winter care for Red Banana tree

[gardenmistress2003]

I am growing a couple of Banana trees in outdoor containers for the first time this year. I am not sure how much protection they will need. One is approx. 1.5 metres, in a very large ironstone urn; one is in a metal container and plant is approx. 1 metre tall. Container is copper and quite thin, although I did line it with some styrofoam when I initially planted it up.
Should I wrap the containers with insullation or the entire plant and pot? I suppose leaves and burlap will work, but should I avoid plastic wrap to prevent rot? It would be a lot easier if they were in the ground, I think. I have assured my clients that Bananas can overwinter in Vancouver outside, so I hope someone can advise me on this.
Loved the igloo, lichen-growing, polar bear, Great White North discussion. Over here on the North Shore we already have our annual Permafrost going on!

[palmera]

I over winter my red bananas in pots in the garage or greenhouse. They do very well there. I would be very nervous to leave them outside. Only my green Musa Bajoo and Hookeri stay outside and they are in the ground (and wrapped to save the trunk).
Can you bring them in?

[gardenmistress2003]

Hi,
Thanks for reply. I don't have anywhere to store the Banana plants, unfortunately. One pot could be moved undercover near the house, but the other is in a really big ironstone container on a patio. If I dug them out and put them in big nursery pots, would they need light or heat over the winter? I store Fuschias, Cannas and Dahlia tubers in a dark, unheated shed and they are fine. Could I do that with the Bananas? I assume the wet is probably as fatal as the cold.

[LPN]

If by "Red Banana Tree" you mean Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii', then all I do is move them into a cool (45f -50f) storage area with 8 hrs of light. Remove most of the leaves and rarely water. These get very heavy is just one season. Next year I'm planting mine out and will devise a plan to over-winter the beast. I've stressed mine badly this year keeping it contained in a 20 gallon pot. It's very root bound and needs to get out in the garden next spring.

Cheers, LPN.

[jaymay]

I had a question about winter care and it looks like you guys know what your talking about. I live in wisconsin and have brought my banana plant in for the winter becuz there's no way it would survive -24F. What should I do with it inside to make sure it lasts the winter? If you know please tell me everything becuz I have just started this fall and would like to keep it goin for a long time.
Thanx

[LPN]

"it looks like you guys know what your talking about."

Personally, no one's ever said that to me before. These will only take a very lite freeze and even that will damage your Ensete banana plant, much more and it will kill it outright.
A coolish area (45f - 55f), garage or some such area is fine. Greatly reduced watering and about 8hrs of light will get it through the winter.

Cheers, LPN.

[Georgina McGuire]

Hi Everyone
I have regular banana trees in Langley,B.C planted outside. If you don't have a greenhouse for your potted tree you maybe able to use this method and cover the pot as well as the plant. I keep my trees alive by insulating with all the leaves that fall off the trees in the back yard. I first clip all the leaves off the banana tree and keep a 41/2 - 5 foot high stock. (its to hard to insulate a highter tree)
We put a plastic netting around the tree at least 15 inches from the stock on each side and fill it with leaves. Then we put a plastic cover over top. Its a great insulator. The plants come back beautiful every year.

If you don't have leaves in your back yard, maybe your neighbour does.

Hope this helps you
Have a great week
Georgina

[honolua]

Hi,
In one of the previous notes up top, it says to place the red banana in a cool, but not cold garage or the like with light. I have a shed that could comfortably hold my red banana in it's pot, but there is no light. I heard that when the leaves are cut off and you drastically reduce the watering to barely a dribble all season, they go dormant and thus, do not need light.....is this true?

I hope it's true, because then I could move it (with lots of help) into my shed and hope it survives, only to be brought out next spring to new growth!

[LPN]

Originally Posted by honolua

they go dormant and thus, do not need light.....is this true?

As stated in the above posts, about 8 hrs of light during the winter months is required.

Cheers, LPN.

[DC United Palm Fan]

Originally Posted by LPN

As stated in the above posts, about 8 hrs of light during the winter months is required.

Cheers, LPN.

I'm not so sure about this. I think they actually can/ DO go dormant. Where I am, they are corm hardy, which means they die back to the ground. (most people cut them down after the first frost) but the corms stay alive in a dormant stage during the colder months. So they most definitely do not need much light nor water during cold months of storage. I know this because I have seen people store them in different ways, most of which they get no light. There are plenty of yards around here with differing varieties of Banana, and I can tell you both the Red Abyssinian (Ensete ventricosum 'Maurellii',), and Musa Basjoo are left out year around, and come back bigger and better each year. Some heavily mulch over top the corm during winter, some do not. But this does suggest that they do NOT need any light when they go into a dormant stage. Remember, Banana's are actually a grass, and like grass, they can be cut down, and regrow from the cut, and can also go dormant in cold weather so long as the corm does not rot/ fully freeze.

Here is my response to someone asking about overwintering Musa Basjoo in another thread.

Originally Posted by DC United Palm Fan

You'll DEFINITELY have to mulch VERY heavily, and I would even put heating cables in the mulch to try and keep the ground at least above freezing. You probably got lots of "pups" returning from the mother corm, but the mother corm seems to have not made it. The pups may have been deeper in the ground and did not freeze, but the mother corm did. Short of using heating cables for those kinds of frigid temps, you CAN dig them up.

I have known plenty of people who have done this. Im not exactly sure when to do it, but it seems like right about the very end of fall, BEFORE the first freeze. If you want the plant to continue to grow from say a 2, 3, or 4 foot stalk the next year, you can cut the pseudostem to whatever length, dig the corm, and store it in a cool, dry place, such as a garage or even crawl space, so long as it does not freeze. Once the danger of last frost/ freeze has passed the next spring, set it back out in the ground, and it SHOULD regrow from where you made the cut. This method gives you a big head start on height for the next year.

Good luck with it!!!!