PVC pipe left. So I got some fittings and constructed the following frame: The pipe sections in the top frame are 22 inches long, to make for an overall dimension of 24” each side. The “legs” are 48” long, the same as the width of the bubble wrap, high enough for my leafless Basjoo, as I buried it last fall. The beauty of this frame is, that the pipes and fittings fit rather snugly and need not be glued. This makes it simple to adjust the size of the frame to fit other plants and conditions, by just exchanging the pipe pieces. Next roll the whole thing in bubble wrap, using transparent packing tape to hold everything in place. The slit in the bottom is there to permit insertion of hot water bottles, when frost threatens. And last stick on the “roof” and my “Crystal Palace” is complete. I had dinner before I took this shot. So it is in the dark. Well, I did not compete for the World Price of Architecture anyway, but for something I slapped together in a couple of hours, I am pretty happy with it. :) Ah yes, if I just set this contraption over the banana, the wind will blow it over, before I can rub my hands in satisfaction. I will therefore pound bamboo stakes in the ground at the same spacing as the corners above. The pipes will, with some jiggling and squeezing. slip over the bamboo sticks and then secure it all with a screw in each leg. That will also serve to get the wrap straightened out in the bottom. The question that remains is, when will I gather the guts to risk the life of my Basjoo. I would like to do that, when there are at least a couple of days with mostly sunshine ahead, and that will probably not happen for another week :( |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
Looks good, Olaf! I hope it works out well.:woohoonaner:
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Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
Well, the big day has finally come. No frost forecast for the next two weeks; - time to dismantle
the banana troll. You can see in this picture, that he has lost his smile already. (It is there below the white flower pot) I feel like a kid on x-mas morning unwrapping that pretty parcel … -- and finding a piece of coal in it :( Most of the PS had frozen/rotted off. This picture shows, what is left after I cleaned most of the mess off Here I have placed my “crystal palace” over it. If you look closely you can see the stub of the PS inside. It was better visible ‘life’. I tried taking this photo with and without flash and from other directions, but to no avail. :( |
Re: My Banana Experience (or lack of it)
I think the only way to protect more of the psuedo-stem is to simply plant the corm deeper. This was planted about 1ft deep, maybe more, and over 1ft of it survived after a winter low of -9F which is the coldest temperature so far this century here. It seems like having it planted deeper ensures corm survival a bit better.
 I have some ensete on order which I might let grow out a little and then plant them 2ft deep just to ensure their survival. I mix in a lot of loose material such as leaves/ peat moss, and organic material just so the plant doesn't suffocate, but it is nice to plant them well below soil lvl just to make sure they survive the brutal winter, and the additional protection is only to help more of the psuedo-stem survive so it has a running start onto the season. |
Re: Could that be a banana corm?
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I have to give it to you, you sure know your bamboo roots. I have been back to Vietnam this winter and learned more about these carvings and it is all explained in these two pictures (sorry about the reflections: This one gives you an overall view of the sign, which caught my attention. And here I have enlarged the written text, which explains how this bamboo root art came about. |
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