jeffaroo

We recently moved, and I put 7 bananas in the ground this last summer. some were transplants (8 - 15 footers) and some were 1 year old container plants. I wanted to protect them from winter this year. Looking for advice because ive never protected them before. Ive found that winter damage stunts the new spring growth and my Blue Java took over 2 years to pull out of a stunted growth period.

Do I chop the p-stem down to knee high ? or just cut the leaves off ?
what to mulch with ?
Do I fill in the watering moat with dirt before mulching ?

I was also thinking about the foam box thing on the smaller plants

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Keep shoveling on the potash till the ground bleeds

servatusprime

If you live in Florida you might not need to do too much. If there is going to be a big frost you can cut the leaves and wrap up the p-stems. Banaimal has posted on this in another thread and has a few pictures in the gallery. If it's just a lite one hour frost for a day or two you might not need to do much of anything except cut the yellowed leaves after it starts warming up again. I have to do this for my double mahoi and gros Michel.

bananimal

Here is what I did to my naners for frost protection when I used to be classified as Z9b.

Trimmed off a few of the oldest leaves. Fold up the leaves and secure with Velcro tape. Wrap in frost cloth and use binder clips. Important to cover all the way down to the soil level. Works pretty good. Oldest leaves act as insulation for the pstem. Remove cloth covering as soon as frost temps go away.

jeffaroo

Should I chop all the leaves off to reduce wind drag ? We have a nasty storm going on right now

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Keep shoveling on the potash till the ground bleeds

2woodensticks

I am just west of tampa myself..i have never cut or needed to wrap..even wind blown leaves grow..i only cut off brown..my praying hands,blue java,dwarf red and orinocos all do well with out any protection,i get bunches every year..i don't even bring in any of my orchids except for 2 of them ...I have flower out right now on Orinoco,will just take longer to mature..about 5 - 6 months instead of 3-4 months

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got to love em..{neotropical rattlesnake..cascabell}