Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Hi there

I live in PA and was curious to know when everyone's overwintered/dormant basjoo corms start to grow this spring.

If you leave your basjoos outside over the winter, please let me know when and also what your location is. Thanks!

I have one basjoo corm that seems to have survived outdoors without rotting away! It hasn't started to grow yet - although we only had 3 or so 65+ days here.

Erik G
near Philly

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I am planning on uncovering this weekend, tho the ground is still pretty cold.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Mine came up middle to late May. I live in central Jersey.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I think mid or late May in West Chester. I assumed that I had lost it and put in a new one, but the old one caught up.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I stuck my finger down the hole and still a little mushy:ha:
In my area zone 6 they start popping mid/late April and are still coming up 5 weeks later. You can almost time them with Daffodils.

What I have noticed is the pups/offshoots come up first and then followed by the main stem but that is not always the case.
When I took this series of photos last year some of the plants were at 5 feet yet others were like photo shown....go figure.
.spring growth by Hostafarian, on Flickr

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I'm just north of Atlanta.

Had pups up two weeks ago, a frost knocked them down. They are back and are currently about 7-8" tall.

It was in the mid 80's here yesterday.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Thanks everyone! I guess I know what to expect for this year.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I live in indiana haven't uncovered mine yet but really curious if they will come back as last year was my first year growing them. Will be uncovering them soon and will let you know how they turn out

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Well I uncovered mine yesterday and I am happy to say I think everything looks
Great. Looks exactly like the day I cut them down. Doesn't appear to be any rot and all the pups that were pushing out when I covered them up are still nice and green. I will update you on when they start pushing out growth.
I'm so happy they made it as this was my first year at overwintering them. :08::08::08::nanadrink:

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Congratulations! Amazing that you had pups stay green over the winter. I assumed they would just brown out with freezing temperatures. You must have a good winterization scheme!

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Here is a picture of one of the little pups. This is couple mins after I uncovered so it looks brown and wet it just from the mulch and such. I pushed on all the stumps from the big ones I cut down and the are all nice and hard we will see if everything stays that way it's still only between 66 and 70 during the day and around 45 to 50 at night.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Ugh...

Solid corm, no rot, and has been in the ground for 11 days. Has been watered and rained upon several times, soil temps in the 40's-50's, several days of full sun, and air temp has been 60-70's degrees every day.

Still no activity, no push, no green.

I'm about ready to dig up and check for soft spots or something.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Mine hasn't started growing either but it looks like everything survived. Maybe they just need some more time to wake up I will post when mine starts pushing out new growth.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Since we're sharing pics....

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I uncovered my patch last week. I tried to save some P-stem, from 2-5 feet, I appears I was able to save about half of that height, not bad considering I saw -24 F and had an average Feb. temp of 8 F.

Just one week into it's spring season there is much elongation and some true leaves are already unfurling. Any one who doubts basjoo's ability to withstand a zone 4-5 winter should re-examine their skepticism.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Mine is waking up. Temps this week are going to drop at night so I have to keep a eye on the weather and make sure the don't get hit with frost. One guy down the road didn't cut his down as far left maybe a foot on each looks like his is pushing up their first leaves. He has been growing them for couple years now.

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

I saw first signs of life about 3 weeks ago but now everything is pushing something up. I know it's milder here than for a lot of you folks but we still had a nasty winter, low single digits a couple of times and I didn't mulch or anything.
Of course the ones in the ground are basjoo.
Here's a pic from today, the 2 in the background are ensete glaucoms that overwintered in the basement

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Usually I start looking for my bananas poking their tops out of the mulch in March, but I got lucky this year and most of my bananas never even froze back, they just lost their leaves. I don't protect them over the winter either, I just let the dead leaves insulate the pseudostems until March. I bet most people didn't expect conditions like that in a state adjacent to Canada. I'm expecting quite a few banana flowers this year!

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Mine started to show in early April. Now they stand 24"-30" high. I'm in NC just outside of Asheville. Looking forward to seeing the plants grow big I hope if the winds leave them alone!!

Red

Re: Outside Basjoo - when did your corms start growing this year?
 

Okay, we're coming up on a month in the ground and not even a twinge of a push from the middle.

I'm beginning to give up hope...