Dear Hoosierdoc, I would have waited until the plant had been hit by frost so that you could really make sure that it was dormant. I don't think plastic against the stem is a good idea. I would open the top, pull out the plastic and leave it loosely covered until a hard frost.Do your best to keep it dry. Robb

i hadn't considered the "is it done growing" aspect of this. However, I believe we actually had a frost the night before I shut her down. It was in the mid thirties, and will be for the rest of the week. It's more effort than it's worth to unwrap. I'll just see where it goes from here. Good advice for next year though :)

Hoosier,
How big was the plant in the spring? You said it did well... I would have to disagree. It looks healthy but a plant like that should easily be 6-7ft tall by the end of the growing season, assuming they were tissue cultered or small pups. How often did you water it? Your protection looks very good. I think it will come back very strong in the spring. The black bag might really heat it up inside... and it could easily break dormancy and grow.

Kyle

Hrm... maybe I was underestimating my plant here. I bought it in June and it was the size shown. It took a good 2-3 weeks for it to put out a new leaf after that one opened. We had a hot, dry summer and I watered a few times a week, with fertilizer about every two weeks. I planted it in the ground on July 23rd and it took a week or two to adjust to that. I cut two pups (approx 16") off in an attempt to share the wealth with family members.

{{gwi:422391}}

A lot of changes for a plant in five 4.5 months. But you all are saying it should be much bigger by now? I guess I could start watering every other day and blasting with more fertilizer.

I bought the plant from Rural King so I have no idea what the origin of this plant was. Certainly this store is not known for its quality plants.

-Brian

Brian - I think you just got a bit of a late start getting it in the ground. I started with basjoos about 6" in May - one really ugly looking, planted them in the ground and the big one got to 6-7' - which is now cut back to 3' caged, mulched, and bagged. I think I'll do your temperature sensor trick - looks like a fun science fair project. By the way, my saba that started at 6" in May grew really large - up to 9-10' with a pseudostem about 10" diameter at the base. I was surprised at how different they grew side by side - I watered every other day and fertilized with MiracleGro every other week. I'm curious as to how tall I can grow a saba in Ohio - or at least until I get tired of digging the monster up every fall. And good thing we're talking about this on the Banana Forum - my email spam filter would probably block any mention of height/length and diameter! And please, let's not have anyone start a 'banana-viagra' thread.

Donn

Instead of a permanent thermometer, use a digital thermometer probe. Sold cheap, even fully stainless models, in grocery stores as a kitchen aid. Even switches between degrees F and C, to 0.1 degree. Poke the probe into the target, and read the temp immediately.

I use one to probe compost heap, the soils of plant containers, germination mix over a heating pad, etc. Instant reading, and afaics, accurate enough for my purposes.

To check its accuracy, clean the probe and stick it under your arm or tongue for a few seconds. :)

You know I wanted to do that. I bought a wireless sensor with 10' water-proof probe that I was going to use. Unfortunately I bought it from X10.com and they had misadvertised the product as working with any base station from Oregon Scienfitic. They have awful customer service and it's been two weeks waiting for them to figure out what they're going to do about getting me the correct product without me paying for more shipping. I was going to use this permanent one as my control temp from outside the wrap.

Question here from zone 8a about:

"I would have waited until the plant had been hit by frost so that you could really make sure that it was dormant".

Past two nights have been down in high 30's F but increasing lows over next week up to 50's at night and 70's during day. What would be temp for "hit by frost"?

I have a mat of 7-8 footers (pseudostems) in a GIANT container on SW side of 2 story house that receives much sun during day. Last winter I lightly wrapped freeze zapped stems and diverted most but not all rain from corm area. They mushed back to "ground" level but came back strong in spring. This winter I want to try the "Cut psuedostems down to managable height and protect" method. Last winter was pretty dry but we did get several nights down into teens, and probably 20 or more days below freezing. BUT..., as is normal to our area many days sunny and in 60's and 70's.

My plan is to lightly wrap stems and remaining pups as a group with double layer brown wrapping paper then place, loosely, big paper bag over top but use no mulch. This is for keeping them without sunlight but ensure air flow. Then one of my domed popup "BloomHouses" (7'X 7'X 8'tall) over that to keep out rain and give some protection from extreme cold. Also cover BloomHouse with it's included shade cloth to further reduce sun and heat. (I use small fans in all Bloomhouses.) This BloomHouse will overwinter other non tropical but tender plants using small ceramic heater just to keep a few degrees above freezing when needed.

Am I at risk of frying this really neat mat of Basjoos?

I can't keep any area/structure at low enough temps for any plants to go and stay dormant sucessfully.

The only other option I have for these guys are letting them freez down to "ground" like last year protecting only the corm from freezing. I sure would like to try the chop(some)/cover method.

What's your thinking on this guys/gals.

Thanks, geekgranny

Ohio Banana, Hoosier;
I planted my basjoos the first week of June as well since we had such a cool late may. It started at no more than a foot tall and now has 6' of pstem (stalk) to it now with an overall height of around 9'.
It could be your soil. They seem to like highly amended soil with manure. This was a hot summer, maybe you didn't water it enough? I watered mine basically everyday.

Kyle

My largest one went from 4 inches to about 7 feet trunk height this summer, overall it's about 10-12 feet tall counting leaves. I planted May 6th and then it got snowed on, that weird spring snow this year when the lilacs were blooming. Anyway, most of the ones I planted stayed about 4 feet tall, because of the dry weather I suppose. I live in Muncie, IN, mine aren't really damaged enough to think about cutting yet, but our yard is very protected because of a canopy of large trees. It takes a lot to frost here by the house. Yours might have been ready though if it was in an exposed location, Mom's peppers and everything are gone now, but mine are still ok.
Geekgranny, you might want to just chop down your banana stems to a height where you can get it in your bloomhouse, minus a foot or two for growth, and don't wrap/mulch it, put the heater in there and grow it over winter like the other tropical plants. If you can keep them that easily there, why make it go dormant anyway? Also, wouldn't the warmer temps in the bloomhouse make it stay active anyway, even if you don't heat it? Then you could start out spring with a pretty good size plant anyway. I think if you cover it like that, it might grow anyway, just a weak spindly white plant. I had one do that in the basement last year because I stored it too warm.

WOW!!! sandy0225. Super Thanks!! I have been asking for help on this issue for months all around. Although kind people have offered suggestions I haven't been able to get good info about the fry/freeze dilema I have here until now. Many, many thanks.

Questions please: How far back can I safely cut them back and can I cut back more than once if they start getting too tall before "threat of freeze" is past? (Many years ago we had snow in April but it quickly warmed up during the day to sunny 60's. In fact, last year's Valentine Day snow was extremely late and rare. Even March freezes are pretty unusual but we still have to be prepared for them. Our winters can be desert like with teens/20's F swinging up to sunny 70's/80's in few hours or a "BlueNorther" can blast in on a warm sunny day dropping temps 60-70 degrees in a few hours killing animals[humans too] and plants that are unprotected.) One thing I can do, although quite expensive with shortages, is to raise the height of Bloomhouse,if needed, with eight bales of hay or double stacked for even more height but that would be very expensive with hay at near US $6/bale and straw almost impossible to get here. Thanks, geekgranny

geekgranny,
I've never cut them off more than once myself because we get slow growth here in the greenhouse, but I don't see what it would hurt. They seem to be very resilient plants.
We cut some back to three feet at the conservatory and they did fine. The first few leaves that come out look weird though, all chopped off. I'd say cut it back to the height of the shelter minus a couple or three feet for growth. You'd hate to lose too much height unnecessarily.
Surely someone else has topped theirs to keep it in the house, etc. maybe they'll chime in too.
Worst case scenario, it would die down to the ground level and the pups would sprout. And that would be the outcome anyway if you chopped and covered it.

Thanks sandy0225, They are now chopped and repotted into individual big pots. What a job though for this granny. Last week for the very first time the whole big container was blown over by the wind. I used to tell people that the container/soil/plants probably weighed a half ton. I don't think I was far off. There was no way I could ever have uprighted it. I cut away the HUGE, HUGE pot(OUCH!!) and proceeded to cut them down to 4' and then separated them with a huge knife, removed most dirt from corms and let them sit in the shade, unpotted, for 24 hours. I think the finished chopped/dedirted smallest one probably must have weighed at least 50 or so lbs., largest probably about 100 or more(uncut pseudostems 6-9 ft)(They had been in the container for several years with bananas about 3 years ago at previous owners house.) (My lawn guys transported them for me when I got them. They really struggled.) There are five with five good sized pups removed and one tiny one left on. I did take pictures and will get them posted soon. In 48 hours they've pushed out about 5" of green growth so far except for the largest one; new growth is whitish. Any ideas about that? Now, if somebody would be kind and post pictures of chopped stems with several new leaves that would be fantastic. I'm wondering just how strange they are going to appear especially at the first. geekgranny

now mid-december and it's been below freezing for about a week. Low temp was six i think. Still has not gotten below freezing in the wrapped banana. Yay. 98% humidity though :(

HoosierDoc thats an interesting idea! I cage my p-stems here and I never thought to check the differences between inside and outside temps. Perhaps the original link expired but I can't see your pictures now.

I have to share my method for covering my stems. Let the frosts kill the leaves, remove them, build an 8' wire cage around entire clump(which is sometimes 5 stems), fill to top with pine straw, done! I have covered basjoo stems this way every winter since 2000 and not once have I lost any stem to rot or disease. I don't cover the sides or top either, just open air all the way. Of course the winters here are never overly cold, so it does not take a whole lot of work to protect them. The lowest temp I've had since my plants went in, was 9F back in 2003. During that winter, even with protection I lost about 4' of stem to the cold. Except for the following the spring that year, every spring since, I have started the season with 8' p-stems! I have two mats of basjoo in different locations and both had 3 inflorescences this year! It is exciting after you take the straw down to see leaves sprouting atop those tall stems!

I have a picture of one of my "towers of straw" from last year.....

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:422392}}

I'm showing my ignorance here but what are these "pups" I keep reading about. I've gathered that one can start a new plant with them.

Thats the term for the sprouts(little spear shaped baby plants) that occur around the base of older banana plants.

So do you dig them up and transplant or cut them off and transplant?

Andy its really both, dig and cut. They are attached to the "mother" plant and they develop their own small root system. It is not always easy for me, on very small pups to remove them without killing them. I like to try them when they are at least 10" or taller. Of course you must make sure they don't get too big before trying. Its really a lot of trial and error for the first couple of plants you try. I have heard people say to use a fungicidal powder to dust the cut areas on both plants to prevent diseases, but I never have(though perhaps I should)

Forgive me HoosierDoc for sending so many emails to you in my discussion with Andy.

OK, so I took the wrapping down a few weeks ago and it was rotted down to the ground. In retrospect, wrapping on a rainy day was a bad idea (duh). However... several pups are coming up and the base is still pretty firm so I'm hoping it will come back. I'll just dig her up next year and toss in the crawl space. Seems easier and cheaper. The battery died in my thermometer after about 60 days but with ambient temps in the single digits, it never read below 32...

Since you have pups, then you have success! :) Well, except for the batteries thingy! ;)p

Yeah, store the banana corm like you would other corms such as gladiolus. One of the bananas I had in a pot of soil in the basement started rotting. Next time, I will not have them in water retention pots and it should work fine.

Hi, if you put a potted basjoo inti dormancy, do you take it out of the pot and dry it out? do you cut it down to soil level or can the pseudostem be saved?