Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Hi everyone,

Just wanted to share a small success story! We will have warm daytime temps for the next 2+ weeks and no night time freezing so I unwrapped my musa basjoos to see how they survived.

To overwinter them, I used some attic insulation R30 with a bit of straw around the plant's stem to keep the round shape. I covered this 'mess' with a few trash bags. I did have foam insulation around the base but didn't have the heart to chop the stalks down that low.

Looks like it all survived, I was shocked at how much stem was saved considering there was no heat source and we had several cold and windy days when the temperature didn't get above 24F.

Hope everyone else has similar success!

Erik G in Pennsylvania

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Congrats!........looking very good!.....they will re-grow in no time (very quick)!....

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

How big did your musa basjoo get in one season? How long have you had that plant ? I just got 4 baby ones from amazon and i was curious how big i could get them in one growing season. I like the idea of using insulation - makes sense.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Thanks HMelendez!

Eric, my plants were about 1 foot at the start of the year and grew to a pstem of about 5'. The plant was about 8' tall when the leaves were pointed upwards....

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

WOW, that's awesome
even if you still get a cold snap it should only get the top of the leaves
did that foam around the base not have a cover?

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

It did have a cover with a big hole in it to allow the pstem with insulation wrap to pass through.....

It seems like it was perhaps 'overkill' since we had a mild winter, but was good insurance!

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

here's an ensete I just dragged out of the livingroom
it would never make it outside in the ground but I'm wondering if it could covered in a foam box like that.
this is it's 3rd year and it's getting pretty big to haul in and out

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Wow so they grew like 4-7 feet just in one growing season? Did you feed it a lot of fertilizer and was it in full sun? Just curious.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

My plants get full sun in summer but will get some shade from a tree early and late in the season. So on hot summer days, the plants look really 'beat' from too much sun actually...

I used some fish emulsion or banana fertilizer maybe once a week when it was growing fast. My soil is full of clay and rocks, but somehow these things grow great!

Erik

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Looking good! I just checked mine, and one of the ones I put in a cage with sawdust has about three inches of growth that it didn't have yesterday!

I also stuck my potted basjoos out yesterday, as we're getting temps close to 80F here now. :08:

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Climate change has consequences!

Maybe not all of them are bad?

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

It's not the climate that's changing; it's our location. We have shifted 15 degrees to the west, and 500 miles south, since 1940. This is why things feel warmer, why the sun is now shining in what used to be north facing windows. My property lines are all screwed up at my cabin (all off 15 degrees), and I have confirmed this with a surveyor, who also - interestingly - told me that our elevation has risen by 2" since 1929.

If you've lived in a location for thirty years or more, you should have noticed the same thing. North has shifted 7 degrees to the east in just the last thirty years. This is not magnetic north; this is physical north, which is why the sun now sets in formally northern windows.

When I first noticed this, after having checked old maps as well as my plot plan, I looked online and I have discovered that people all over the northern hemisphere are reporting the same thing. This also explains why one side of Antarctica is melting, while the other side is freezing over.

Think I'm crazy? Check it out for yourselves. Go back to your old homestead where you have a photo of a sunrise or sunset on a given date from more than twenty years ago. You'll see it's now in a different location. I checked a photo of the sun rising next door in June of 1896. Last year, the sun rose 7 degrees to the south of that location. In my neighborhood, the streets were laid out in north/south and east/west grids back in the late '50's. Guess what? They are all now off by 12 degrees.

I'd love to hear what some of you find in your locations once you check out old data vs. new.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

we shifted 15 degrees west last weekend when daylight savings time began
I'm not sure about the 500 miles south thing
you sure them's bananas your growin?
not makin muffins out of em are ya :bananas_b

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

I just uncovered mine... this is the first winter with a basjoo in the ground here in Denver. I had left about 3' on the main stem. Sprayed it down with anti-fungal spray and let it dry before wrapping it in two layers of bubble wrap, then mulched about 2' around the bottom with leaves and grass clippings, and covered the entire thing in plastic.

It was mostly mush (as were a couple smaller stems), so I cut it down to about 4". It's rather firm where I cut it, and maybe 4-5" in diameter. So now I wait to see if anything emerges.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

HI ,

Looks like you have some good base material left and hopefully it will grow back soon!!

Did your bubble wrap go tight against the stem of the plant? I wonder if it trapped in moisture.

What I noticed was when I hybernated my basjoo, the base of the cut leaves continued to 'weep' water for a long time after I removed the leaves. Because of this, I only loosely stuffed dry leaves/straw against the banana stem. I didn't apply any anti fungal spray - although I did remove a little bit of mushy outer stem material in spring.

I had a plastic cover (trash bags) to keep water/wind out but I used it only as my outermost layer.

Regards

Erik G

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

I would think that placing plastic directly against the p-stem would trap moisture and promote rot. Some sort of wicking material (I used sawdust and slash), and then waterproofing from the elements might be the best of both worlds.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Uncovered mine in ohio a couple weeks ago. The center corm has no growth at all on all 4 plants. It is hard as a rock. Wondering if this is normal? Have about 6 pups coming up from each one though.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Not trying to hijack here but I got a new basjoo pup about 10" tall. Should I grow it out in a pot before planting outside? I'm going to wait till may 3rd or later to plant either way to make sure it's frost free here in Montreal.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Hard is good. Mushy is bad. Be patient.

Re: Uncovered my basjoos in Pennsylvania!
 

Hi Chris-

I kept my first ones in pots until I was certain frost had passed. I watered and fertilized just as though they were in the ground, so when they did go in, they were already ahead.