Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

I'm sort of new to this whole process after buying a dwarf Cavendish last year. I got a small plant (4") that grew to shoulder height before winter hit. I have to admit I was a little confused by the eBay picture that showed a 4' plant, so I was kind of expecting one of those to come in the mail and not the tiny little plants I got. We got a mild hurricane in October and frost in November and the leaves were shredded and turned brown. I cut them off after they turned brown and left them at the base of the plant. Around that time, I raked up all my maple leaves and piled them around the banana plants and put some spoiled hay around to about three feet, you can see here:


So, they've been like that since late November, left out in the wet winter we've been having with no real attention given to them. I went and poked my finger into the tops since we're almost out of the cold danger and it was all mushy. My questions are:
When should I remove the hay? After the final frost date? How much should I cut back the pseudostem?

Is there any hope for the original pseudostem? Or do I just hope that the corm sends up a new one?

Also, I have been searching for a while on this forum and online for a good description of a "maidenhead sucker" and I don't get much. I believe I understand the difference between a "sword" and a "water" sucker, but this one confuses me.

Thanks in advance!

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Were do you live and how cold did it get

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Sorry didn't see your profile till now . I am in nj zone 7 that variety is not cold hardy at all . I have several of them .and they all get brought in before the first frost .
I do have some banana plants like the cala. Gold that your set up may work for but don't no yet my first year trying.if I am corect I would see how far down its soft to and cut it off inches below that than cover it in deep mulch maby you will get lucky . Good luck sr

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Thanks. Now that I am looking around a bit more, I see that some USDA maps/zone finders have me in 7b and others have me in 8b. I can't say that I understand this phenomenon, but there you go.

In my town, I think that the coldest I have seen it is in the mid 20s and that was an extreme, so maybe the 8 fits a bit better. Whatever the case, I'll be digging them up in the future. I thought that I would leave them in, thinking that I would be less likely to stress them that way than if I dug them up and disturbed the roots. Lesson learned.

Thanks for the tip, I'll cut a few inches at a time until I get to firm tissue.

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Ya I am in central east nj .some say 7a some say 7 some say 6 . I just try and use the force lol.
There are not many nanners that can handle 20 f that will fruit .
The California gold. Says it can handle that but with some pretection .I read and experiment a lot in nj I 10 difrent variety of nanners .... All types of citrus and papia. They all come in. If you are looking to fruit bananas. They will need 8 to 10 mouths in the 70 f range light food and water. I am older now my kids are grown and on there own .so my hole house is a green house. ( makes my wife sooooo happy)this is my 2nd year trying to fruit bananas in the north .and learn somthing new every day. If you just want the look .the bassuto (didn't spell that rt) will handle 0 temp. There's a lot of info on banana care out there happy growing

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Chester Copperpot,

A maidenhead sucker is just a large non-fruiting pseudostem. Some people may want to further classsify it as the next sucker that should fruit after the "current" largest/expected to fruit pseudostem in the mat. I hope that provides enough clarification, for you.

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Does this mean essentially that it's just an over-large pup and I should leave it attached to be the fruiting stem next time?

In other words, at the 3" level, there are only sword and water suckers and a maidenhead is just one that has grown to be very large? I'm sorry that I am slow in getting this, I just want to make sure I get things right.

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Thanks for the replies. I bought a cheap greenhouse to start plants for my garden and put it over one of the plants. It's been getting up to the 90s in the greenhouse during the day and now the leaves are starting to emerge from the cut-down tops. They're white, but it's growth so I'll take it!

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Sorry, I'm so late in responding to you. Yes, a maindenhead is an over-large pup. I would not remove a pup that is over 3ft. It probably would not hurt the mama/fruiting stem plant, is just that they are awfully heavy and awkward to move when they are over that size. If your fruiting stem is in the process of fruiting or close to fruiting, I definately would wait to remove pups, in order to insure the plant provides most of its energy into fruiting rather than repairing the corm that you had to cut into; in order to remove pup(s).

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

sounds like your overwintering worked then...good for you!

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

maidenhead sucker is just a large non-fruiting pseudostem

Never heard of this before



Maindenhead town centre | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Re: Cavendish 7b, potential overwintering mistake.
 

Why is that so? I know many ppl much northen than Maidenhead with fruiting nanas.