Juls

Hi new to the forum and new to growing Bananas. I recently (july) purchased 2 Ensete Maurilii. I grew up abroad and miss the foliage, I can't travel anymore due to having 5 rescue dogs so decided to start making the garden my holiday unfortunately I have a court yard garden so plants are in pots. I live in fenland UK hardiness zone 8 I believe. Done a bit of research and I've been feeding my banana a 15-5-30 ratio fertiliser which it loves and both my plants are thriving. I am a little confused on the best way to prepare it for winter. Some take it in, some don't. Some cut it back , some people don't. I really don't want to lose my first plants so any advice would great!

sirdoofus

Welcome to the forum, this is the best place for all practical info bananas. Not that I am an expert at overwintering bananas at this point, especially Maurellii (I killed mine last winter by over watering), but you really need to bring those guys into a structure to protect them from the cold and wet.

If they are already in pots, I would think leaving them in pots would be the easiest, depending of course on how big they are and what kind of storage you have.

I overwinter my plants in pots (I haven't killed all of them in my garage where it stays above 40 degrees usually during the winter and has a reasonable amount of light. I am coming to discover, however, that the biggest factor to overwintering success in pots is not to over water. I have learned the hard way that banana family plants, including Ensete, are VERY easy to over water. So as long as you don't do that, you are ahead of the game.

Most plants, like all living things, have a very strong will to survive so can put up with a lot of adversity, at least for awhile. There are some very good threads on this site that should give you a lot of good information, and I am sure you will get some good advice from others posting to this thread as well.

The first thing I would do is decide whether you are going to keep them in pots or truly dormant store them. Both methods work, it just depends on what would be best for your situation. Then learn all you can about the various ways to do that and match what you read with your abilities and conditions.

Ultimately, with practice, you will learn what works best for you, and it may not be exactly what works for me or any other single member here. However, it is a fun process and I am sure you will enjoy it, even if you kill a plant or two along the way.

Good luck!

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Juls

Thank you I don't have a garage but do have a shed, although very little lights gets into it. I am considering building a structure just for my bananas and leaving them as they are but with lots of protection. I have a picture in my gallery ( apologies haven't figured out how to get it on my post yet ! ) I'm loving the forums and really finding it useful. I will keep posting with progress.