Hi,

Today i have dig my banana species up, only the basjoo stay in the ground. I have do this right now because i have vacantion en i think over some weeks, the winter starting i don't have enough time to do that. De weather is great, so the stay out in a container, en when they say it's gonna be cold i move the inside

Ensete ...

Robbin- I dug my bananas on Saturday as well. They look good. I hope they winter well for you. Mine are potted and in my room so I can keep them growing a bit( slowly) rather than total dormancy this winter. The ones I dug were Saba and Raja Puri. If you aren't already over on www.bananas.org forums, please join us. It is a great forum.

Zac

Nice Stuff Robbin.... I second Zac.... Bananas.org is a great site - ALOT of very knowledeable people there..... I dug up my huge cavendish, but it's still outside and growing - go figure... It's in a pot so It was pretty easy to dig out.. I still haven't decided whether to keep it growing indoors slowly or to lay it down sideways in my garage and let it go dormant - I'm a little afraid of that even though I know people do it all the time - although I may have no choice as it's 15ft tall.

I'm quite surprised my sikkimensis is still growing, although it has been generally quite mild.  Due to the size of pot it is in, I will probably cut it back and mulch heavily, although I may get away with it where it is, because it is very well protected by the house.  Decisions, decisions...

I'm quite surprised my sikkimensis is still growing, although it has been generally quite mild.  Due to the size of pot it is in, I will probably cut it back and mulch heavily, although I may get away with it where it is, because it is very well protected by the house.  Decisions, decisions...

Corey,

that Sikkimensis must be pretty hardy... probably similar to Musa Basjoo I imagine... When you mulch heavily and protect it, do you also cut down the Psuedostem or leave it at the same height?

i havent dug any of mine yet, we have had a lot of rain and it was 88 deg today, they are still growing like it was summer. this one at the lake is starting to fruit.

still growing full speed in dallas

(Zac in NC @ Oct. 16 2006,18:50)

QUOTE

Robbin- I dug my bananas on Saturday as well. They look good. I hope they winter well for you. Mine are potted and in my room so I can keep them growing a bit( slowly) rather than total dormancy this winter. The ones I dug were Saba and Raja Puri. If you aren't already over on www.bananas.org forums, please join us. It is a great forum.

Zac

Zac,

Thanx for the link, i will check that forum. Do you know the lowest tempeture that can resist a rajapuri ? I have also this species but mine is in a container for the hole year.

Do you also got my pm ?

Robbin

(BobbyinNY @ Oct. 17 2006,09:15)

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Nice Stuff Robbin....

Thanx Bobby ...

(Neofolis @ Oct. 17 2006,10:03)

QUOTE

I'm quite surprised my sikkimensis is still growing, although it has been generally quite mild.  Due to the size of pot it is in, I will probably cut it back and mulch heavily, although I may get away with it where it is, because it is very well protected by the house.  Decisions, decisions...

Neofolis,

Also my banana's still growing, Ensete ventricosum, Ensete ventricosum "Maurelli", Musa basjoo, Musa sikkimensis, Musa cavendisch, Musa rajapuri, Musa ??, Musella lasiocarpa ... Still good banana weather

Robbin

(GREENHAND @ Oct. 17 2006,20:54)

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still growing full speed in dallas

Nice shots Greenhand

(Exotic Life @ Oct. 18 2006,08:10)

QUOTE

(Zac in NC @ Oct. 16 2006,18:50)

QUOTE

Robbin- I dug my bananas on Saturday as well. They look good. I hope they winter well for you. Mine are potted and in my room so I can keep them growing a bit( slowly) rather than total dormancy this winter. The ones I dug were Saba and Raja Puri. If you aren't already over on www.bananas.org forums, please join us. It is a great forum.

Zac

Zac,

Thanx for the link, i will check that forum. Do you know the lowest tempeture that can resist a rajapuri ? I have also this species but mine is in a container for the hole year.

Do you also got my pm ?

Robbin

Nope I did not recieve a PM( nothing popped up when I logged in as it usually does. I know I tried sending one to J australis the other day and it would not allow me to do so. Weird. Maybe try again.

On the Raja Puri, I think it is supposed to be fairly hardy, but I didn't want to  test it out this winter. I have a couple of pups on it, but they aren't big enough to remove yet.  I think it is reliable in USDA zones 8-10 and with mulch in z7 according to David Francko's book, Palms won't grow here and other myths.

Zac

still growing strong... all three stems pushing out new shoots... will wait till it drops to about 30f before bringing it in the dark garage.

(BobbyinNY @ Oct. 17 2006,15:36)

QUOTE

I'm quite surprised my sikkimensis is still growing, although it has been generally quite mild.  Due to the size of pot it is in, I will probably cut it back and mulch heavily, although I may get away with it where it is, because it is very well protected by the house.  Decisions, decisions...

Corey,

that Sikkimensis must be pretty hardy... probably similar to Musa Basjoo I imagine... When you mulch heavily and protect it, do you also cut down the Psuedostem or leave it at the same height?

Last year, I kept one in the polytunnel all year and it gradually declined, until I brought it outside this spring and it died, so I have not tried one outside yet.  I'm not sure what I will do yet.

Last year, I kept one in the polytunnel all year and it gradually declined, until I brought it outside this spring and it died, so I have not tried one outside yet.  I'm not sure what I will do yet.

that's very surprising.... All my bananas that I kept growing in the polytunnel last year did fantastic... you just have to watch out for little black bugs... maybe it had a fungus or wasn't getting enough light..hmm

I know several people who lost tons of bananas this past spring once they were brought out of dormancy. I know a friend of mine outside of Chicago lost most of his plants this past spring and he got very discouraged. I will see how mine do and I will try( and this is if I don't get too impatient) to wait til the soil is warmed suficiently and not right around the last frost date( around April 15) because the soil would still be cool.

Zac

know several people who lost tons of bananas this past spring once they were brought out of dormancy. I know a friend of mine outside of Chicago lost most of his plants this past spring and he got very discouraged. I will see how mine do and I will try( and this is if I don't get too impatient) to wait til the soil is warmed suficiently and not right around the last frost date( around April 15) because the soil would still be cool.

Zac

Zac,

I think you hit the nail on the head with the soil temp... If you can see what I did with my biggest one is I transplanted it in a big plastic tub that I bought at a discount store, I cut the sides of it so that the roots could come out when they wanted to, but still had warm enough potting soil surrounding it so that it wouldn't be shocked. This thing gew over 8ft total since I planted it last spring.

Well mine went from small, shipped plants( about 1 gallon on both the Raja Puri and the Saba from Gabe) and the Saba had a mishap, because the squirrels here broke the stem off flush with the ground. I planted them in May and they both got abot 4 and a half feet of pseudostem and about 5ish feet tall overall. Saba should get hige next season.

Zac

I think I actually brought mine out too late.  It was already suffering inside the polytunnel and it was too late too recover.  It looked like it was a rot problem, possibly lack of air movement, although I do have a 9"/230mm diameter fan on constantly in the tunnel.

(Zac in NC @ Oct. 16 2006,18:50)

QUOTE

Robbin- I dug my bananas on Saturday as well. They look good. I hope they winter well for you. Mine are potted and in my room so I can keep them growing a bit( slowly) rather than total dormancy this winter. The ones I dug were Saba and Raja Puri. If you aren't already over on www.bananas.org forums, please join us. It is a great forum.

Zac

Bortha'!

Short of moving to Alaska and singing bad karaoke, you can't do much to hurt a banana, trust me I've tried, though I ain't been to Alaska . . .

dave

think I actually brought mine out too late.  It was already suffering inside the polytunnel and it was too late too recover.  It looked like it was a rot problem, possibly lack of air movement, although I do have a 9"/230mm diameter fan on constantly in the tunnel.

Corey,

I'm thinking maybe you aren't getting enough sun in that polytunnel...  I grew 3 different varieties last winter in there and they all grew like mad.... The one problem I did have was like you said - lack of air movement - which made the stems very weak and I had to stake them when I brought them outside - but aside from that they grew really well. But we get ALOT of sun here in the winter so it was really warm in there during the day. This year I bought 3 fans for each one of my structures and I'm gonna keep alod of air circulating during the day when the sun is out. I went in there this morning and it was downright windy....