Overwintering
 

Due to the cold climate here, I keep almost all my bananas in pots. In the winter they are inside in front of some windows, with no extra lighting. I try to keep the soil on the dryer side, but there is variation between more wet (the day I water) and sometimes fairly dry. Temperature is generally in the mid- to upper 60s inside.

The problem is that I still lose a substantial number of plants each winter- and because they seem to die slowly, I've been unable to determine whether it is too much or too little water, or light related.

For those of you that are more successful with overwintering, what would you consider the tolerance levels on wet/dry, light, and temperature?

Re: Overwintering
 

Could be your soil choice and lighting and watering. Humidity in your house. Just some ideas .

Re: Overwintering
 

Best advice I can offer is to maximize light, don't fertilize (minimal if at all) and water sparingly (let them get very dry before watering each time). Also, try to bump humidity with a humidifier and keep the temp as warm as you can afford/tolerate (or maybe invest in some heater pads for under the pots). I also tend to have issues with spider mites every winter which gets very annoying....so watch for evidence of this (or other pests) frequently. Frequent misting can help with pests as does keeping humidity up.

And with all said and done.....I've found that certain varieties don't take kindly to the transition to indoors. Certain types have certain requirements that are difficult to meet to keep them happy (ex: siam ruby likes a lot of heat). I have a few plants that I have had for several winters that tend to stop growing and die back to pups no matter what I do. I tend to use this experience to guide me to grow things that do well for me and avoid those that tend to fare poorly during winter.

Re: Overwintering
 

Soil mixture, temp and light. The soil mix I have I can over water since it drains so well. Temps 50-70 for established plants in pots, I have plants w/ west facing window & east. It took almost 2 months for pups to get established but its all good. :^)

Re: Overwintering
 

water..make sure they are dry all the way to the bottem of the pot..a cheap moister probe from home depot will help..it does help me..seems dry on top but down at the bottem around the roots still might be holding to much moister..

Re: Overwintering
 

For me, I find that if the temps are in the 60's, I should rarely water them and pretty much only once ever give them any form of fertilizer, but, they still are very light-hungry. I have the window, but also, as it does rain a LOT here - have a supplementary light or two. I try and keep the temp from 68-76, keeps them growing and happy. Also allows me to water them more often without any problems so far. And yeah, as said, make sure you add a LOT of water when watering them. Make sure it's quite moist all the way down.

Re: Overwintering
 

For what it is worth...I'm up here in upstate NY. Very, very little sun from Nov-March and long lasting winters. I have SDC and Sikkimensis that I pot up every year in October, and then stick back out in the garden in early May. I've had poor luck overwintering to this point and normally have significant dieback by the time spring comes. This year I decided to use only pea gravel in Lieu of sand or potting soil. I filled the pots with pea gravel and only put a thin layer of bark mulch on top. Other than that I am treating them like all my other house plants...which is to say I'm not doing anything special. It is still early...very early...but I have to say that to this point my plants have NEVER looked healthier. Even the ones that are potted up in the basement with little light and very cool temps are doing well. These are plants that I am trying to force into dormancy but I'm still getting new growth. I normally never try and fertilize but I may try on some plants this year. Long ways to go but I am cautiously optimistic. We shall see.

Re: Overwintering
 

I have one pup that is trying to try me but its still solid.. Go figure its a D. Orinoco.. :^)

Re: Overwintering
 

Dmas?

Do you leave them in pea gravel during the summer as well, or do you re-pot them into soil?

I have never gotten a banana plant to QUITE make it to summer here in Kansas, though I have gotten close!

Re: Overwintering
 

Coldest we got here this year was 30 if even that low. I m not sure what my one banana is but next to the mother a 3" pup is green and happy. So the 30 degree temps we had a few times Didnt hurt it. But the 30 degree temp fried Orinoco leaves,Saba which were all huge. So no idea how this little pup has done fine.

Re: Overwintering
 

Terri,
I remove them from the pots and plant them out in the Garden in regular composted soil in May. This is the first year I've tried the pea gravel over the winter. They are still looking pretty good but growth has slowed way down. We shall see how they look come spring. Biggest issue with the gravel is the weight. I may try all perlite next year in some.

dave

Re: Overwintering
 

I will try something similar.

I have been too busy these last few years to mess with indoor bananas: I thought this fall I would dig up pups from my hardy banana (Basjoo? it looks like it), to winter over, and after it warms up a little I can order a mini banana as well.

Right now it is too cold for a banana to be left on my doorstep. So, everything will have to wait for a bit!

Re: Overwintering
 

I am keeping mine in pots in my sunroom that I keep at 55 degrees, use to be 65 degrees until the first heating bill came and my wife saw it. The bananas were growing when it was 65 degrees but now they have stopped but they still look great. I have a fake ice cream that touched the 10 foot ceiling in the sunroom. Everything is green and I have let them dry out before the next watering and they seem to be doing fine now.

Re: Overwintering
 

Too cold for outside here at the moment,

I am growing an Ensete ventricosum 'Maurelii, its doing well. I only water when its dry and don't need to feed it yet as the brand new compost is good till spring for feeding.

Re: Overwintering
 

I gave mine a good watering before I brought it in the house than I removed all the leaves and cut the top off and stuck it in a dark closet with temperature of 55 F and I never watered it yet and it looks really good still. oh I see it grew about 3 inches from the center :)