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Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Now that I have removed the large shelter, it is clearly visible, that all the larger PSs
contained therein have been well preserved and started re-growing right from where I
sliced them off at an angle last fall.

During the last few winters I had to cut the stems much shorter, since there is a limit at
how hight you can pile the leaves around them and they froze/rotted back from there.
Instead of starting from 6 to 10 inch high stumps, they now start 30 to 32 inches high
That is a lot of plant mass, which will not have to be replaced this season and the
remaining stems are also healthier

Want to preserve more of the stems, - build a higher shelter.

In other words: The shelter will probably protect your PS from frost to any height you
can fit into it, at least in HZ6. My large shelter was 36 inches high, the plug in the lid
was 4 inches deep and I set the whole thing in a little grove at the bottom.

• The E. Maurelii was a low prospect experiment, which did not pan out.
• In the other small shelter appeared to have been problems with a mysterious rot
from inside the stem.
• But the large one clearly worked as it was designed to.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

After seeing that digging up a banana and keeping it overwintered indoors takes it back too far to allow for flowering or producing fruit... Would you say that the increased preservation of stems and root structure with this type of shelter would help a plant to get a better start, and perhaps flower the next year?

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

It definitely would. The plants do not need any time to recover. New growth can
be detected within a couple of days, although the loss of stem height is a setback.

Alternately uprooted plants will have to first adpt to the new location, establish new
roots, then replenish the lost moisture before they can resume growth.

If it is enough to get your plants to bloom in your short season, would probably
depend on how much of the stem you can preserve. I have so far not achieved
bloom here in HZ 6.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Olafhenny,

Did you find the temporary greenhouse structure above effective? How much of a temperature difference was there between the outside and interior?

I like this structure since it can easily be removed at the end of the winter and put away and/or the PVC pipe can double as support for hanging fruit bunches.

Pretty cool. Thanks!

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Quote:

Originally Posted by Olafhenny (Post 218039)

I got tired of collecting loads of leaves each fall and trying to get rid of them in spring. I have
therefore decided to “construct” permanent shelters for my bananas, to be used next winter,
but also for the last few frosty nights this spring. It is entirely made of 1 inch Styrofoam.
The two layers are separated with the help of 3” spacers and the gaps will be filled in fall with
glass fibre batting.

Three 4x8 sheets of the stuff got me two shelters 24 inches high for single pseudo stems and
one 36 inches high for my pad of 4 (plus some pups). I will still have to do some leaf mulching
around the bottom, to keep the cold from intruding at the bottom of the shelter, but I won't
have the mulching piled up to 3 feet high and to worry about settling. The concept behind the
‘truncated pyramid’ design is that the ground, when protected from frost will deliver some warmth
though the wide bottom opening, to keep the then truncated PS passively heated from below
and “cozy”.

This picture shows the basic structure of the single PS unit. No fibre glass stuffing yet,
that will come in the fall and is for the light spring frost unnecessary

madalin stunt cars 2

This photo shows the lid from its underside. The little square, glued in the centre, fits
into the inner housing. The lid extends an inch beyond the outside walls and is grooved to
have rain and melt water drip off rather than travel along the bottom of the lid into the
shelter. I will also devise a washer, either from thin foam or from felt.

This last photo show the finished job before painting. I have reinforced the joints of this
extremely light contraption with high quality duct tape. Four bamboo sticks and some weight
on top will secure it from being blown away and make it easy to take the thing off during
warm spring days and stick it back on, when late frost threatens.

If there is sufficient interest, I can draw up the lay out plans on the 4x8 sheets again, the
ones I have been using are pretty mangled and give detailed “how to” instructions.
But that would be quite a bit of work.

Best,
Olaf

Very nice DIY work! I hope it works out well for you.