rickd

So back in the spring I purchased these bananas from Lowes and through this site it was determined they were Cavendish. Now about 3 months later they are huge! Has anyone tried overwintering this variety? They are too big to bring in the house. I've read that with Maurelli bananas you can take off the leaves and store the plant in a cool dark area. Has anyone tried this with Cavendish? Any other ideas? I will save some of the pups. Thanks!! (Also thanks to Sirdoofus for sending me a Musa Basjoo which is growing nicely!)[IMG][IMG][IMG][IMG][/IMG][/IMG][/IMG][/IMG]

rickd

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xavierdlc61887

Dwarf cavendish does get thick but doesn’t grow past 6-8 feet. I’ve never over wintered a banana I’ve always left them alone here in zone 9b almost 10. I’m in the cusp of 9-10 it’s pretty interesting! Back when I used to be more active I saw people cut the plant half ways and make a fence around it and stuffed it with straw/hay and overwintered it that way. I never did it since we never got temps low enough to merit it. But now idk what’s going on we had a freeze here in Texas and now it seems everyone is paranoid about getting another and losing all our tropical trees. People here lost mango trees,avocado trees,coconut palms.

rickd

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I'm in southern Canada considered zone 7 so I'm not sure if they would survive winter even with a heavy mulch.
I have 3 so maybe I'll try different ways. Leave one with mulch and store the other ones without leaves in a cool spot. And keep some pups also.

xavierdlc61887

yeah i wouldnt know, the people that were doing that overwintering showed pics on here, there was snow on top of them so do a search like "overwintering bananas" and see if the pics are still up and not taken down cause back then photobucket was used alot and now its a paid service.


Insulating basjoo p-stem

so how do I prevent it?

rickd

Will do, Thanks.

xavierdlc61887

added 2 links of the topic/pics as well as to what i am talking about

rickd

Thanks!!

sirdoofus

So how did everything go for you?

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rickd

Sorry for the late reply. The Maurelli bananas that I overwintered in the garage and are doing great back in the ground. I tried the Cavendish but they did not survive so I guess that answers my question about if they can be stored like a Maurelli. The Musa basjoo you sent survived the winter with a chicken wire cage stuffed with leaves and plastic around it. I even see a few pups coming up. Thanks again. I was able to find a few Musa's this year at a local greenhouse so I have a half dozen more planted. Cheers!

sirdoofus

Excellent, glad to hear the basjoo and Maurellii are doing well. With the cavendish, did you try dry storing it? And do you know what types of bananas you purchased from the nursery?

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rickd

Yes tried dry storage with the Cavendish as I did with the Maurellis. The ones from the nursery are Musa Basjoo so I have quite a few now.

sirdoofus

Lol, of course that's the way it always works. Murphy is a bit of a dink. Looking forward to seeing pics of your banana forest

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