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Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

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

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

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

You might just re-think the business of opening the box up when you have a warm day, as you just might goose a dormant plant into thinking it's time to start making leaves. It's best to keep plants away from an up-and-down season...just go out yourself and enjoy that nice day...leave the plants alone until the season really changes.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

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

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

What a incredible bit of planning/engineering! (If you do this all winter, what do your plants do for light?)

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjankovsky (Post 218076)

Thank you, JJ, I have done that "up & down" thing with my tropicals and subtropicals for quite
a few years now and the plants have thanked me with getting a head start on the season.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Quote:

Originally Posted by pniksch (Post 218089)

What a incredible bit of planning/engineering! (If you do this all winter, what do your plants do for light?)

Hi Pinksch (?),

the purpose of this contraption is not to keep the bananas growing throughout the winter, but to
keep them from freezing, while they are dormant. It is just a replacement for piling up a lot of
mulch and it is hopefully a lot more effective, because it is even all around, lets warmth in from
the ground below and not subject to settling and displacement as leaf mulch is. Thus no light is
necessary

Best,
Olaf

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Here is the Big one for the whole pad painted and beside the one you have seen below::

And this is the whole famn damily, all dressed up in a coat of paint, ready for a Sunday
afternoon stroll down the promenade.:)

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Now all you need are some nice banana tree graphics on the sides of the covers, so you can enjoy them year 'round! lol:08:
Paul

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Great advice, but I am uniquely untalented when it comes to drawing free hand. The last time
I tried to draw a dog, an observer said: "But cars have round wheels, not sticks." I gave up
joining Rubens and Michealangelo on the list of famous painters right then :)

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

what a great idea. I like that you painted them. did you just use a latex outdoor paint? Id be interested in the layout of the cuts but I think from your pics I can draw it out on paper.

thanks
Mike

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Hi Mike,

this is the second request for more information. I had already one by PM. If I get one more,
I'll draw up the cutting scheme. There are two tricks to this:

1. First is the efficient use of the Styrofoam sheets. One sheet is neither enough
for the big one, nor enough for the two small one. I needed a third sheet to make up the
difference and then I had to paste pieces together for the lids.
2. You need a good sharp cutting knife with a full (long) blade, so you can hold it at a flat
angle for a clean cut. The cuts need to be vertical for good contact between the parts.
If you have that, then the glued joints are stronger then the Styrofoam. I used a four feet
long plastic carpenter’s level to get some vertical guidance as well as for straight lines..

If I get one more request, I will post detailed guidance accompanied by photos next week.
This week I am busier than a one-armed paper hanger.. There is no rush now anyway. You
won’t get it ready for spring protection, because the glue will have to set preferably over night
for the various stages. So it will take longer to assemble as any need for frost protection

Good luck,
Olaf

PS: I actually used some left over solid stain for outdoors, mixed with some acrylic paint to cheer up the colour a bit :)

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

thanks for the tips Olaf. I wont need something like this until this fall anyways so no rush for me to make them.

great job!

Mike

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

List of tools:
1. Cutting schematic for two single pseudo stem shelters and one pad shelter (works out well on three sheets of Styrofoam)
2. Three 4 x 8’ sheets of 1” Styrofoam
3. One cutting knife with complete blade
4. One roll of masking tape
5. One bullet point felt marker
6. One roll of prime grade Duct Tape (not the inferior Duck Tape or such)
7. One 4 feet long cutting guide, preferably a carpenter’s level
8. One large right angle guide
9. One tape measure
10. One large card board cutting base ( may be a cut open and flattened box)
11. Weldbond glue, at least 12 Fl oz. (~340 ml)

Optional:
• .Paint
• A coupling for white PVC irrigation pipe, 1½ or 2 inches diameter.

Cutting the parts:

A good base of corrugated cardboard will last you through the whole job. Mark the Styrofoam
sheets as shown in the schematic:

.

When cutting it is important to hold the cutting knife vertical and flat in the direction of the cut, to
ensure it to be clean and smooth. If the cuts are not reasonably vertical you will not get good
contacts when you assemble the parts later. A carpenter’s level is thick and will thus also provide you
with some vertical guidance for the cut, which a simple flat straight edge will not. The parts on the
schematic are labelled OP for outer panel and IP for inner panel. KFL stands for "keep for lid".

Assembling the shelters:

When you stick two panels together, place one flat on the floor, attach masking tape strips
underneath and then apply a generous bead of glue along the edge. As shown in this picture:

It helps to get the proper right angle, because SF is rather rigid stuff and not easy to correct later
I did that by brazing the panels in the inside with a rectangular ruler and then span masking tape
across to hold it in place as shown here:

While that glue is setting, you may want to stick the other two panels together. With the
second two panel set it is important, that you make sure, that the flat panel to edge sequence
can follow continuously in the same direction, not as shown in this photo:

The panel at the bottom of this photo should have butted with its edge to the flat of the right
panel. I was lucky to make that error with the first shelter, thus I was able to stick those for
second one together in a manner to achieve the proper sequence for both :)

Once you have both, the inside and the outside shell assembled and the glue has properly set, you
will want to glue in the 3” spacers. You do not want to make them too high, so they won’t get in the
way when stuffing in the glass fibre insulation later. I made mine a bit less that 3” high (7 cm). Use
the smallest leftovers, which will suffice, since you will need the larger ones for the lid.

This photo only shows the top spacers, you want to stick others in the bottom the same way.
I.e., you want 8 ea. 3” x 2½ ” spacers for each shelter

If you make the same number of shelters from 3 sheets as I did, you will have to glue some of
the larger pieces together for the lid as shown here:

Gluing the foam edge to edge is not a problem, because it will break before the glue will come apart.
I have cut the lid two inches larger than the outside of the top of the shelter walls to achieve a
1 inch overhang. Cut a square for each of the shelters to fit into the inner walls, 5“ square for the
single stem ones and 12 inches square for the whole pad shelter and glue them to the centre of the
lids, as shown here:

Grooving the bottom of the lid with a triangular file about ¼ inch from the edge as you may be able
to see here, will prevent any water from traveling along the bottom into the shelter.

The photo below shows the use of Duct Tape to reinforce the joints and top and bottom edges,
as well as the positioning of the shelter “in the field”, held in place by 4 bamboo poles and
weighed down with a rock, so it cannot blow away, That allows for easy repeated removal and
replacement in spring according to weather conditions:

Optionals

Here is the whole group all decked out in a brand new paint job, which is actually not required,
as Styrofoam is as weather resistant as any paint, but the latter looks better.

The other optional is actually just a tip. I am using couplings for PVC irrigation pipe to keep
the glue flowing toward the ‘exit’. To stick the bottle upside down into one after each use saves a
lot of time and aggravation :) Ah yes, because I do not always (want to) close the top, it
sometimes drips. Over the years the paper toweling I placed below as drip catcher has formed with
the glue a solid bottom. :ha:

I use the same method with a few couplings in the fridge for ketchup and salad dressing etc.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Great thread Olaf.

I don't know if this would work as well, but if someone wanted to make it using one sheet, they can divide a sheet into three 32 x 48 inch pieces. Make a diagonal cut in one of the pieces and then make one cut in each of those two pieces to form 2 isosceles triangles that have a pair of 48 inch sides, for a total of 5 cuts.

For extra strength it could be glued to a sheet of plywood and maybe hinges could be added to the top so it can be folded flat for storage.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Sorry, K J, I do not quite grasp, what you mean. Are you suggesting a pyramid with a triangular base?
I that case you would have problems with contact at the joints, as two pieces would not match at
the same plane, but I am really at a loss at visualizing your concept. Would the plywood sheet be at
the bottom? In that case it would cut off the warming effect of the ground below. Also a door
would be unnecessary, as in winter it would only let cold air in and in warm weather the whole
structure, weighing only a couple of pounds can easily be lifted off.

But I am just tapping in the dark, because I do not understand your proposed configuration. :(

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

The 2 large pieces would be the roof and the 2 isosceles triangles the gable.
I would glue the styrofoam to the plywood and cut them both together.
#2 or #3 plywood shouldn't be too heavy.
Sorry, but I don't understand the part about a door.

6. One roll of prime grade Duct Tape (not the inferior Duck Tape or such)

Gorilla Tape works great.
Gorilla Glue - Home

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

Well,,,as they say in the south,,,well I'll just be dogged gone. Like that idea you have,,great job.

Re: Permanent banana shelter for winter and spring

What is the point? just asking.

I mean a contractor/construction bag would do the same or even garbage can sounds about the same.