What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

For some of you, it may still be too early to tell. Usually if by mid summer nothing's coming out of the ground, then the corm has died underground.

These are the ones that died this year inground on me but that doesn't mean don't have a backup:
Sweetheart

Many survived this year including (only from the plants that I am maintaining in my yard, I still have others but not in my yard):
Dwarf Brazilian (with fruits)
California Gold
Dwarf Orinoco
Rajah Puri
Guatemalan Red
Jamaican Red (probably a sport)
Ultradwarf Saba
Manzano
Mysore
Misi Luki

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Hi Joe,

It seems to me that you don't touch about your overwintering methods, if
they were protected by some material or if they were just left unprotected.

Thanks in advance.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

All of these survived nicely in the ground.

NOID - Very likely to be Orinoco
Musa acuminata sumatrana - 'Zebrina' 'Blood Banana'
Musa Bordelon
Musa Ornata - NOID
Musella lasiocarpa - 'Golden Lotus'
Ensete maurelii - 'Red Abyssinian Banana'

These were grown as seedlings indoors over winter and are hardened off outdoors now.
Musa Balbisiana - 'Gigantea'

Musa Red Iholene in the ground has not come back but I think it will. The corm is very firm and not showing any signs of rot. I moved it to the warm south facing side of the house in better draining soil.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

All of these were in ground, no protection, and all seem to be coming back just fine:

M. velutina
M. mannii
Musa No ID- Gabe said maybe 'Bluggoe'
Musa No ID- " " " 'Orinoco'
M. Super Dw. Cavendish
M. 'Burmese Blue'
M. coccinea
M. acuminata sumatrana 'Zebrina'
Musella lasiocarpa

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

This year has been pretty mild compared to last year, although we have more frosty nights and higher chilling hours this year.

There are no protection at all for the inground bananas. The only protection is their own leaves and their own dried outer sheaths. As has been since the beginning, it is only their leaves that protected them.

Last year when there was arctic blast, I placed floating row cover on top of them, and then wine barrel filled with hot water near the base of the trunk.

This last season, there was none at all.

I remove the leaves and everything non-green or dead portions when the lows were consistently above 38 deg F.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Thanks to Bananaman88, Asacomm and SouthTropical! We hope to keep this list of actual yard performance going so that we can better assess what really will work across different yards too.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

In ground, no protection:

Acuminata Sumatrana
Cal. Gold
Ice Cream
African Rhino Horn
Ele Ele
Coccinea
Ensete Maurelii
Ornata Royal Purple

In ground with protection (blanket):

Ae Ae

Not protected and hasn't shown up yet (but reliably has come back the last 2 years):

Siamensis Thai Gold

Steve

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

In ground wrapped with bubble wrap either ice cream or orinoco, not sure which. I have under the house a corm with two 8 to 9 foot stems that still have green leaves on it. I hope to have them in the ground this weekend or next. Maybe they will fruit for me this year.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

In ground little to no protection. Coldest night 34F. Some what of a mild wet winter.
musa:
ice cream
mysore
praying hands
basjoo
Manzano
zebrina
chessmanii
Helen's Hybrid
Raja puri
goldfinger
Nagensium
Ensete:
ventricosum red and green
superbum
glaucum

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

My climate is pretty much the same as Joe's (USDA 9). Most of my plants spent the winter potted indoors this winter since they were new additions late last year. I didn't have anything outside die. These included:

California Gold
Dwarf Brazilian
Dwarf Orinoco
Lady Finger (the variety)
Raja Puri

Next year I will probably have a couple dozen I will be testing outdoors and I hope we avoid the arctic blast again. Early 2007 was nasty!

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Here in zone 7a Knoxville, TN, with several lows in the upper single digits and two days (nonconsecutive) with highs below freezing:

Survived with Protection (a bag of leaves placed over the pseudostem):

Musa itinerans var. itinerans
Musa 'Helen's Hybrid'
Musa sikkimensis 'Red Tiger'

Survived with no protection (not even any extra mulch):

Musa basjoo
Musella lasiocarpa
Musa itinerans var. itinerans

Too early to tell:

Musa velutina (this will be about the fourth time I've killed it)
Musa yunnanensis - somewhat of a surprise because it came back in mid-March last year (although we saw many 80s last March also). No signs of life yet!
Musa cheesmani - even protected with a bag of leaves over a pseudostem, and the pseudostem was rotten in the middle for the second year in a row. Corm still looks solid, but no growth yet.
Musa 'Orinoco' - Came back last year in April, so we'll see how it did this time.
Musa 'Brazilian' - First test for this one.
Musa 'Ice Cream' - First test for this one as well. No protection for either.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Did you have some stem left on Ice Cream, brazilian and Orinoco?

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

In ground, protected with black lawn n leaf bag, and showing signs of growth

Ice Cream (uncut)
Dw. Orinoco (uncut, pup was cut)
Cardaba (cut back to about 4' tall)
Mysore (had to cut back to 1' tall)
Cheesmanii (cut back to 2' tall)
CA Gold (unprotected)

Cut to the ground and not yet showing signs of life

Lasiocarpa
Manzano
Goldfinger
Valery
Brazilian
Zebrina

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Yes and no...the stem felt solid when I cut into it, but the middle of all of them was quite rotten. But with the temps I experienced here, that is no surprise.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Which one faired the best? When I left the orinoco uncovered here all that was uncovered died back to the ground and our weather wasn't as cold as yours, but still cold.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Well, none of them have come back yet, so it's a tie, lol. When I cut through the pseudostem near the base, in what seemed like solid pseudostem, the Orinocos looked to have the most living tissue. After a day though, all three of them look pretty much the same. None of them look like they will come back from the pseudostem, because they have rotten centers. It still remains to be seen if any of them will sprout back from the corm.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

UPDATE
The Red Iholene is coming back.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

I just noticed the first above-ground sprout of Musa yunnanensis today! It came back a little over half a month later than last year, but winter was colder and March wasn't near as warm as last year. Glad to see it up!

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

My potted Raja Puri died but the corm is still hard and feels like it is alive.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Well, I darn near had a stroke today. My Musa velutina is shooting! Fourth time's the charm, right?

:woohoonaner:

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

congrats bigdog!!!!!!!

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

This year I tried a new type of protection: 30 cm glassfiber-insulation material with a very high R-value.
My conclusion so far is that this basically sucks for protecting bananas in the winter, and I will never use it again. I will stick to the hay & cage method!!

Musa formasana - main stem DIED
Musa Helen - Main stem DIED

Might shoot from the base though.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

So far here in SE TN, with only mulch for protection of the corms, here is a list of what has come back so far...
Musa Basjoo
Musa velutina
Musa Saba (Bigdog was right, rotten in the middle but is showing growth)
Musa ornata
Musella Lasiocarpus
Musa orinoco

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Mulched my Basjoo and wrapped them in a wire cage stuffed with mulch. The pseudo-trunks rotted away, but the corms seem to be intact. next year I think I will dig them

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

My Musa basjoo pups are showing new growth on the stems. The main p-stem from last year is hard but no signs of life. I haven't uncovered the M. velutina yet, still some frosty nights. All had the stems cut about 12 inches above ground. Mulched with about a foot of straw.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Ice Cream and velutina are coming back from corm. No growth on orinoco yet, but corm feels firm.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Basjoo (cage method) Live and well
Lasiocarpa (very little mulch) Live and well.:dancinpup:

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

I uncovered my basjoo this afternoon, Its FINE!!!! It came back!!!
My 1st winter! Iam ecstatic! Its about 22" high!! Whoohooooooooo!

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

My in ground survivors.


Belle
Goldenfinger
RajaPuri
Dwarf Red

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Basjoo. I haven't uncovered mine yet, but plan to this weekend when I get time. It's gotten nice outside this week=customers!
I held the water garden society meeting and dropped a member off at his house. He had uncovered his basjoo and it's firm and solid. One of the pups that was about 2 feet tall last year has some white growth pushing out of it where it was covered. So his 2/2 obviously survived!He was using the plastic trash bag circle method with dry leaves in the center and a plastic tarp tied over the top.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

I had two unknows survive that I need to get idetinfied. I'm not sure at what point one is able to determine the identity of bananas.:2208:

Dean

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Dean,

Good close-ups of flowers helps alot. Also, I think how the petioles attach to the pseudostem and waxiness (or lack of) of the pseudostem are all helpful. Take a few good shots of your bananas (close-ups and full length) and maybe someone here can help you.

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

bananaman88,

Thanks, there only several inches tall right now... so I'm not sure how good a picture would do.

Dean

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Musa Basjoo

Two look dead.... but three are alive and growing in these near 80 degree temperatures we've been having. Great April weather so far!

I think I know why two died. 1) Soil and 2) plant depth. The soil was an experiment. Thought it would help...it didn't. One Musa Basjoo was mistakenly planted below ground level. Part of this past winter my yard turned into a large pond and it must have rotted the corm/roots. Lesson learned! :)

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

My big clump of Musa Basjoo is huge! Saved most of the height from last year. This is a three year old clump.

Here's a picture I took today...



High of 87 degrees today really encouraged it to start pushing out that first leaf!:banana_ba

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

nice basjoo!!!

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Thanks! I think the south facing wall really helps....

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Looking good, Chris. I assume you kept them inside for the winter?

Dean

Re: What inground bananas survived or did not survive this year?
 

Thanks!

Nope. Left the basjoo outside every winter. I protect them just about the same way my grandfather protected his Italian fig trees. Protecting plants that aren't suppose to live here is in my blood I guess. :)