natej740

My ensete has gotten pretty big and I want to overwinter it doormant in the basement. It is in a pot now....What should I do to make sure it survives? Can I store it dormant in the pot or do I need to chop off all the leaves and bare root it?

natej740

??bump??

drew leonard

Nate,

If you have pretty good light down there, (like a south facing window) and you can get the plant in whole; go ahead. Water it only when it needs it and it should be fine.

The main problem would be rootrot so, like a said; only when it needs it.

If you don't have natural light and you can get a 400 watt or better Metal Halide light to place on it you should be fine also.

If none of these; bare root it.

Happy Growing!

Drew

the flying dutchman

Its better to leave it in the pot, chop the leaves off except the last. It will probably keep growing for a while and make 1 or 2 new leaves.
Don't water it till spring or very very very little.


Ron...

sunsetsammy

I'm now having good success overwintering ensetes in my shed. No light and temps around 40-50F

I chop all the leaves except the top two or three. I have too many and not enough space to keep the leaves on.

Bareroot or leave in pots doesn't seem to make a difference for me. My inlaws are storing their's bareroot under the house in a garbage bag full of sawdust and that is working great too.

One thing I've learned though is that you aren't doing a big plant any favors by putting it in a big pot for overwintering. Even if I don't water at all the big plants will rot.

Now if I dig a big plant out of the garden I squeeze it into the smallest pot it will fit into. I only water if it is bone dry and very little at that.

Last year I had almost 100% success with about 30+ ensete's.

sandy0225

I had mine in the basement over the winter, I overwintered two. It's not totally dark down there because some of the light from the grow light on the light mover gets over there. I just dug mine up, didn't cut off anything, stuffed the root ball into a plastic pot that it would fit snugly into, but didn't add any soil. I checked the plant from time to time and when it seemed very dry, would soak it with water from the watering hose down on the root ball. It actually pushed out a few leaves over winter and I sold them this spring. They were about 4 feet tall and very stocky when I brought them in and now they're more like 7-8 and being overwintered again in another location by an interiorscaper at a large office building. They didn't lose any size at all when overwintering and came through quite nice at 50 degrees with a little light.

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Sandy Burrell



Northern Tropics Greenhouse
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drew leonard

There are probably as many variables to, and ways of, overwintering as there are people on the site!

Happy Growing!

Drew

cheson74

I dont have a basement or garage but do have a crawl space under the house. I dug it up bare root, wrapped them up in several fleece blankets. We'll see how it goes!

__________________

drew leonard

Re: Question about storing dormant?

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I dont have a basement or garage but do have a crawl space under the house. I dug it up bare root, wrapped them up in several fleece blankets. We'll see how it goes!


Cheson 74,

You will be fine. I have placed them in my crawlspace many times myself with no problems!

Check them maybe once a month! Just to see how they are.

Happy Gardening!

Drew