Island Brah

All ready for winter

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)

Mark Dragt

Fully adjustable lighting. Very cool!

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Mark's Banana Forest Paradise

campngolf

Looks a little like a mad scientist's room to me. And I mean that in a good way.

Jose263

Its an addiction folks
Nice set up - where did you get the lights?

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Growing: Orinoco, Rajapuri, Dwarf Cav, SDC, TT, Dwarf Red, Dwarf Namwah, Tall Namwah (aka Ice Cream), Dwarf Brazilian, Veinte Cohol, California Gold, Double Mohai, NOT-Goldfinger, Gran Nain, Velutina

cincinnana

[quote=Island Brah;299386]All ready for winter


Looking good..

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HMelendez

Good job Island Brah!.....

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Island Brah

Thanks. It was the most flexible and inexpensive system I could come up with. You can get the lights anywhere (walmart, lowes, etc]. They're Balco 10.5" brooder lights. I got the brooder lights because they're made more heavy duty than the regular "work" lights.

I've been pretty impressed with each plant popping a new leaf about every week since I had them under this system. Better than I thought.

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)

Island Brah

Welp, my naners made it through winter hibernating in the basement for a jump start this year. The setup worked perfectly and they all seem happy. I'll be tilling up a few new sections in the yard for veggies and bananas tonight so they'll be in the ground soon!

Thanks for all the help Ty!

Basjoo




Tall Namwah




Tall Orinoco




Manzano



Veinte Cohol




Goldfinger

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)

Tytaylor77

Your very welcome!

Your plants don't have a spot or blemish on them! For first day coming out of the basement pictures that is the best I have seen! Most plants look horrible after all winter indoors. Get those in the ground and they will go nuts!

Awesome job with the winter setup. They have grown a lot over winter! Best out of the basement pictures ever!

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150+ Varieties!!. See profile for list. Help me add more!

www.bananapups.com

cincinnana

Sweet.....awesome results. Plants when small are easy to manage under lights.
Those plants look nice.

Cool facts to ponder in the fall...your plants will have a 5x+ footprint this fall in your basement .
Currently you did a 75 sq. grow footprint..5x plus this fall.
Your plants will have fantastic growth this summer

Plan ahead...shorten the chains and raise the roof

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Island Brah

Thanks! I finally got them into the ground around the border of my decent sized veggie garden. They look awesome! The root balls were perfect and exactly the shape of the pot when I de-potted them. They should experience zero shock which I'm thrilled about. I'll post pics after the rain and work.

As of now, the loose plan is to cut the leaves off of any banana that doesn't flower by this fall and keep them dormant in the basement with some soil in a burlap bag leaning at an angle. My buddy has Tall Orinocos and he does this every year. They come out of his basement in the spring and already like 8-10 feet tall from the previous year's growth. He gets bananas every year on many Tall Orinocos doing this in my zone (7b / 8a border). I wonder if they would actually survive our winter here in the ground but don't have enough Tall Orinocos YET to experiment.

I'm not sure how my other banana varieties will do with this method, but I'll find out. I'm expecting a few pups from each type in case they don't go well with this method. So at least I'll have backups I will throw into some 5 gallon pots and back under the 6500K CFL light setup (cheap, fully adjustable/movable, and works great). I can sell/trade them if I have too many.

These were all corms and they got this big so If they're nice size pups going into the winter under the lights, I'm assuming they would have enough time to mature enough for them to fruit the following spring/summer. I'm really hoping my Veinte Cohol will have enough time to fruit this year. If so, I will invest in more of that variety and have the summer/winter endless cycle of them every year with the short fruiting times.

What do you all think? I'm still somewhat of a novice and enjoy the opinions/experience of all you naner-heads!

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)

eharriett

Question: I'm looking at doing something like that in my garage this winter as the higher ceiling will work better for a growing banana. My problem is heat. Do you do anything besides the light to heat your banana in the winter? We're usually below freezing here in Ohio and keeping my plant warm will be my biggest challenge in the garage.

Island Brah

The CFL lights produces very little heat and wouldn't produce enough heat to overcome freezing temps.

How long does it stay below freezing in your garage? I used a cheap old heater when it got really cold outside but I could tell the bananas did not like the heater. I think it dried them out/removed all the humidity.

If it gets below freezing in your garage, you're going to have to spend a lot of money to keep them warm or not keep them in there at all.

How tall are the bananas going to be when you put them inside for the winter? If you have another room, how tall are the ceilings? They grow very slow in the winter so you may not need as much ceiling height as you think.

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Growing: Basjoo, Blue Java (The Real One), FHIA-01 American Goldfinger, Manzano, Tall Orinoco, Raja Puri (USDA TARS), Veinte Cohol (USDA TARS), Patupi, & SH-3640 High Noon (USDA TARS)