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Protecting Cold Hardy Bananas Over Winter.
Protecting cold hardy
bananas over winter allows them to develop and maintain a stem.
Ultimately this can lead to the production of flowers and
fruit. For this task you will need:
1. Chicken wire
2. Straw
3. Horticultural fleece.
4.Clothes pegs.
5. Decorative covering (optional but highly recommended.)
As the onset of winter approaches you will need to keep an eye on the weather forecasts. You will need to have your bananas wrapped before the first frosts. Very minor and brief frosts can be handled but it is a risky game with high stakes. It is a good idea to have all the necessary equipment on your premises. In the unlikely event that the weather forecasters get it wrong and you have only a few hours left for protecting your cold hardy bananas, you will at least not have to worry about finding all the stuff.
1. select your plant.
Frost singed Musa sikkimensis
1. Chicken wire
2. Straw
3. Horticultural fleece.
4.Clothes pegs.
5. Decorative covering (optional but highly recommended.)
As the onset of winter approaches you will need to keep an eye on the weather forecasts. You will need to have your bananas wrapped before the first frosts. Very minor and brief frosts can be handled but it is a risky game with high stakes. It is a good idea to have all the necessary equipment on your premises. In the unlikely event that the weather forecasters get it wrong and you have only a few hours left for protecting your cold hardy bananas, you will at least not have to worry about finding all the stuff.
1. select your plant.
Frost singed Musa sikkimensis
In the case above, an
eye clearly was not kept peeled for the weather forecast. The
plant sustained minor frost burns which made removing the
remaining leaves less emotional.
2. Remove the leaves.
Leafless stems of Musa Sikkimensis
2. Remove the leaves.
Leafless stems of Musa Sikkimensis
3. Make chicken wire
frames to surround the trunks. Mulch the roots with
manure. Soil borne beasties will pull the goodness
into the soil, ready to feed your emerging plant in the spring.
Wire frames awaiting straw
Wire frames awaiting straw
4. Pack straw around
the trunks.
Straw filled frames
Straw filled frames
5. Add a second
chicken wire frame and pack these with straw. Continue
upwards until all the stems are covered.
Nearly there
Nearly there
Forming a frame
around each individual stem is less straw intensive. The
frames can be placed accurately over the stems. Straw can
then be packed uniformly around each stem.
If a single frame is made around all the stems there tends to be a huge amount of straw in the middle insulating nothing more than the odd rodent. The outside of the frame also has relatively little straw.
6. Place straw filled plastic pots over the last sticking out bits.
Straw filled frames surrounding musa stems
If a single frame is made around all the stems there tends to be a huge amount of straw in the middle insulating nothing more than the odd rodent. The outside of the frame also has relatively little straw.
6. Place straw filled plastic pots over the last sticking out bits.
Straw filled frames surrounding musa stems
7. Wrap the whole
thing with horticultural fleece. You may find clothes pegs
useful for securing the fleece first to the chicken wire and then to
itself.
Fleece wrapped banana
Fleece wrapped banana
Now although
technically this is a thing of beauty, visually it falls a little short
of the mark.
If it is in your line of vision all winter you may wish to
consider wrapping the whole thing with thatch screen or the like.
They are not all that expensive and may help to win over any
family member who declares that they do not wish to stare at that all
winter.
8. Pretty it up.
Banana plant ready for winter
8. Pretty it up.
Banana plant ready for winter
9. Wait until spring.
10. Uncover your cold hardy bananas. (With baited breath.)
Overwintered banana showing signs of life
10. Uncover your cold hardy bananas. (With baited breath.)
Overwintered banana showing signs of life
11. Slide off the
chicken wire frames. They should come away full of straw.
If you can, coincide this day with mowing the lawn.
You will then be ale to mix the straw with lawn clippings in
your compost heap. This helps the breakdown of both
components. Store the chicken wire frames for next year.
Newly unwrapped banana stems
Newly unwrapped banana stems
12. That is about it
really. Occasionally the emerging leaves have a spot of
bother pushing out of the stems due to old, rolled and stuck together
brown leaves. Just remove the top couple of inches (5cms)
cleanly
and the new leaves will, almost in front of your eyes, begin to grow.
The shot below was taken 21 hours after the stem had been trimmed.
Instant growth of a trimmed banana stem
The shot below was taken 21 hours after the stem had been trimmed.
Instant growth of a trimmed banana stem
If you have
a
multi-stemmed banana colony, the stems will often be
equal in height. This causes some congestion as all the
leaves are pushing and shoving each other out of the way. One
option is to stagger the stem heights. The bananas are very
clever and immediately produce new leaves in proportion to the new
stems. The result is different height stems with different
sized leaves, a sort of banana bush.
Varying the stem heights of Musa Sikkimensis
Varying the stem heights of Musa Sikkimensis
In this example the
second stem
from the left is actually the original stem. Cut down low, it
is
no longer jostling for space with the other stems.
The banana featured in 'protecting your cold hardy banana' was a seed raised musa sikkimensis. Musa basjoo will also survive with similar treatment.
The banana featured in 'protecting your cold hardy banana' was a seed raised musa sikkimensis. Musa basjoo will also survive with similar treatment.